The war must end. The hostages and soldiers must come home.
The time has long passed when any military strategy in Gaza would be likely to achieve the war's original just purposes: the elimination of Hamas and the freeing of the hostages.
The best tool to get the hostages, proven by the Trump administration's recent involvement in the release of Edan Alexander, is diplomacy. As I wrote on October 9, 2023, ultimately it will be the purview of the diplomats to end the war. That time is now. No significant military target remains in Gaza. It is time to end the war, return the hostages, and get out of the Gaza Strip.
There are signs that the willing may be able to build a relatively peaceful future for the region. Lebanon is cracking down on Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. Syria has fallen, and is seeking stability. The Palestinian Authority this week called for Hamas to completely disarm, and to turn over the Gaza Strip to a coalition of Arab States and the PA. And Trump has begun travel to the region, with hundreds of billions of dollars of defense contracts to dangle, reinvigorating interest in expanding the Abraham Accords.
The truth is that all the regional signs point to this being the right moment to cease hostilities, return all the hostages, leave the Gaza Strip and build a new future.
It is grotesque that Prime Minister Netanyahu has instead announced this week that his new goal is not only to continue the war, but to surge thousands of new troops into the Gaza Strip with the purpose of permanently occupying the territory. This is wrong on every level. As an ultimate goal, permanent occupation means permanent war. As a democratic nation, permanent occupation means permanent denial of human rights. Mr. Netanyahu's coalition is hell-bent on entrenching the Israel military in the worst possible position, and forever. It is inexcusable, and bad for everyone.
No. This war must end. Multiple sources amidst all of the negotiating partners for the last month have agreed that the negotiation points have come down to simply this: ALL the hostages will be returned, IF Israel commits to leave Gaza.
There is no moral or ethical choice other than to accept those terms, get them all home, and assemble the multinational team to rule and rebuild Gaza. That is how the original goals will be achieved: Bring them home, and remove Hamas from control of the region.
Can anyone really believe that permanent occupation is better? If they do, they are simply wrong.
