As Edan Alexander freed, opposition chiefs accuse PM of bungling ties with Washington

While incredibly welcome, the return of hostage Edan Alexander due to American intervention also constitutes a “diplomatic, political, security and national failure” by the Israeli government, The Democrats’ Yair Golan asserted on Monday, joining a chorus of opposition politicians panning Jerusalem for being sidelined in talks between the United States and Hamas.

“The Israeli government received the announcement exactly as the public received it – from the media,” Golan declared during his party’s weekly faction meeting.

Edan Alexander, an Israeli who grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, was taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023, while stationed near the Gaza Strip as part of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion.

His pending release was announced by US President Donald Trump, in a statement following backchannel negotiations between the American administration and Hamas in which Israel was not involved.

Netanyahu’s office also issued a statement early Monday morning asserting that Alexander’s release was made possible due to Israel’s military pressure in Gaza. It stressed that Israel did not agree to a ceasefire or to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Alexander — only to provide a safe corridor to allow for his release.

But this claim was rejected by Golan, who insisted that it was “not for nothing that Trump bypassed Netanyahu. Trump understood what millions of Israelis already know: Netanyahu has no intention of returning the hostages or ending the war. The only goal that motivates him is personal survival. Even at the cost of human life.”

Trump now understands that Netanyahu “is an obstacle to security and the release of the hostages,” Golan continued, asserting that occupying the Gaza Strip will only lead to more deaths and “economic devastation.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also criticized the government for allowing itself to be cut out of the loop, stating that it represented “a diplomatic failure with consequences that endanger the security and well-being of the entire State of Israel.”

“This alliance [with the US] is the greatest strategic asset that the State of Israel has,” but while the Trump administration praises the Netanyahu government publicly, the “Americans are fed up with Netanyahu,” Lapid asserted.

“The Trump administration is operating today without coordination and without listening to Netanyahu. They have reached a ceasefire with the Houthis in Yemen behind his back, are conducting dangerous negotiations with the Iranians, are promoting a Saudi nuclear program, and are making a hostage deal only for their own citizens,” Lapid said. “There has never been anything like this.”

“Trump is a pro-Israel president. He loves Israel, but he hates dragging his feet, and postponements and delays, and hesitation, and lies,” Lapid continued. “He wants a ceasefire in Gaza, he wants a big hostage deal, he wants regional agreements that will help the American economy. Netanyahu does not know how to give him that. Not with this government.”

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman sounded a similar note, telling reporters that, “unfortunately, [Alexander’s] return is not happening as a result of Israeli pressure or a decision, but as a result of direct contact between the US and Hamas.”

Israel has “reached an unprecedented low” in its relations with the United States, Liberman argued, bemoaning “the [US] ceasefire with the Houthis when the State of Israel is left out of the agreement, the US president’s visit to the region when he skips Israel, [and] the direct negotiations between the US and Iran.”

Last week, Trump announced that the US would stop bombing Yemen’s Houthis, after the Iran-backed group agreed to stop interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East.

The announcement did not mention the ongoing Houthi attacks on Israel, and a spokesman for the Yemeni rebel group pledged that such strikes would continue. Israeli officials told Hebrew media outlets that Washington did not give Jerusalem advance notice of the announcement, and that Israel was surprised by it.

Trump also reportedly quashed Israeli proposals for a series of joint strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, opting instead to try for a diplomatic solution to the problem of Tehran’s nuclear program.

The Trump administration has sent mixed messages regarding Iran, stating both that it wants Tehran’s nuclear program completely destroyed and also insisting that it is open to letting the Islamic Republic pursue civilian nuclear energy.

At the same time, Trump is heading to the Middle East on Monday on a multi-country tour in which the US president will skip Israel, but will stop in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, leading government critics to warn that Jerusalem is being left out of Washington’s regional diplomatic initiatives.

According to Arabic media reports, Trump is also set to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, and Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

And despite previously insisting that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords— the series of normalization agreements that his previous administration brokered between Israel and several Arab states — Trump has reportedly dropped normalization with Israel as a condition for progress on Saudi Arabia’s civilian nuclear program.

Against this backdrop, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz warned on Monday that Israel must get on board with American plans for the Middle East or be left behind.

Addressing the press ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting, Gantz said that “the American administration is determined to promote normalization with Saudi Arabia and other large and significant countries in the region.”

“Either we complete a strategic transformation, strengthen the axis against Iran, destroy its military nuclear capability, and become part of a vast comprehensive political move led by the United States in the region, or we will be left behind,” he warned. “The opportunity to change the Middle East must not be missed because of political considerations.”

‘We must stop procrastinating and go on the offensive’

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition pushed back hard against such criticism, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declaring, “You have to be crazy to turn an event like [Edan Alexander’s release] into something that is against the government.”

“A heroic fighter, a lone soldier who came to Israel to enlist in the army and serve the homeland, is released from captivity without any compensation or conditions — we are not releasing a single terrorist, we are not delivering humanitarian aid, we are not stopping the war and we are not surrendering,” Smotrich told reporters in the Knesset ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting.

“Just two months ago, there were those who were talking about how, in order to free Edan, we would have to release 250 murderous terrorists with blood on their hands,” but now he is being freed “because we have created military and political pressure on Hamas,” Smotrich claimed.

Hamas “understands that we have no intention of surrendering and if it wants something, it is the one who has to pay upfront and not the other way around,” he asserted — adding that the government is “committed to bringing about everyone’s release.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also endorsed a more aggressive approach in Gaza, telling reporters that Israel had “received American backing to open the gates of hell on Gaza — we must stop procrastinating, and go on the offensive to defeat it.”

In an appeal to Netanyahu, Ben Gvir said that “President Trump gave us backing several months ago to open the gates of hell on Hamas, and we are delaying. We must stop delaying and launch the decisive attack. To occupy the entire territory of the Gaza Strip, and to encourage the migration of Gazans to countries around the world.”

Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s comments, however, appeared at odds with recent statements by senior American officials.

Announcing Alexander’s pending release overnight, Trump stated that the move “was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones.”

“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict,” Trump added.

His rhetoric echoed that of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, whom Channel 12 recently reported had told families of hostages held in Gaza that he disagrees with Israel’s approach to the war in the Strip, and believes reaching a new ceasefire and hostage release deal is the correct next step to take.

Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected reports of increasing daylight between Washington and Jerusalem on Monday morning, declaring in a post on X that his relationship with the president was “excellent.”

Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.