Meretz head pans Netanyahu over truce

Hours after an open-ended truce between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip takes effect, Meretz chairwoman Zahava Gal-on blasts the agreement, saying it shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy against Hamas has failed.

“The truce agreed upon between Israel and Hamas comes too late, and its terms prove conclusively that Operation Protective Edge is a strategic failure on the part of Netanyahu, who went to war without objectives and ended it by granting Hamas a huge victory on the backs of the residents of the south,” she says in a statement posted to Facebook.

Accusing Netanyahu of failing to understand the extent of the plight of residents of Gaza border towns, Gal-on says Netanyahu hypocritically refused to recognize the Palestinian unity government of which Hamas was part, yet negotiated with the terrorist organization under fire.

“There is no clearer indication of the profound failure of his policy,” she says. “One thing is clear: the same agreements could have been reached months ago, with the moderates in the Palestinian Authority and not with Hamas, under fire — and without engaging in an unnecessary war for which we are paying a very heavy price in terms of lives lost, casualties, and soon enough, a heavy financial price as well.”

She then calls on Netanyahu himself to “pay the price and go home.”