| Topic: | Re:Re:Cease-fire ? | |
| Posted by: | Robert Fish | |
| Date/Time: | 19/02/24 18:27:00 |
| More pertinently? Hamas isn't the main obstacle to a cease-fire. The Hamas attack of 7th October was horrendously cruel, but the current issue is the terrible suffering of the population of Gaza, and the fate of the hostages. Neither of these is being addressed by Netanyahu's bull-headed vindictiveness. I suspect he isn't prepared to discuss a cease-fire, coupled with release of hostages, because as part of a cease-fire agreement he'd have to agree to the release of an unacceptable number of Palestinians currently languishing in Israeli jails. I also suggest that there's no way he's going to exterminate Hamas by force of arms, and all he is doing is guaranteeing Palestinian hatred of Israel for generations to come. Even if Hamas were exterminated, other implacable enemies of Israel would arise in their place. Netanyahu clearly doesn't give a damn about the hostages, as highlighted by the protests of their relatives. He wants to prolong the war to avoid losing the support of right-wing Zionists and illegal settlers in his cabinet, such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and put off the day when his government falls, and he has to face justice for his corruption. Hamas kicked off this terrible sequence of events, but the current stumbling block to a solution is most definitely Netanyahu's intransigence and Biden's reluctance to stop supporting him. |