How Netanyahu squandered his moment to halt the war in Gaza

Sydney Morning Herald

14 hours ago

Jerusalem: When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led the country to a military victory over Iran in June, both his allies and rivals portrayed it as his finest achievement. Flush with newfound confidence and authority, Netanyahu seemed finally to have gained the political capital he needed to override opposition from his far-right government allies to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip.
Six weeks later, the prime minister has squandered that moment. The talks between Hamas and Israel are, yet again, stuck. Israel is now pushing for a deal to end the war in one go, instead of in phases. The move brings negotiations to where they were 19 months ago, when mediators last tried to reach a comprehensive deal, and it is just as likely to fail as it did then.
Now as then, both Hamas and Netanyahu are refusing to make the compromises needed for such a comprehensive deal to work.
'As long as this is the government – and assuming it doesn't fundamentally change its course – there will be no comprehensive agreement, and the hostages will not return, ' wrote Oren Setter, a former member of Israel's negotiation team, in a column on Monday in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahrono t. 'The opposition needs to understand this, the public needs to understand this, and the media needs to understand this,' Setter added.
In short, the credit Netanyahu accrued following the war with Iran in June has evaporated, both domestically and overseas.
International condemnation of the growing starvation in Gaza – which aid agencies and many foreign governments have largely blamed on Israel's 11-week blockade on the territory between March and May – is at its peak. Partly to protest Israel's responsibility for that situation, several of the country's long-standing allies have recognised a Palestinian state, or pledged to do so in the near future.
In the United States, most Democratic senators voted last week to block some arms sales to Israel. A Republican lawmaker, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has accused Israel of genocide, an accusation it strongly denies.
Domestic opposition to the war in Gaza is at an all-time high, and calls are growing for the remaining hostages held by Hamas to be returned through a diplomatic deal. Israel's ability to sustain the war, amid growing fatigue among its military reservists, is increasingly under question. After a rise in death by suicide of reserve soldiers, the military has set up a committee to investigate how to better support those leaving service.