Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s complaint that the terrorist group Hamas placed last-minute obstacles to the laborious agreement for a ceasefire and handover of hostages, would actually hide a dispute within the cabinet for the rejection of supremacist ministers opposed to this agreement.
The agreement, won under mutual pressure of outgoing president Joe Biden and especially from Donald Trump’s advisorswas until this Thursday defended clearly by the Hamas leadership in Gaza. Izzat al-Rishq, a key leader of the pro-Iranian group, pointed this out to the New York Times.
The problem appeared clear inside the Israeli Executive where, especially the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance Bezalel Smotrich They have constantly opposed any agreement that they translate as a defeat. If there is no conciliation with these extremist sectors They would withdraw from the cabinet and the government would fall.
Analysts in Israel pointed out that Smotrich, attentive to the enormous pressure exerted by the two American sides, agreed to accept the first stage of hostage release, but not suspend the war that is a constituent part of the agreement. The negotiations even include the withdrawal of the military from large areas of the Strip. We will see some of that this weekend, but not at the levels that Trump and Biden expected, possibly.
“I blocked the deal several times”
The Israeli far-right minister, Itamar Ben Gvirrevealed that during the last year has blocked an agreement several times for the release of the hostages held by Hamas because he considers it “horrible” and a “surrender” to Hamas. “Over the past year, using our political power, We were able to prevent this agreement from being approved, time and time again“said the leader of the ultranationalist Jewish Power in a video message on social networks. Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir invited his Finance colleague, Bezalel Smotrich, another representative of the far-right sector, to join him in stopping the current agreement threatening to withdraw from the government. However, he stressed that he has no intention of overthrowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. An official in the prime minister’s office denied Ben Gvir’s claims and explained that the only obstacle to the agreement. It was Hamas and not Israel. Yehuda Cohen, father of a kidnapped soldier, criticized Ben Gvir, accusing him of putting political objectives before the lives of the hostages.
That design angers ultranationalists who accompany Netanyahu for two clear reasons. It removes the possibility of colonization of those territories, a publicly declared objective by these ministers and their followers that even now they have made plans for the construction of colonies in northern Gaza, in principle. The other big issue is that any progress towards a peaceful solution reopens the alternative of the construction of the Palestinian state which is part of the historical doctrine for the region of the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
These far-right minorities refuse that solution and hence the last minute delays. The Argentine economist Daniel Kupervaser had anticipated it in his column this Thursday in Clarion.
Smotrich, who directs a small supremacist party Religious Zionismhas said that an offensive must be carried out that gradually removing the Palestinians from the territories. And he wasn’t just talking about Gaza. There are five million Palestinians in both national areas of that town, in addition to the two million Israeli Arabs.
Analysts and historians They rule out this ancient community leaving their lands. It has not happened in the Strip despite the devastating nature of the war, which had not only the intention of destroying the Hamas gang, which, by the way, is an organization that does not support the two-state solution either. Hamas is an enemy of the construction of a Palestinian republic.
Netanyahu managed to return to government at the end of 2022 allied with these groups who gave him the votes to overcome the barrier of 61 seats and have a majority. The cost was to launch the most right-wing executive in historywith an advance on justice that promoted constant demonstrations throughout 2023 in defense of democracy and the Republic. An institutional deterioration that is attributed to the fragilities in national security and the disaster of October 7 of that year with the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel.
The pressure from these sectors inside Israel opens important enigmas. Netanyahu is confident that with the saving of a large part of the hostages, in addition to his achievements in the military field, against Hamas but particularly Hezbollah could go to early elections dispensing with the fundamentalists in a next cabinet. It is a bet that should also worry the radical ministers, it is not clear that they have the political power to return to their seats if they lose them.
