GNITN – Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 75

No Deal

Hostage Deal Rejected

An attempt at releasing more hostages fell flat when Hamas said no it as we read in The Times Of Israel:

Hamas has rejected an Israeli proposal for a week-long truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of some 40 hostages, including all women and children the terror group still holds, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The organizations reportedly told Egyptian mediators Israel must halt its offensive in the Strip before it will discuss any potential deal. Even then, it said, Israel will need to free all Palestinian prisoners for the release of all remaining hostages — estimated at some 100.

Israel has said it will not halt its military campaign, and that this condition is a non-starter for talks.

As we reported yesterday, the chances of an agreement this time wasn’t good as long as releasing the remaining women as a key piece of it. And we need to put these things in perspective and not let social media give you only what they think is newsworthy. Hamas will only do what is best for their objectives. Period. And they view life differently than we do so these hostages. Talk of how well they treat the hostages gets less and less believable as the stories come out from the released ones. The remaining men, women, and children are pawns to use to get what they need. And what they need now is time from being hunted and obliterated. Israel said no to stopping their offensive or limiting it to only certain areas of Gaza while negotiations are happening. That’s why they said no. It isn’t for humanitarian reasons.

Netanyahu Is Seeing This To The End

We didn’t need to hear more about Israel’s resolve in this war to believe them that they will not stop until they are free from constant terrorist threats, but the Prime Minister released a statement reiterating how they feel in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Wednesday that Israel will not end its military campaign in the Gaza Strip until it has achieved its goals, dismissing any suggestion of a halt as unrealistic.

Netanyahu’s assertion came after criticism from far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who hit out at reports of negotiations for another hostage release deal with Hamas and especially one media account, according to which the war cabinet had instructed the Mossad chief to discuss freeing high-level Palestinian security prisoners in return for Israeli captives in Gaza.

“We’re continuing the war to the end,” Netanyahu said in a statement to media. “It will continue until Hamas is destroyed — until victory…until all the goals we set are met: destroying Hamas, releasing our hostages and removing the threat from Gaza.”

Netanyahu went on to say that if anyone has been listening, it is naïve to think anything else:

“Anyone who thinks we’ll stop is unmoored from reality… We’re raining fire on Hamas, hellfire,” the prime minister said. “All Hamas terrorists, from first to last, face death. They have two options only: surrender or die.”

I’d say that’s pretty clear.

Eliminate Hamas Leaders

Later in the same article cited above, a member of the security cabinet, Bezalel Smotrich made his feelings clear as well:

“The war cabinet should send the head of the Mossad to eliminate Hamas leaders wherever they are, and not to talk with them and conduct negotiations,” Smotrich, who is a member of the security cabinet but not the war cabinet, wrote on X.

Netanyahu was quick to respond to this post this way:

Netanyahu’s Likud party scolded the finance minister in response, saying it’s “sad” that Smotrich posted comments on “things that have no basis.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has already instructed the Mossad to eliminate Hamas leaders wherever they are, just as he instructed the finance minister to open the faucets and ensure that funds get to citizens, businesses, soldiers and reservists,” Likud said. The jibe was an apparent reference to criticism by the state comptroller this week that hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens, especially evacuees from the north and south, were left in dire financial straits by the state’s failure to speedily provide them with economic assistance.

As expected, Smotrich’s party rebutted this reply with a very pointed one in respect to the financial funds being released:

Responding to Likud’s comments, Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party said, “The only faucets that the prime minister tried to pressure the finance minister to open, in all kinds of ways, are those designed to convey money to the Palestinian Authority so that it can transfer them to Hamas in Gaza. It’s good that the finance minister stepped in and set a red line.”

Earlier this week, Smotrich spoke out against a possible plan to transfer Palestinian tax funds, collected by Israel, to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which would then funnel them to the Gaza Strip, where Hamas holds sway. The terror seized Gaza from the PA in a bloody coup in 2007.

Pray Specifically For Israel

As we can see, there are internal political battles that are going on as the war rages on. While it is unrealistic to believe that Israel will not see the battle with terror to its conclusion, it is also idealistic to think that everyone is their government will get along in how things are handled. We tend to forget that the political climate was not good in Israel just before the October 7th attacks and the current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was actually fired by Netanyahu for a week over his feelings on the Supreme Court limitation movement. These divisions may not go away, but we should pray that they agree on obliterating Hamas and even Hezbollah when push comes to shove. Literally lives are at stake in this fight and even the survival of Israel is as well. Part of praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray they don’t let these internal squabbles become a distraction from the real enemies.