Pressure Builds on Netanyahu as Hostage Release Talks Intensify

While Prime Minister Netanyahu faces divisions within Israel over painful concessions he might be forced to make to facilitate the release of 135 hostages held in Gaza, international pressures on him are growing as well, including a reported American promise for a Saudi-Israeli pact in exchange for winding down the war. “We see potential for an extended pause in Gaza that would let hostages out,” the American national security council’s spokesman, John Kirby, said Tuesday. A London-based Qatari-owned newspaper, Al Arab al Jadid, claims implementation of a hostage deal is expected to start as early as next week.A roadmap for a hostage deal was reportedly reached at Paris this week between American, Israeli, Qatari, and Egyptian representatives. Yet, gaps remain. Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, is expected to make the final decision on a deal, while the terror group’s Qatar-based leader, Ismail Hanyieh, will deliver the answer on the framework as early as Wednesday. At the same time, Washington’s patience with the Israel Defense Force’s military campaign seems to be running out. America is reportedly pressuring Mr. Netanyahu to consider a political horizon in the “day after” even as negotiations over the hostage release are intensifying. “In addition to the immediate deal over hostages, the U.S. will use the pause in fighting to push a wider, historical regional deal,” Israel Hayom reports. During the Paris talks, the CIA chief, William Burns, floated the idea of a Saudi recognition of Israel and an exchange of ambassadors, the newspaper reports, adding that peace with Riyadh would be offered to “compensate Israel for ending the war before Hamas is defeated.” Israel is far from ready to concede, though. “I hear sayings about all kinds of deals, so I want to clarify, we will not end this war short of achieving all of its objectives,” Mr. Netanyahu said Tuesday. “That means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.” Nor are the Saudis eager to cut deals with a weakened Israel. Despite public statements, “they want to make sure that Israel wins,” a vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Jonathan Schanzer, who often travels to Riyadh, tells the Sun. “The Saudis don’t want to make a deal with a country that is weak, so Israel first needs to prove itself on the battlefield.” Israel’s allies, though, are getting impatient. “We need a pause in the fighting. We need it to happen now,” Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron said this week, the Financial Times reports. In a first for London, he added that as a pause happens “we, with allies, will look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.” Realizing such a state, though, depends on deep reforms in the corrupt and widely unpopular Palestinian Authority. Hamas is hinting that it is willing to join its Fatah rival in exchange for survival. Yet, it has no interest in helping Israel cut deals with Arab countries, and is likely to undermine any agreement with Riyadh. Recent negotiations with Hamas’s Qatari and Egyptian allies have strayed widely from the demand for an “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages, as called for last week by the International Court of Justice, and earlier by the United Nations Security Council.Instead, the Paris framework reportedly includes a two-month ceasefire to facilitate a first phase in which women and older hostages would be freed. In return for each hostage, Hamas is demanding the release of at least 100 terrorists in Israeli prisons. Later phases would lead to more releases, further war pauses, and the freeing of additional Palestinian prisoners, including many convicted of committing deadly terrorist acts. Hamas has long insisted on a complete end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal in return for freeing hostages. Such a deal would leave the terrorist organization as Gaza’s sovereign. “We will not withdraw the IDF from the Gaza Strip, and we will not release thousands of terrorists,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “None of this will happen.”For weeks, though, family members of the hostages have protested in front of the premier’s official residence at Jerusalem and his Cesarea home, demanding to make additional concessions for release of their loved ones. At the same time, two far-right partners of Mr. Netanyahu, Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich, are threatening to bolt his coalition if he agrees to an “irresponsible” hostage deal.Israeli commentators see some wiggle room in Mr. Netanyahu’s statement. While “thousands of terrorists” will not be released, they note, perhaps more than a thousand will. Also, in 2011 Mr. Netanyahu agreed to a deal that freed one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, for more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, the top planner of the October 7 atrocities. Jerusalem seems to be closing in on a decision over “painful” concessions for release of hostages. Few, though, share Western hopes that regional peace will result from a deal with Hamas.

Pressure Builds on Netanyahu as Hostage Release Talks Intensify

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