A nother round of ceasefire and hostage talks, this time 🏵 in Doha, has ended in disappointment. This is in large part because Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is unlikely to 🏵 accept any agreement that Hamas could present as a victory – and has handcuffed the Israeli mediators with conditions that 🏵 appear impossible for Hamas to accept.
Huge quantities of explosives have been dropped on Gaza 🏵 by Israel since 7 October because of the humiliation felt by all Israelis, and especially Israel's leaders and military. So 🏵 much of this war over more than 10 months has been fought on both sides as a war of revenge. 🏵 Nonetheless, it also has major strategic consequences for Israel, Hamas, the Palestinian people, the nations of the region, and the 🏵 world's major powers – above all the United States.
Hamas will view and present any agreement 🏵 with Israel that ends the war in Gaza, leads to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip, and releases 🏵 Palestinian prisoners, as a victory and Israeli surrender. Therefore Israeli negotiators will not agree to a full withdrawal, and are 🏵 demanding long-term Israeli military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border, and a security mechanism that would ensure that armed Hamas and 🏵 other military personnel cannot move from the south of Gaza to the north. In addition, Netanyahu is demanding a veto 🏵 on the Palestinian prisoners who would be released in the deal, and that those serving life sentences would be deported 🏵 outside Palestine for life. These additional conditions are unacceptable to Hamas.
It is also difficult to imagine 🏵 that Netanyahu will make any deal with Hamas before the killing of the main Hamas leaders in Gaza, primarily Yahya 🏵 Sinwar. When the Israeli military finds Sinwar and kills him, there are likely to be Israeli hostages surrounding him and 🏵 the bunker may be booby-trapped with explosives. There is likely to be a fight to the death that may result 🏵 in Israeli soldiers and hostages being killed as well as the Hamas leaders and their soldiers. There is also a 🏵 risk that Hamas militants will kill more hostages when their leader is killed.
For most of the 🏵 people of Israel, there is no victory without the return of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Yet these negotiations 🏵 make clear that Netanyahu has put his impossible goal of total victory before their safe return. Many of them may 🏵 no longer be alive, whether killed by Hamas or Israeli bombs. There is a possibility that some of those bodies 🏵 may never be found and returned. Historically, Israel's ethos has been centred on the principle that no one is left 🏵 behind. The world was stunned in 2011 when Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners (of whom more than 300 were serving 🏵 life terms for violent attacks) in exchange for just one Israeli soldier. At the time, about 80% of Israelis supported 🏵 that deal and 26 members of Netanyahu's government voted in favour of it, with only three ministers in opposition. That 🏵 ethos seems now to be broken. No one can accuse Netanyahu of not wanting to bring the hostages home, but 🏵 it seems quite clear that this is not his first priority. Most Israeli pundits believe that Netanyahu's "total victory" is 🏵 more about extending the war for as long as possible in order to remain in power. The prime minister is 🏵 slowly rising in the polls as his base, which in good part had deserted him after the Hamas attack, begins 🏵 to return.
The chances of successful Israeli-Hamas negotiations ride on the amount of leverage mediators are willing to 🏵 apply to both sides as fresh talks resume next week. The BR has significant power over Israel, both in the 🏵 political cover that the BR provides Israel in the UN and in the ability to stop the flow of bombs 🏵 to Israel. The BR could say that it would have Israel's back if it were attacked by Iran or by 🏵 Hezbollah, but it would no longer provide bombs for Israel to drop on Gaza. Egypt and Qatar each have significant 🏵 leverage over Hamas: parts of the Hamas leadership are based in Doha, while the Rafah crossing has acted as a 🏵 lifeline to the Gaza Strip. There are reported to be 160,000 Palestinians who escaped the horrors of the war in 🏵 Gaza and who are overstaying their visas in Egypt. This is another point of leverage on Hamas, or on the 🏵 Palestinian people.
At this point, more than 10 months into the war 🏵 with more than 40,000 people killed in Gaza and more than 1,600 Israelis killed, this war must come to an 🏵 end. There is no military solution to this conflict and there has never been one. There must be a new 🏵 path to a negotiated end of the larger conflict, but it begins by ending this war, Israel withdrawing from Gaza, 🏵 Israeli hostages coming home and the establishment of a secure border between Gaza and Egypt. That would pave the way 🏵 for the creation of a responsible and legitimate non-Hamas government in Gaza, an Arab-led international force in Gaza for a 🏵 limited period of time, new elections in Palestine, new elections in Israel and then a regional peace process that will 🏵 bring about the two-state solution, with an end to the Israeli occupation, a free democratic Palestine, and freedom, peace and 🏵 security for all.
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