RUTHFULLY YOURS

Israel’s self-appointed “elites” governed Israel during the first few decades after its independence in 1948, and, after an unfortunate track record of calculating and assuming things incorrectly when it comes to Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and other Arabs, are evidently dismayed that they have not been voted back into power. These Israeli “elites” are now blocking Israel’s streets to try to bring down Israel’s duly elected government. They seem to have forgotten their past mistakes and are still pushing for the same failed policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Israelis.

More than 30 years ago, these “elites,” overwhelmingly on Israel’s political “left” (think “peace,” as if most people in democracies do not want peace) played a significant role in convincing the Israeli government to sign the Oslo Accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Yasser Arafat. The assumption back then was that if you bring Arafat’s PLO from the Arab countries to Gaza and the West Bank and help them create a government and police force, the Palestinians would renounce terrorism and give up their dream of destroying Israel.

The Palestinian Authority, established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994, had no intention of making peace with Israel, and still has not (here, here and here).

Instead of preparing the Palestinians for peace and recognition of Israel’s right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people, Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, launched a huge campaign to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews. The Palestinian leaders told their people that they will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, that Israel is a “racist and apartheid state,” that Israel uses “poison gas” to kill Palestinians, that Israel is committing “genocide” against the Palestinians, and that Jews poison Palestinians’ water.

Palestinian leaders continue to praise terrorists as “martyrs” and “heroes” and pay monthly salaries to their families. “We will not cut or prevent stipends to the families of the prisoners and martyrs,” Abbas said during a meeting with families of terrorists in 2018. “If we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs.”

Under both Arafat and Abbas, several Palestinian terror groups, including the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, thrived and formed armies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian leaders did nothing to stop the terrorists.

Many Israeli “elites” chose to turn a blind eye to the Palestinian leaders’ support for terrorism and incitement of violence and hatred against Israel. Some Israeli peace activists continued to argue that Abbas who, since 2014 has refused to resume peace negotiations with Israel, is somehow a credible peace partner.

When the Palestinians launched the Second Intifada (uprising) in 2000, unfortunately, a large portion of these “elites” chose not to wake up and embark on a soul-searching process. More than 1,000 Israelis were murdered during the five-year uprising, which included a massive wave of suicide bombings. Instead of holding the Palestinians responsible for the terrorism and violence, some of the leaders of these “elites” choose to blame Israeli leaders and governments for the failure of the Oslo Accords. Anyone who was around back then can remember that whenever someone would suggest that the Palestinian Authority should be accountable, the reply would come back, “Are you trying to destroy the peace process?”

Earlier this year, one of the hostages released from Gaza related that when Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar visited them in an underground tunnel, “I asked him how he wasn’t ashamed, to do such a thing to people who for years support peace? He didn’t answer. He was quiet.”

Former cabinet minister Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the failed peace process with the Palestinians, claimed that the Oslo Accords were absolutely right. He blames what did not go well on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the right-wing in Israel:

“It’s very difficult to call Oslo a failure. The failure is that Oslo was not implemented. The most important reason was that [Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, and after a few months of [Prime Minister] Shimon Peres, another prime minister [Netanyahu] was elected who was against Oslo.”

Beilin and other Israeli “elites”, however, often ignore the fact that the Second Intifada erupted shortly after then Prime Minister Ehud Barak made the most generous offer to Arafat at the Camp David summit: a demilitarized Palestinian state on some 92% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip, and turning large parts of East Jerusalem into the Palestinian capital. Arafat rejected the offer. Enraged, US President Bill Clinton banged on the table and said: “You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe.”

Barak was later quoted as saying:

“He [Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own.”

The same kind of Israeli “elites” who pushed for and supported Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip are currently demonstrating on the streets of Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities to demand an end to the Israeli military offensive against Hamas. The operation began immediately after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip. 1,200 Israelis were murdered, with many raped, tortured and burned alive during the attack. Another 240 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists. More than 100 women and children were returned during a ceasefire in late November. According to Israeli authorities, an estimated 60 living hostages remain; 35 have been confirmed murdered.

The Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005 to enable the Palestinians to create a Dubai on the Mediterranean, instead enabled Hamas and other terror groups to turn the coastal enclave into a huge base for Jihad (holy war) against Israel. With the help of Iran, the terror groups smuggled weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt in tunnels dug under the border, and were taught to manufacture rockets and missiles. The Gazans also built a vast network of tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip, with many extending into Egypt.

It turned out the belief of Israeli “elites” that the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza Strip would contribute to peace with the Palestinians was a catastrophic mirage.

