Egypt can provide a way out of the Gaza nightmare
As images and reports of starvation accumulate, ceasefire negotiations come and go, and the international community convenes conferences and issues statements that quickly dissolve into irrelevance, Gaza's future remains suspended between a real threat of annihilation and the illusion of perpetual armed resistance.
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New York Times
15 minutes ago
- New York Times
Monday Briefing: An ‘All or Nothing' Gaza Deal
U.S. and Israel float 'all or nothing' Gaza deal After months of work on a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza that has appeared to reach an impasse, U.S. and Israeli officials have signaled that they will push for a comprehensive agreement to end the war. 'We think that we have to shift this negotiation to 'all or nothing' — everybody comes home,' Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration's envoy to the Middle East, said in an audio recording of a meeting with hostages' families over the weekend. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Trump are said to be working on a deal that would present Hamas with an ultimatum: release the remaining hostages and agree to terms that would disarm the group, or Israel's military campaign would continue. The prospect of quickly advancing toward such a deal appeared dim. Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas official, said that the group had not received a proposal for a comprehensive deal and that while Hamas supported such an agreement in principle, it would not disarm. The shift in tone comes as the Israeli government faces global criticism over starvation in Gaza and growing domestic pressure to secure the release of the hostages still held there. Hamas released a video on Friday showing Evyatar David, one of the 20 hostages Israel believes are still living, emaciated in what appeared to be an underground tunnel. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Former Mossad, Shin Bet officials ask Trump to compel Netanyahu to end the war
Over 600 former senior security officials asked the US president to compel Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza. 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.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
Making a Palestinian State Less Likely
The Gaza aid crunch is starting to abate, as local prices fall. Why are Gazans paying for aid at all? Well, the United Nations says 87% of the aid trucks that it and its partners have tried to deliver since May 19 have been 'intercepted' by mobs or 'armed actors.' Much of the food ends up sold at market, with Hamas taking a cut. The U.N. rejects Israeli security escorts. The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which gives free aid to Gazans at large distribution sites, has been shunned by the established aid groups. This has hindered GHF efforts to scale up—the best way to shrink the crowds at each site. For now, large masses must trek past Israel Defense Forces lines to reach these sites, while Hamas instigates stampedes. Much hunger in Gaza has been concentrated in the north, where there are no GHF sites. 'The fastest way to end the humanitarian crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES,' President Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social. He's right, but why should Hamas give up when Israel is under massive international pressure? Reveling in French, U.K. and Canadian plans to recognize a state of Palestine, Hamas has hardened its position and rejected new cease-fire talks. But even if recognizing a Palestinian state weren't a gift to Hamas now, it would still be a policy error. The Soviet bloc and its allies recognized Palestine in 1988, but the West has long insisted that recognition follow the creation of a Palestinian state, not precede it. And to create such a state, the Palestinians would have to agree to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Otherwise, a state would merely be a base from which to expand the fighting. No one should want the West Bank to become another Gaza, devoted to sacrificing its people in perpetual war against Israel. In 2000, 2001 and 2008, the Palestinian Authority (PA) rejected Israeli offers of statehood because it was unwilling to give up on the dream of a mass migration to rule all of the land 'from the river to the sea.' Instead, the PA has turned to an international pressure campaign. France, the U.K., Canada and a few others now vindicate the strategy. The U.K. makes no demands on the PA, whose state it looks to recognize. France and Canada satisfy themselves with PA 'commitments' of reform they know it has no ability or intent to keep. Real actions aren't forthcoming, so much of the world has stopped asking. Germany says sensibly that 'recognition of a Palestinian state is expected to be the end' of a peace process. But there will be no process so long as other states pressure only Israel and tell Palestinians they needn't compromise. Canada asks that the PA commit to holding elections but exclude Hamas, the largest party, from a vote. It took 20 months for PA President-for-life Mahmoud Abbas to outright condemn the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, and the last time he held an election, in 2006, Hamas won and violently purged the PA from Gaza. The good news is that the decisions that matter aren't made in Paris, London or Ottawa. No Palestinian state is coming because the PA is weak, corrupt and intransigent, and Hamas wants to kill every Jew. International recognition can serve as a launchpad for legal warfare against Israel. But by showing Hamas that war works when fought cynically enough, and by showing the PA that it need never compromise, it pushes Palestinian statehood further away.
