From Opposition party head: Netanyahu has passed up ‘3 clear-cut opportunities’ for hostage-ceasefire deal
Opposition MK Yair Golan, head of the Democrats party, charges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has passed up “at least three clear-cut opportunities” for a hostage-release deal — including “certainly in March.”
Interviewed on Channel 12 news, Golan, a former deputy IDF chief of staff whose Democrats party is a merger of Labor and Meretz, Golan says that, for Netanyahu, “maintaining his coalition is much more important than the lives of 101 hostages.”
Golan says that Hamas has been destroyed by the IDF as an organized fighting force in Gaza. All military doctrine now indicates that the time has come to secure the diplomat benefits of the military achievements, “and as far as I am concerned, that starts with the release of the hostages.”
A Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, he says, would also bring a ceasefire in the north, the rehabilitation of Israeli society could begin, Israel could determine its role in post-war Gaza, and general elections could be held here.
Israel needs to maintain operational freedom of action in Gaza, “as an iron-clad rule,” he says, but must not rule Gaza.
Golan says the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border should be transferred to the control of an American-led multinational force, also involving trustworthy Arab forces. He calls Netanyahu’s claim that Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor is essential to Israel’s future “an insufferable lie” and says it must not be allowed to prevent a hostage deal.
Golan says IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi should not resign mid-war, and that he does not trust the political echelon to make appropriate appointments at the top of the security establishment.
He also says civil disobedience is legitimate in the face of a government that is “destroying” the State of Israel. He rules out sitting in a unity government under Netanyahu. It is “unpatriotic” to help Netanyahu remain in power, he says.
