Eventually, Israel had little choice, but to strike a deal with Hamas. From the very start Israel and Hamas dealt in very difference currencies : one side valuing life and the other worshipping death.
The problem was that Hamas understood the Israeli values too well, and Israel could never bring herself to fully accept the reality of Gaza, even when they stole our children, raped our woman and burned our babies, Israel continued to buy into the lie that we are only fighting Hamas when the reality that has revealed itself by how quickly Hamas recruited new fighters, is that Gaza is Hamas.
It seems only the threat from Trump, who is internationally recognised as a dangerous and unstable character, brought home to Hamas that within a few days a new POTUS would be in power and would probably give the green light to unleash hell upon the whole of Gaza and that their hold on power was coming to end .
Biden is claiming victory for American diplomacy, but the truth is that only the threat of all out destruction has brought Hamas to the table. They have never been interested in diplomacy as the demented Biden claims. In fact, the duplicitous attitude and restrictions that the US constantly burdened Israel with, undoubtedly lengthened the war and caused the deaths of thousands.
For days in Israel people could hardly breath not knowing if a deal was about to be struck. Now most people don’t know if they are crying for joy or in despair as Hamas has still not provided a list of who is dead and who is alive.
It is understood at this time that we will see the release of 33 hostages, perhaps by Sunday and the IDF are establishing reception centres with psychologists and medical care in order to receive them. These hostages have witnessed the most diabolical tragedies, many having lost family and friends in front of their eyes and have been held captive already for 467 days !
The Red Cross never once managed to visit or even find out the condition of the hostages.
The proposed deal is structured over 42 days and if stage 1 is successful and the 33 are released as agreed, it will move to stage 2 and 3 which will see the release of all the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.
This war has caused a deep schism within Israeli society and even within the hostage families opinion is divided on what was the best way to secure their release.
The internal conflict began as soon as Israel declared her joint aims to both destroy Hamas and bring the hostages home as the success of one negated the other , so we were set up for failure before we even began.
Anthony Blinken though has rightly laid the blame on Hamas for the failure to reach a hostage release deal, despite the left wing in Israel holding that Prime Minister solely responsible for crushing every opportunity for a deal.
The failures of Israeli intelligence and military on October 7th will likely change this country for ever. Over 17 years , foolishly the Netanyahu government bowed to every whim of the US and the international community and allowed Hamas to grow an unprecedented military arsenal and sleep walked into this conflict not knowing what they were facing . It was not a failure of one day, but years of failure.
If Israel is to keep her citizens safe they must face reality and not be forced to act like Ostriches just to appease the sensibilities of the West who have no understanding of Middle Eastern mentality, and even less understanding of Islamist goals despite the repeated attacks on western democracies.
The “day after” is yet to be addressed in Gaza while both Lebanon and Syria are grappling to establish their own “day after”. The hope and prayer is that now the Iranian route in to the Middle East is severed that these countries can establish themselves in a new era free of the Iranian influence which had all but taken control of Lebanon and was using Syria to funnel weapons to Hezbollah .
At one stage Israel feared a conflict with Hezbollah more than Hamas, When pushed without alternative, Israel finally faced off Hezbollah and the defeat was both rapid and ingenious The north is a victory Israel can claim as it led directly to the fall of Syria and a massive weakening of Hezbollah .
The price of this war has been enormous in a country that only has approx 10 million citizens .
1,814 Israelis have lost their lives.
512 soldiers have sacrificed their young lives so that people of this country can live in peace and security .
The whole country has been traumatised by the daily loss of life and the over 30,000 rockets and projectiles that have forced people to run for shelter mostly in the middle of the night. Even tonight as Hamas agree the ceasefire the south is being fired upon from Gaza so there are faction still within the strip that do not agree to a ceasefire .
Trump, Biden and Qatar have all announced the ceasefire and hostage release agreement, but Netanyahu is yet to ratify it and will be meeting with his cabinet Thursday morning .
This is not yet the end of the war as 65 hostages must still be returned after the initial 33, so it is just a proposed cease fire with proposals to end the war.
Kind Regards
Carolyne Davis