Analysis | Rubio Came to Israel to Save Netanyahu. But What Does Trump Get Out of It?
Benjamin Netanyahu fears Trump's wrath, but he is also panicking for his political survival. That's why after every intervention the Trump team makes to save the hostages in Gaza, it needs to make a second one to rescue Netanyahu
Haaretz
Netanyahu is stuck with coalition partners who don't care about the hostages and are happy to sacrifice their lives in order to achieve other goals. This is why after every intervention it makes to save the hostages, the Trump team must make a second one to save Netanyahu.
It all started with Trump's insistence that Netanyahu enter a cease-fire and hostage release agreement with Hamas right before his return to the White House last month. Netanyahu had no desire or intention of making that deal, which he knew would anger the far-right elements of his coalition. Eventually, though, he realized that he fears Trump's wrath more than the disappointment of his political allies at home.
And yet, while the vast majority of Israelis celebrated the release of the hostages from hell, Netanyahu was panicking over his own political survival.
That was all fixed by Trump when they met at the White House earlier this month and the president unveiled his plan to kick two million Palestinians out of Gaza and turn the coastal enclave into a gambling resort. Netanyahu immediately briefed the press that for any of his coalition partners to bring down the government right after Trump had presented this plan would be an irresponsible move.
Whether the Trump plan will ever happen is beside the point for Netanyahu. He has utilized its promise in order to calm down the dissenters within his own government.
But then last Saturday, Trump, like many others, saw the gruesome images of the three starved and tortured hostages being released from Gaza, and realized that the hostage release deal's timeline had to be changed. The pace of hostages coming out in dribs and drabs was never the right way to do it. Yet Netanyahu had insisted on that from the start of the negotiations, when President Joe Biden was still in the White House, in order to save himself the option of renewing the war in Gaza in between the scheduled stages.
In an act that appeared to be completely off-the-cuff, Trump announced that he was done with the "three hostages at a time" method, and instead wanted to see them come out of Gaza all at once. He set this up as an ultimatum, accompanied by a threat: If all of the hostages were not released by Saturday at noon, the gates of hell would open. |
