Haaretz vs the Netanyahu government
JVL Introduction
Haaretz, Israel’s liberal daily, has just posted two editorials, excoriating the reckless Netanyahu government.
The first is on the issue of the hostages and the necessity of accepting the peace deal that is on offer; the second sees nothing but looming disaster flowing from the government’s policy of assassinating Hezbollah leaders.
We repost them to show the extraordinary polarisation and the scale of division in Israeli society – on some issues. It runs throughout society, into the highest levels of the political leadership.
Haaretz has no doubt that the targeted assassinations merely provide fuel for the next escalation, that Netanyahu will do all he can to avoid accepting a hostage deal.
Can he be reined in? Can a ceasefire be achieved in Gaza? Can a further disastrous escalation into a full-scale war with Hezbollah be avoided?
All bets are off.
RK
Israel Must Say Yes to the Gaza Truce Deal and Stop Netanyahu’s Sabotage
Jul 11, 2024
The hostage deal being negotiated between Israel and Hamas is perhaps the last opportunity to save the lives of the hostages who are still alive. The defense establishment understands this, making it clear there is no security risk in accepting the deal. The defense minister’s declarations of support are being made amid the reckless objections to the deal, voiced by the political leadership headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On the eve of the Israeli delegation’s trip to Qatar, Yoav Gallant said at the graduation ceremony at the Israel National Defense College, “It is incumbent on us to bring the hostages back home. This is a supreme moral imperative – and it’s a declared goal of the war.”
The defense minister wasn’t speaking abstractly, but specifically about the deal on the table: “A limited window of opportunity has opened to implement our moral and ideological duty to bring back the hostages. The conditions created following the deal will advance our national and security interests, and as for the risks that may be created, the IDF and security forces know how to overcome them.”
Gallant’s message cannot be clearer: It is right, proper and necessary to make a deal to bring back the hostages. Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi also spoke in the same spirit and said: “The agreement to bring back the hostages, beyond its importance in the urgent, moral sense of saving lives, possesses the basic values required by an exemplary and life-affirming society.”
But unlike the commitment to the hostages’ lives expressed by Gallant and Halevi, cabinet members and its head are persisting with their efforts to sabotage the deal, as well as conducting a shameful campaign against the hostages’ families.
In the past six months, Netanyahu has repeatedly thwarted the progress of the talks to make a hostage deal – especially at decisive moments, in order to prevent his government from falling apart (Michael Hauser-Tov, Haaretz, July 10). This time he must not be allowed to do so.
For nine months, Israelis of all ages have been in Hamas captivity. The insistence on continuing the war even at the price of giving up a deal has cost many of them their lives.
Yesterday, a delegation headed by the head of the Shin Bet security service left for Cairo. This is a last chance to save those who can still be saved. Israel must say yes to the deal, and the public must stand behind the hostages’ families.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
Israel’s Policy of Assassinating Hezbollah Leaders Has Brought Nothing but Death and Damage
The price of the IDF’s targeted killing was paid this time by Noa and Nir Baranes of Kibbutz Ortal in the northern Golan Heights. The married couple was killed Tuesday when a rocket fired from Lebanon hit their car near the Nafah military base; they left behind three children, ages 18, 15 and 13.
Hezbollah said the strike was retaliation for the killing of Yasser Nemr Qaranbash, a former bodyguard of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Foreign media outlets attributed the killing, reportedly near a Syrian army post, to Israel.
Last Thursday, Maj. (res.) Itay Galea, 38, was killed by a missile fired by Hezbollah into the Golan Heights. The strike was in retaliation for the assassination of Mohammad Naameh Nasser, a senior commander in the organization.
In both cases, it was about “settling accounts” with Israel over targeted killings the IDF conducted. In both cases, the military decided on the assassinations while risking a Hezbollah response that was liable to result in Israeli deaths.
It’s time we ask: Beyond the tactical achievement and the morale-raising value of killing senior figures (Qaranbash was not a senior official), do the assassinations promote the return of peace and security to Israel and contribute to the security of the residents of the Galilee panhandle and the Golan Heights? This, especially when organizations like Hezbollah appear capable of replacing their top commanders, often with more extreme figures? In addition, these killings provide fuel for the next escalation.
It seems that the assassination of senior Hezbollah members is no longer done out of the belief that it will change the strategic balance between Israel and the terrorist organization; rather, it has become a substitute for strategic accomplishments, meant as a sop to the demand in Israel to launch an all-out war in the north.
In addition to the issue of the strategic futility in the north, we must question the political wisdom of the assassinations, just as an opportunity has arisen to advance a hostage deal with Hamas and, in its wake, possibly the end of the war in Gaza and Lebanon. Military actions that encourage escalation in the north and south (Israel ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate ahead of an attack) only hinder the diplomatic efforts toward the hostages’ release.
The targeted attacks have done nothing yet to change the balance of threats in the Gaza Strip or the north. The deaths and damage they have caused point to futility and the absence of vision. The only way to return the hostages and give the residents of the north a chance to return to their homes is with a cease-fire in Gaza, and a genuine effort to reach a diplomatic arrangement in the north.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
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