In a news analysis in Haaretz, writer Odeh Basharat said that all indications are that the families of the Israeli prisoners and the thousands of demonstrators supporting them are disappointed by the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip that would lead to their release.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has other plans, he added, quoting CIA Director William Burns as saying on Saturday that he believes reaching an agreement is “ultimately a matter of political will.” Political will, according to Basharat’s analysis, is the last thing Netanyahu shows.
Many analysts and insiders see a connection between the long-awaited prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel and former US President Donald Trump’s attempt to return to the White House.
Basharat, a Palestinian journalist from 1948, quoted a paragraph from an article by writer Thomas Friedman published in the New York Times last week, in which he said that he would not be surprised “if Netanyahu actually increases the intensity of the operations in Gaza between now and the US election day on November 5.”
Friedman said he believes the reason for this is that the Israeli prime minister “wants Trump to win so he can tell him that he helped him win.”
Commenting on this, Basharat believes that Trump’s victory is a victory for Netanyahu, as one does everything in one’s power to help one’s friend.
The writer claimed in his analysis that Netanyahu is not the only player in the local arena, but he is destined to play an important role in “shaping the new world order.”
The Israeli prime minister, he added, “has a treasure in his pocket in the form of 101 prisoners languishing in the hell of Gaza.” Rather than working to release them before the US elections, which could boost Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances of winning, Netanyahu is keeping this “priceless gift” for his ally Trump. Basharat describes the relationship between the two men as an “alliance of dark forces.”
Basharat continues his analysis, saying sarcastically that there are only two months left before the US elections, “which means two months of suffering and imminent danger. And for that, what is the meaning of the lives of 101 hostages in exchange for the sacred mission of changing the world order? After all, gains are bought with sweat and blood, not with leaders of course, but with peoples.”
According to the writer, Netanyahu treats Biden, the “Zionist” who loves Israel, in the same way he treated and continues to treat Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who “took a firm stand against armed struggle,” in his quest to revive “a popular struggle movement away from bombs and the sound of bullets.”
In return, Abbas received from Netanyahu only “humiliation,” repeated raids on cities and refugee camps, and a “sentimental paternalistic attitude” toward “Jewish rioters” who destroy villages and expel their Palestinian inhabitants.