In brief, as Israel Hayom's senior diplomatic and White House correspondent Ariel Kahana puts it, "Israel is, with its own hands, helping its enemy to prepare to wage war." Netanyahu obviously knows this, if only because prior exchanges have led to disaster, so why did he agree to an agreement that his own coalition partner Itamar Ben-Gvir called "horrific"?
Because he fears Donald Trump.
The president-elect stated on Jan. 7 that "all hell will break out" in the Middle East if Hamas did not release the captives it held. That seemed to mean, as vice president-elect J.D. Vance interpreted it, pressure on Hamas: "It's very clear that President Trump threatening Hamas and making it clear that there is going to be hell to pay."
But no.
Trump dispatched private citizen and future presidential envoy Steven Witcoff to read Netanyahu the riot act. A report in Ha'aretz tells how Witcoff compelled Netanyahu to break the Sabbath for a meeting in which he was forced "to accept a plan that [he] had repeatedly rejected over the past half year."
There's a reason why it may be to Bibi's advantage - he just has to play along with Trump, and wait for Hamas/iran/houthis to start terrorising again. Staying in Gaza means more soldiers needlessly being killed, whether by hamas bombs, or the type of "accidents" that have caused many, maybe the majority of deaths of soldiers (according to Gen. Yitzhak Brik)
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