After one hundred days of war that ended this Sunday, tensions within the Israeli government are becoming increasingly clear. Case in point: Last weekend, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stormed out of a war cabinet meeting at his ministry’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, but returned to the room a short time later and was present for the second phase of discussions.
Gallant left the room as he confronted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not allowing one of Gallant’s advisers to attend the meeting. Netanyahu said that advisers were not allowed at that meeting, but Gallant left offended because three of Netanyahu’s advisers were in the meeting at the time.
The nature of the conflict and the fact that the army has not yet achieved indisputable results are undoubtedly the reasons that explain the tensions in the government. There is no hiding the fact that Netanyahu has not made his war aims clear and that there is some tension between the prime minister and the United States.
The war cabinet also includes Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot, two former army chiefs who were appointed ministers shortly after the start of the war. Gantz and Eizenkot were in opposition and entered the government in an act of responsibility, but both take a more pragmatic stance towards Hamas than that taken by Netanyahu and Gallant, and this too is causing tensions.
“Creative ideas” to seek a ceasefire
According to the newspaper HaaretzGantz and Eizenkot’s realism has led them to put forward “creative ideas” for a permanent ceasefire, ideas that Netanyahu and Gallant reject. The ideas they have put forward would be more receptive to Hamas’ position, which calls for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the 136 Israelis still held in the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, i.e. the end of the war, and not a ceasefire that lasts a few days or weeks. While Gantz and Eizenkot are open to this position, Netanyahu and Gallant argue that Hamas will only release Israelis under military pressure, which has not yet happened and which Gantz and Eizenkot doubt.
One hundred days after the start of the war, the crucial question arises as to whether the war can end soon. There are two opposing reactions in the security cabinet, and for now the winning one is that of Netanyahu and Gallant. This implies that the response of Gantz and Eizenkot is being blocked and raises the question of whether a point will be reached where these two ministers leave the executive branch.
The danger of Hamas disappearing
One idea circulating in the opposition is whether Israel is really interested in completely dismantling Hamas, as Netanyahu and Gallant intend. According to this reasoning, the disappearance of the Islamist organization would potentially mean the creation of a handful of jihadist Islamist groups to replace the eight remaining Hamas groups, with which dialogue would be more difficult and there would be a more general lack of control in Gaza. Parts of the opposition argue that this would run counter to Israel’s interests.
Eizenkot, who lost a son and a nephew in the war, appears to be the most moderate politician in the war cabinet and the most supportive of the release of all Palestinian prisoners in exchange for all hostages. He believes that the risks to the hostages are increasing every day, so this matter should be urgently addressed.
Netanyahu and Gallant, on the other hand, favor an agreement with Hamas similar to the previous ones, namely the release of only a part of the Israeli prisoners in exchange for a limited ceasefire or, in any case, in exchange for a limited ceasefire and the release of a group of Palestinian prisoners. According to this approach, Israel is not interested in the war ending now.
Publications in the Hebrew press said that Eizenkot shouted at Netanyahu at a recent meeting: “Stop lying!” and argued passionately for a prisoner exchange “before it is too late.” Eizenkot also believes that the Israelis held by Hamas are one of the main causes of the government’s attrition and that only their release can restore the “contract between the population and the government.”
Eugeni García Gascón is a journalist and former correspondent in Jerusalem.
