(Based on article by Ruthie Blum at https://tinyurl.com/ynm3m637 )
In a press conference on Sunday morning, the October
Council—consisting of hostages’ families, bereaved relatives of Oct. 7 victims
and mothers of reservists read statements aloud conveyed a uniform message to
the powers-that-be in Jerusalem: End the war and bring home all the hostages.
Their plea for a deal to return the captives held by Hamas for the past 22
months isn’t new.
On the contrary, accusing the government of pursuing its goals
in Gaza at the expense of the hostages has become a protest-movement mantra
that every Israeli knows by heart and it’s a narrative backed by the mainstream
Israeli media and embraced by Hamas.
Former political/military officials whose hatred for Bibi
outweighs any vestige of patriotism they once possessed go even further.
They’re perpetuating the lie, spread by the Jewish state’s most virulent
enemies, that Israel is guilty of war crimes also embraced by Hamas
Again, nothing novel about the noxious noise that’s music to
Hamas’s ears. Ditto for the call to paralyze the economy via the revival of
the general-strike idea.
But the current attempt to pressure the premier into meeting
unreasonable demands came on the heels of the announcement that Israel would be
taking over Gaza City. The Cabinet approved the plan after a 10-hour session,
during which ministers debated among themselves and with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.
Gen. Eyal Zamir about how to proceed in the face of a failed “negotiation”
process with Hamas.
The upshot was a diluted version of the original proposal to
take military control of the entire Strip. Nevertheless, the protest movement
went into high gear, hysterically citing a leaked statement attributed to
Zamir—that the operation would result in the death of the hostages and hundreds
of soldiers.
There’s no concrete evidence that Zamir actually expressed such
a sentiment. In fact he publicly stated that the Israel Defense Forces under
his command would implement with vigor the course of action agreed upon by the
political echelon.
This isn’t the reason that the Histadrut labor federation, which
represents some 800,000 Israeli trade unionists, isn't endorsing the strike,
however. No, it supports the protest movement in principle. This also is music
to Hamas’s ears.
But the general strike it
staged last September to pressure the government to reach a ceasefire deal
with Hamas did little more than disrupt the lives of Israelis in a way that
wasn’t helpful to the cause.
Aside from that, it turns out that the bulk of the workforce
under the Histadrut umbrella is on vacation until the end of August. As for the
hi-tech sector, which has said it will join the strike: One employee in that
sector quipped that Sundays are very light on the keyboard in any case, so
techies staying home on Aug. 17 will hardly be affected.
In an interesting twist, the Hostages and
Missing Families Forum hasn’t lent its support to the event—or at least
not yet. Perhaps its leadership was waiting to hear what Netanyahu had to say
to the foreign press on Sunday afternoon, and later that evening to the
Hebrew-language media, before settling on a strategy.
Speaking to journalists, Netanhahu said was that he was done
with the “drips and drabs”—that he was aiming for the release of all 20 of the
hostages. This was a reference to the captives who are still alive.
Still, the fear that the intention to defeat rather than deal
with Hamas could easily be sidetracked wasn’t baseless. It stemmed, among other
reasons, from reports of a meeting on Saturday in Ibiza, Spain between U.S.
President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Qatari Prime
Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani. Not a good sign.
To make matters more suspicious—or precarious—the
Qatari news outlet Al Araby Al Jadeed, said that a delegation of
Hamas leaders landed in Egypt on Monday to resume “ceasefire talks” where they
left off. You know, with Hamas basking in the global campaign blaming Israel
for a fake famine on Gaza, while refusing to release the hostages whose
actual starvation it’s been filming for added torture. Just as it
video-documented the atrocities it committed on Oct, 7, 2023—for the whole
world to see. And conveniently forget.
When did cutting off one’s own nose ever succeed in spiting his
foe’s face? The answer is that the protest movement considers Netanyahu a
greater enemy than Hamas. Its prominent members have gone so far as to admit
it, loudly and proudly and this is music to Hamas’s ears..
