Philadelphi Corridor is the latest refuge of Netanyahu
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The discovery last week of the bodies of six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in Rafah sent shock waves throughout Israeli society, resulting in a spontaneous outpouring of public grief and anger of a kind that has not been seen there for a long time.
Although these innocent lives were taken in cold blood by their Hamas captors, much of the anger was directed at the Israeli government, and specifically at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for abandoning the hostages and leaving them to languish in the hands of their killers for nearly a year.
For the first time since the war began, protesters returned to streets in many towns and cities, united in their demand that the government agree a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would allow the remaining hostages to return home.
For decades, Netanyahu has manipulated the Israeli people, or at least enough of them, to become the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history. He has done this through lies and deceit, by sowing fear and by driving a wedge between different segments of society.
His aims with all of this have been to perpetuate his time in the most powerful job in the country, to gradually facilitate his own hedonistic lifestyle and, in recent years, to unjustly influence and stall his corruption trial, which threatens to end his political career and might even land him in jail.
In an attempt to prevent this from happening, he has been prepared to sacrifice the very democratic principles and mechanisms on which his country was established. He formed his current coalition government to support his aims, and since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas he has demonstrated his clear disregard not only for the lives of Palestinians, but also for those of his own people.
Among Israelis, the ones who are suffering the most as a result of this morally bankrupt, narcissistic leader who lacks empathy for any other human beings, are the hostages and their families and friends.
In their heroic battle to raise public awareness and support for efforts to bring the hostages home, and convince decision-makers that the chances of their loved ones returning alive dwindle with each passing day, these families are confronted by a prime minister who prefers to keep his political coalition intact rather than save the lives of the hostages. Most of them are Israeli citizens who, under his watch, were snatched from their beds, from safe rooms in their homes, or while celebrating life at the Nova party music event.
In Netanyahu’s eyes, everyone else is at fault for this dire situation — but it is he who bears the ultimate responsibility and who must stop obstructing a ceasefire deal that would allow the hostages, of whom 35 of the original 101 are already confirmed dead, to return home.
Of course, even before the awful news of the murders of the six hostages emerged, it was acknowledged by most Israelis, never mind the international community, that in Netanyahu’s mind the release of the hostages was not a top priority, or even a priority at all.
The Israeli media reported that during a Cabinet security meeting several days before the bodies of the hostages were found, there was an argument between Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s strategy in Gaza that ended with Gallant fuming and telling his boss: “The prime minister can make all the decisions, and he can also decide to kill all of the hostages.”
This might sound harsh but it was an expression of his frustration in response to a request by Netanyahu that the Cabinet pass a resolution stipulating that Israeli forces would remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land along the border between Egypt and Gaza, for at least the duration of a six-week truce as part of a proposed ceasefire agreement’s humanitarian stage.
Only Gallant had the courage to oppose this; and this former military general is not exactly known as a “dove-ish” element in government. However, he is aware that such a move is likely to seal the fate of the remaining hostages.
For Netanyahu, the release of the hostages is not a top priority, or even a priority at all.
Yossi Mekelberg
What is clear to Gallant — as it is to the current chief of the general staff of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi, and to his predecessors-turned-politicians, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot — is that Netanyahu’s decision is not derived from a considered and informed strategic examination of the security needs of Israel, but from his fear of losing the support of the ultranationalist-messianic members of his own government.
The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, summed this up rather succinctly and accurately when he said: “The issue of the (Philadelphi) Corridor is not Netanyahu’s concern, but rather the Ben-Gvir-Smotrich Corridor.” He was referring to the prime minister’s far-right coalition partners Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.
During a hastily arranged press conference — a rare occurrence these days and while still refusing to take many questions from journalists — Netanyahu, with his usual pomposity, demagoguery and brandishing his preferred prop, a map, made a poor job of arguing that ensuring the Philadelphi Corridor is under Israeli control had always been his position.
There is ample evidence to contradict this, not least in the pages of his own book, “Bibi: My Story.” But setting that aside, he has been prime minister for most of the past 18 years, so what prevented him during all that time from taking control of the corridor? If this is so important to efforts to cut off the supply of weapons and other resources to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, why was it not a high priority from the very start of the war?
The answer, of course, is that Netanyahu defines his war objectives according to his own domestic political needs, and mainly to keep his far-right coalition partners on board.
In Washington, President Joe Biden summed up his thoughts on Netanyahu’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire in one word when asked by a journalist whether the Israeli prime minister was doing enough to reach an agreement. Biden simply said: “No.”
The reason why so many Israelis are once again protesting, why the leading Histadrut trade union called a one-day strike across the country, why schools were closed and even staff at major airports went on strike for a few hours, is because they share Biden’s view. And more than any pressure from outside the country, it is domestic pressure in Israel that stands the better chance of forcing Netanyahu to change his mind.
After all, the issue of the hostages goes to the very heart of the Israeli and Jewish ethos, which dictates an obligation to make every human effort possible to bring about the release of those who are in captivity. It is one of the strongest sentiments, widely shared among Israeli society and the country’s military. There is a strong tradition in Israel that places great value on mutual responsibility for one another, and to the principle of never abandoning an injured soldier on the battlefield or a hostage in captivity. This was a leitmotif even before the founding of the state of Israel.
Among Netanyahu’s many other sins, by cynically leaving the wounded, the frail, and the tortured to rot in the tunnels under Gaza he is also ripping Israeli society apart. He should not be allowed to.
• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg
