Israel’s war cabinet was due to meet to discuss a deal with Hamas – negotiated by the Americans, the Qataris and the Egyptians – about exchanging captives for Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails. That seems relatively uncontroversial – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told family members of the captives in a meeting on Thursday afternoon that negotiations are still ongoing. The second thing that was going to be discussed at the war cabinet was what Gaza would look like the day after the war. But Bezalel Smotrich, from Netanyahu’s coalition party, decided that he didn’t want that discussion to take place. He is very much against the Palestinian Authority (PA) having any rule in Gaza post the war. He is also very much against transferring any money to the PA as the Americans have been urging. So under that pressure, Netanyahu decided the war cabinet would not have any discussions about this. Instead, he would leave it to the wider security cabinet meeting, which is going to take place on Tuesday. Netanyahu cancelled the war cabinet, worried it would fracture his coalition, fracture his government and put his position as PM at risk. |
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