ULTIMATUM ISSUED Leaving Gaza Ceasefire Verging On Disaster!

Right, so as the second phase of ceasefire talks have begun, according to the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire plan discussions were due to begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire which was the third of February, but we’ve not heard a great deal of progress thusfar and of course one reason for that is that Benjamin Netanyahu cannot afford to agree to a second phase for feat of his government being brought down.
Where he managed to avoid losing his far right coalition partner Bezalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionism Party previously, a large enough body on their own to bring down Netanyahu’s government and dump him out of power, having bought off his support temporarily, the second phase was never going to be agreeable to Smotrich or his party and now another has weighed in to remind Netanyahu that the second phase, much of the detail of which has yet to be negotiated, but which includes full withdrawal from Gaza, won’t be accepted no matter what Netanyahu promises them this time. Short of something totally unexpected coming along it’s impossible to see the ceasefire lasting for very much longer, but what will Netanyahu’s excuse be to get out of this, because Hamas and Gaza haven’t given him one.
Right, so according to Hamas at least, the ceasefire talks have begun as of Tuesday the fourth of February, a day late, but have started nonetheless, but talk is all well and good as long as both sides are honestly engaging in it and true to form, Benjamin Netanyahu’s side are not because he cannot cannot afford to be, he’s already been told by his hard right coalition partner Bezalel Smotrich of the settler supported Religious Zionism Party and Netanyahu’s Finance Minister that he will collapse the government if phase 2 of the ceasefire agreement is agreed to, involving the withdrawal of Israeli troops and abandonment of Israeli positions such as the Philadelphi Corridor.
Now, perhaps this is an issue Netanyahu might have hoped he’d seen off, he has got his bootlickers in the Palestinian Authority now in the Philadelphi Corridor and with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas apparently more than happy to go head to head with Hamas in Gaza in a bid to take over the running of the Strip themselves, so strictly speaking Israel could withdraw whilst also maintaining control. The trouble is the PA are themselves still Palestinian and that is crime enough in itself for Smotrich and Co, they are not trusted by them, in their minds and the minds of their supporters, which comprise the settler movement of the West Bank who are very keen to move into Gaza themselves, it gives the Palestinians too much hope of a Palestinian state, no matter who they are.
Where Netanyahu saw off the threat of Smotrich collapsing his government to get phase 1 agreed, a move which essentially has led to the increase in fighting in the West Bank, appeasement of Smotrich’s settler base as that has been to get that first phase through, Netanyahu having been forced into a position of having to agree to a ceasefire whilst trying not to see his government collapse at the same time. Keeping that ceasefire going though, he is under far less pressure I would argue, because he can say he got a ceasefire passed, if it collapsed later then he can find someone or something to blame, that is the Israeli way, it is always someone else’s fault and to disagree invites accusations of antisemitism.
Therefore, it is of no surprise perhaps that Israel’s Channel 13 has said the following on Netanyahu’s position regarding the ceasefire, having said of Israel’s delegation that:
‘"The delegation heading to Qatar is not expected to discuss the second phase of negotiations."
"The Israeli delegation will discuss in Doha the implementation of the current phase of the Gaza agreement only."
"Netanyahu's sending of the delegation to Qatar is merely a formal step to please the Americans."’
So whilst Hamas and Qatari and Egyptian negotiators are preparing to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire as laid out in the first phase, it seems Israel has other ideas. If they need the ceasefire to collapse now after all, why bother? And it isn’t just coming from Smotrich now that demands that the ceasefire end before phase 2 is implemented have come in, as another government minister now has demanded likewise as this excerpt from Jewish Press explains:
‘Israeli Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday against agreeing to end the war against Hamas during negotiations on the second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire with the terrorist group.
“This is really the moment of truth for Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said Strook, whose Religious Zionist Party agreed to stay in the government on the condition that Israel return to fighting in Gaza if Hamas’s terror rule isn’t overthrown during the initial 42-day stage of the agreement.
If Netanyahu agrees to Hamas’s demands to end the war prematurely, the Jewish state will become “the punching bag of all its enemies in the Middle East,” she charged in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio station.
If the prime minister “decides to go in this disastrous direction,” then the Religious Zionism Party will “make sure that the government does not continue to exist,” she said.’
I mean you have to also remember that phase 2 will still contain ongoing hostage exchanges, Israel don’t have prisoners, they have hostages too, they’ve still been taking more of them from the West Bank whilst all of this has been ongoing, so they never end up releasing more Palestinians than they ever seem to be holding, yet that never gets mentioned. Phase one should see the release of all women, children and elderly hostages, leaving all the men for phase 2, so so much for Israel caring about their hostages, because if they’re male it seems they can stay there.
Orit Strook is another member of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party, who else would be put in charge of illegal settlements after all? She is quite mad. In 2011 her son Zvi was convicted at the Israeli Supreme Court of Israel of having beaten a 15 year old Palestinian boy, tied his hands and drove around with him on top of an all terrain vehicle whilst blindfolded back in 2007. Despite Zvi Struck only getting 18 months in prison when the maximum sentence was 20 years, his mother kicked off that the sentence was too harsh and tried to get it watered down, complaining that the only reason her son was convicted was because the court believed the Arabs.
Of course if Donald Trump gets his way and relocates the entire population of Gaza somewhere else, Egypt and Jordan is what he’s saying despite their protests and refusal to accept any such a notion, that would get phase 2 passed from Israel’s perspective, though Hamas clearly wouldn’t agree to it, you can imagine the media would have no issue twisting that though can’t you? But this is how fanciful our thinking has to get to see phase 2 passing – unless Israel get Gaza; or Trump takes over as he’s now declared intent to do and which I’m covering separately, equally fanciful as that is – it will fail, because Netanyahu needs it to stay in power, to continue to stave off those corruption charges and protect himself from that international arrest warrant out for him. That will always come first, so exactly how Netanyahu torpedoes the talks remains to be seen, but deciding not to engage with them when they are already late starting and Hamas representatives are already waiting would be one way to do so and certainly sends a message of intent to see the ceasefire fail. That this is going unreported, that the Trump bluster is dominating headlines as well, well its easy to see how a cynic might consider that intentional. Phase 2 is due to begin in early March, more likely I fear will be a return to genocide.
Still, at least the Palestinian Authority are volunteering to carry some of that genocidal burden in Gaza now, helps with IDF staffing problems so to speak I daresay, but with blood already as bad as it gets between the PA and Hamas for completely justifiable reasons, it again, doesn’t help the peace process. Get all the details of what the PA are up to in Gaza in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t already done so, so as to help support the channel which is very much appreciated and also ensure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as it drops and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.