Former Mossad, Shin Bet officials ask Trump to compel Netanyahu to end the war
Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, and former deputy IDF chief Matan Vilnai on Sunday announced they had sent a letter to US President Donald Trump requesting that he compel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the current war. This information was provided to The Jerusalem Post ahead of other media.
These top officials, along with top former police and foreign ministry officials, lead the Commanders for Israel's Security (CIS) group – which now makes up over 600 former senior security officials – in making that call on Trump to intervene.
It is not the first time that the group has pressed the government to shift gears and focus more on returning Israeli hostages and on a post-war plan forGaza, but it did emphasize how desperate Israel's situation is globally in terms of legitimacy, as well as Trump's own recent public criticism of Israel for causing starvation in Gaza (Israel maintains that while food security is at a crisis point, there is no evidence of actual mass starvation.)
'Stop the Gaza War'
In the letter, CIS wrote to Trump, 'Stop the Gaza War! On behalf of CIS, Israel's largest group of former IDF generals and Mossad, Shin Bet, Police, and Diplomatic Corps equivalents, we urge you to end the Gaza war. You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well.'
Next, CIS stated, 'The IDF has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas' military formations and governance. The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all hostages home.'
Moreover, they argued, 'It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel, and our experience tells us that Israel has all it takes to deal with its residual terror capabilities, remotely or otherwise. Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later. Our hostages can't wait.'
Further, CIS wrote, 'Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering, and forge a regional-international coalition that helps the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) to offer Gazans and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas and its vicious ideology.'
CIS has succeeded in the past in influencing Biden administration policy, and in the more distant past, sometimes the Netanyahu government's policies.
However, more recently, both Trump and Netanyahu have been on somewhat of an 'anti-generals' trend whenever they face up against defense chiefs who disagree with their policies.
The developing unknown situation is where Trump stands at this point in time on ending the war, and whether these senior Israeli defense officials are able to influence his direction.
CIS was questioned about what it thinks Trump should do if Hamas continued to avoid negotiations, which it stepped back from last week, as it rides a tide of indirect global support due to accusations worldwide that Israel is not allowing sufficient food aid into Gaza.
The senior defense officials responded that what Israel must do is announce that it accepts an end to the war in exchange for the return of all of the remaining hostages – the consistent offer that Hamas has made since the start of the war.
Additionally, CIS wants Israel to accept the proposed international framework of Egypt, the UAE, and the Saudis, together with a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA) taking over the running of post-war Gaza.
As such, CIS hopes that Trump will press Netanyahu to make such an offer, though the prime minister has repeatedly rejected this position, partly saying that it would allow Hamas to make a comeback and partly trying to keep his hard Right coalition partners from toppling his government, should he end the war.
Opposition officials have told Netanyahu that they would step in to keep his government afloat for a period of time if he cut such a deal with Hamas, but he has rejected that option as well.
Netanyahu has separately rejected giving the PA any foothold in Gaza. given that he is now vehemently opposed to any trend that furthers the possibility of a Palestinian state, even if run by the PA instead of Hamas.
According to CIS, only after making an offer to Hamas to end the war will Israel know for sure whether the Palestinian terror group is willing to return all of the hostages or whether it has been playing games in offering to return all those who are left in Gaza captivity, alive and dead.
CIS insisted that such an offer was necessary to be able to say that Israel had done all it could to bring back the hostages.
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