Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote on the Walla Hebrew website, saying: In a controversial statement this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the Philadelphi Corridor is the “rock of existence” for Israel.
The statements came at a press conference in which he declared the Philadelphia Tiger as the “Third Temple” and asserted that responsibility for security, “hostages” and the future of Israel now rested with him, but he stressed that this responsibility began “from today,” raising questions about who bears responsibility for events that occurred before that.
Two months ago, the Philadelphi Corridor would not have been prominent on Israel’s security threats list. What prompted Netanyahu to change his mind? Observers say the reason may have been his secret meeting with a small ‘war cabinet’ away from the eyes of his allies, which could explain the media campaign that celebrates personal recordings at the expense of more important issues.
In a move that surprised many, Netanyahu a
pologized for his failure to recover the “hostages,” but did not clarify who was responsible for their kidnapping in the first place.
He also faced criticism for his conflicting statements about the war’s goals and timing, speaking of “November 7” instead of “October 7”, and stating “3 goals” for the war in English while speaking of “4 goals” in Hebrew.
Netanyahu seems to find himself in an unenviable position, as he faces great pressure from his political allies, which is pushing him to make crucial strategic decisions that may not be in Israel’s interest in the long run.
Netanyahu claims to have warned former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the dangers of the situation in Gaza, but since coming to power in 2009, he has taken no real action. Netanyahu has been prime minister most of the time and had many opportunities to fulfill his election promise and topple Hamas in Gaza. He had full popular legitimacy to do so, but he has taken no practical steps to achieve this goal.
If the Philadelphi corridor wa
s so important, why didn’t Netanyahu try to reach it as soon as the fighting broke out? The operation could have been carried out easily; the ‘Rafah Division’ was and remains the weakest of Hamas’s divisions. If the IDF had reached the ‘Philadelphi’ in November or December, the problem might have been solved already.
The simple truth is that Netanyahu was afraid to embark on a large-scale ground operation. In those days, he consulted with senior officers such as Maj. Gen. Ofer Winter and Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Brick, who warned him that Gaza would be a deadly trap for the IDF, and preferred to operate from the air and from the outside. However, Gabi Ashkenazi, who was sent on a mission by Eisenkot and Gantz, convinced him to begin the maneuver about three weeks later. However, the operation in southern Gaza was delayed by Netanyahu, while Gantz and Eisenkot were pressuring him to move toward Rafah.
Now, suddenly Netanyahu has discovered the importance of Philadelphi after realizing that the government may fall i
f this decision is not taken. Netanyahu knows very well that the military presence in “Philadelphi” will not guarantee stopping the smuggling, as the Israeli army was there until 2005, and Hamas was using the tunnels to smuggle weapons under the feet of Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, the “hostages” are dying. Hamas has been dealt a severe blow. Almost all of its military leadership has been eliminated except for Yahya Sinwar. The battalions and brigades have been dismantled, the tunnels and military infrastructure destroyed. Thousands of Hamas fighters have been killed. This is the time to take the temporary risks in Philadelphi and return the “hostages” home. But Netanyahu will not do this, because the only thing that matters to him more than returning the hostages is preserving his government.
This is evidenced by a report published last week indicating that during the last cabinet meeting, a clause was included that would give the Israeli negotiating team a broad mandate to negotiate a deal to release the
‘hostages,’ but it was canceled at the last minute under pressure from Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. As a result, we are left with Philadelphia without a settlement, without a deal, without ‘hostages,’ but with a government that is in fact ‘the rock of our existence.’
Source: Maan News Agency