Northern mayors, pro-Netanyahu pundits join chorus of condemnation of potential truce
Numerous local officials, northern mayors and pundits who are usually aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been releasing a stream of strongly worded messages lambasting a potential ceasefire in Lebanon, indicating that Jerusalem accepting such a proposal at this time is highly unlikely.
“It would be a fatal mistake,” says Moshe Davidovich, head of the Matte Asher Regional Council and head of the Conflict Zone Forum, an umbrella group for northern councils that have for months urged the government to launch a major attack on Hezbollah to stop the constant bombardment of the north.
“This is a present we must not give Nasrallah. It would cause fatalities,” he tells Ynet, adding that such an agreement could come in several weeks if the country becomes safer.
Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, says: “This shows the hypocrisy of the entire country. Now that the state is finally fulfilling its basic duty and defending us, they are talking now about a ceasefire.
“An agreement won’t bring back Kiryat Shmona,” he adds of his city, which has been evacuated and increasingly destroyed by Hezbollah missiles over the past year. “The talk of a ceasefire makes us feel like we were in a complicated situation for an entire year, for nothing.”
Staunchly pro-Netanyahu pundit Boaz Golan bluntly writes that signing a ceasefire now would cause him to withdraw his support for the government, and colleague Yotam Zimri calls a potential truce “reckless.”