The Palestinians did not see the “disengagement” as an indication that Israel wants peace. Instead, many Palestinians viewed the withdrawal as an Israeli display of weakness and retreat in the face of rockets and suicide bombings. The thinking among the Palestinians became, “Oh, it’s working! So let’s do it more!” The pullout from the Gaza Strip only gave the terrorists even more confidence in their strategy of terrorism and fueled their desire to pursue the Jihad against Israel with redoubled force.

In a similar way, Iran, Qatar, Hamas and Hezbollah have been gaining more confidence from the current anti-government protests in Israel, especially since the Biden-Harris administration began pressing Israel to make concessions, but never Hamas, Hezbollah, Qatar or Iran.

What so many doubtlessly well-intentioned demonstrators in Israel appear not to see is that they have walked headlong into Hamas’s trap: to prolong the war — never mind their own Gazan civilian casualties; the more the better so Israel can be blamed — to enable Hamas to stay in power to attack Israel again, and to make sure that any failure of a ceasefire deal will be blamed on Israel, not on Hamas.

The plan, revealed over the weekend by the German newspaper Bild, was discovered on a document written for Sinwar in March, on a computer that had reportedly belonged to Sinwar, seized by the Israel Defense Force.

The document recommends:

“Continue to exert psychological pressure on the families [of the hostages], both now and during the first phase [of the ceasefire] so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.”

The document adds:

“Arab forces should serve as a buffer to prevent the enemy [Israel] from entering after the war in Gaza ends, until they [Hamas] have reorganized their ranks and military capabilities.”

If the talks fail, it is to be attributed to “Israeli stubbornness,” and that “Hamas will not be seen as responsible for the failure to reach an agreement.”

The demonstrations are receiving extensive coverage in Hamas-affiliated media outlets and are being portrayed as proof of Israel’s frailty and the self-interest of Netanyahu’s government to retain power, rather than as Netanyahu’s effort to prevent tunnels – not even mentioned in the Bild document – from being used to smuggle thousands of rockets and other weapons now waiting on Egypt’s side of the border to be smuggled into Gaza, as well as the possibility that Sinwar is planning to escape to Iran, taking hostages with him.

Reports claim that Israel now knows where Sinwar is hiding, under Khan Younis, but that he is surrounded by Israeli hostages to ensure his protection.

The anti-government demonstrators want Netanyahu to accede to all of Hamas’s demands, including a ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, in exchange for the release of some Israeli hostages. Any ceasefire deal that keeps Hamas in power will only lead to more October 7-style jihadi attacks and atrocities against Israelis.

Negotiations with Hamas are reported to be breaking down — probably because it finally became clear after Hamas recently murdered six hostages, four of whom were to have been released, that Hamas is not interested in releasing hostages and that its only objective is a “permanent ceasefire,” on its terms, so it can survive as a political and military force to continue attacking Israel.

In the initial phases of the draft hostage-ceasefire deal, Hamas had apparently been willing to release only 30 hostages. The terror group understandably wants to hold on to as many hostages as possible as an “insurance policy” so that Israel will not assassinate its leaders and will allow it to maintain control over the Gaza Strip. Terrorist groups anyhow are not exactly known for honoring their commitments. Arafat made that clear when he explained to his people in Arabic after signing the Oslo Accord that they were merely to be regarded the same way as Muhammad’s Treaty of Hudaibiyya: Muhammad promised the Quraish Tribe a truce for ten years, then gathered an army together and returned two years later, slaughtered them and seized Mecca.

Israel’s self-appointed “elites” seem not to understand that there is only one deal that Hamas would be willing to accept: one that leads to Israel’s humiliation and defeat.

It is wrong for Israel’s anti-government demonstrators to blame Netanyahu for the deadlock in the hostages-ceasefire negotiations. As the Hamas document shows, it is actually the terror group that is not in a rush to reach a deal. Hamas and the Israeli demonstrators seem to hope that the protests will succeed in overthrowing Netanyahu, so that the Israelis can elect a new prime minister – one who will allow Hamas to rearm, regroup and attack again, and one who will allow on Israel’s border a Palestinian state committed to Israel’s destruction and free of Jews who might prevent further attacks.

Sadly, many demonstrating in Israel today appear unaware that they are being used by Hamas; that they have walked into Hamas’s trap: to force out a leader, Netanyahu, who is finally succeeding in defeating Hamas. Some Israelis have shortsightedly exploited the predicament of the hostages’ families to advance their own political agenda: removing Netanyahu from office. Many Israelis appear to have forgotten that Israel’s true enemy is not Netanyahu, but Hamas.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.