To: Les H who wrote (44682 ) 1/16/2025 9:50:31 AM From: Les H Read Replies (1) | Respond to How Trump Scared Netanyahu Into Accepting a Cease-fire Deal With HamasCynical, unwilling, fearful: Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected this same hostage deal when the Biden administration proposed it months ago, has now been bulldozed into wide-ranging concessions. For the hostages, and for Israel, this is the only morally correct end to an unbearable saga Eighty-eight Israelis and 10 foreign nationals are held in the Gaza Strip. Half of them are still alive. These people will soon be taken out of the hands of a monstrous terror organization that kidnapped them on October 7 as it carried out a massacre of residents of border communities. The current positive result would not have been reached without the efforts of the defense establishment, the one responsible for the terrible failure that led to the massacre. And yet, negotiations would not have reached their final lap without Trump. Over the autumn, and increasingly so after his victory in the presidential election in November, he set his target: a full cease-fire and the gradual return of all the hostages. For a long time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want this deal. His followers insist that his considerations were relevant. Controlling the so-called Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt was presented as an eternal security requirement for Israel. The rapidity with which Netanyahu retreated from this principle under pressure from Trump attests to the real weight of this argument. The main consideration driving Netanyahu for quite some time is his political survival. His arrogance and focus on his legal woes contributed to the terrible surprise on the day of the massacre, and his performance did not improve substantially throughout the war. Had Netanyahu bothered to agree to discuss diplomatic solutions for the post-Hamas era, the military may not have had to be needlessly mired in Gaza over the last few months. It may be too late to embrace an alternative diplomatic arrangement. Hamas is in a better position to take control of civilian affairs in Gaza and gradually rebuild its military strength. The Israeli public will be surprised when it finds out what the person who says he wishes to be remembered as Israel's defender had to concede during the negotiations. It's not just control of the Philadelphi route , but also the Netzarim corridor, including the ability to genuinely monitor the return of over one million Palestinian civilians to northern Gaza. He also agreed to allow the entry of 600 trucks with humanitarian aid per day, 100 more than the daily average before the war. During the months in which he rejected the plan, which had already been proposed last May by the Biden administration, Netanyahu was mainly worried about his radical right-wing allies Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who threatened to dismantle his coalition. It now appears that Trump left him with no other choice. For years, people have been saying that Netanyahu is the sum of all his fears; it turns out that Trump scares him even more, perhaps justifiably so. Some of the prime minister's blind followers are going through a painful sobering up these days. Trump is not an admirer of Israel or Netanyahu. He acts out of a tangled web of interests, focusing on positioning the U.S. within the rapidly changing global strategic picture, as well as looking after his personal status and prestige. Haaretz
