Netanyahu should reconsider his priorities and bring the hostages home

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Major General Abbas Kamel and other senior officials who, alongside the State of Qatar, are actively attempting to mediate a new truce between Israel and the Gaza terrorist organization. Haniyeh’s visit came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a select group of families of hostages, telling them that he was “personally committed to the release of all the hostages,” of which some 130 older and younger men and women, as well as children, remain in captivity.

And on December 18, just before Netanyahu’s meeting, CIA Director Bill Burns, perhaps America’s most capable negotiator, met in Warsaw with David Barnea, head of the Israel Mossad intelligence agency, and with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a close associate of the Emir, to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages that Hamas continues to hold in Gaza.

Observers believe that the flurry of activity will lead to both a cease-fire and to the release of a new batch of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons in exchange for up to 40 women, the elderly and the physically or mentally disabled. Yet even as a hostage deal appears imminent, Netanyahu continues to emphasize that his primary objective is to destroy Hamas and that only military pressure on the battlefield will force the terrorist group to assent to a new agreement.

Many Israelis are rightly questioning that strategy. Despite Israel’s occupation of northern Gaza, and its forces’ penetration of a good part of southern Gaza, as well as its ongoing bombing attacks that have left thousands dead and many thousands more homeless, Hamas shows no sign of capitulation. Indeed, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to fire rockets at Israeli villages, towns and cities.

At the same time, it is noteworthy that many of the families of hostages were livid at the way Netanyahu and his team orchestrated his December 19 meeting with only a limited number of families. They argued that his primary purpose was to avoid the shouting matches that had characterized his previous meeting with hostage families. The families who had not been invited accused Netanyahu of working only to release hostages “in batches” rather than as entire group, so as to be able to continue the Israeli offensive while nearly 100 hostages remained in Hamas hands.

Netanyahu’s determination to press on with the war, even as Israeli hostages languish in Hamas captivity, reflects the views and the pressure that his extreme right-wing allies have imposed upon him. These radicals demand the complete elimination of Hamas, regardless of the number of Gazans killed. They seek Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, from which Israel withdrew in 2005. That President Joe Biden and his officials have argued that Israel should ease the intensity of its military operations and drop any idea of remaining in Gaza seems to have had little effect on the prime minister’s plans.

Yet it is arguable that Israel cannot possibly eliminate Hamas — or a radical organization that would likely spring up in its place — if Palestinians continue to feel that they have no prospect of having a state of their own. However intensive Israeli’s bombing campaign and ground operations might be, they will not crush the increasingly bitter and vengeful Palestinian populace. On the contrary, it would only further radicalize the Gazans, and their youth in particular.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu has made it clear that he opposes a two-state solution notwithstanding Biden’s urgings to that effect. The prime minister knows that any utterance regarding even the remote prospect of a Palestinian state would lead to the fall of his government — thus exposing him to potential jail time from a conviction on corruption charges.

Regardless of his own personal concerns, it is time for Netanyahu to reset his priorities. His primary objective should not be an expansion of military operations in Gaza; it should be to spare no effort to obtain the release of all the Israeli hostages.

Haniyeh, the terrorist leader, has demanded a permanent cease-fire. That is his opening gambit, and Burns and the other negotiators will surely obtain something less than a guarantee that Israel would tolerate a permanent Hamas government in Gaza. Still, should a deal for the release of all the hostages require a much longer-term cease-fire than the previous week-long truce, so be it. Time is running out on their physical and mental health; they need to come home.

Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.