Israel launches barrage of bomb attacks across Gaza after widening its offensive
PBS NewsHourDec 30, 2023
Israel's Netanyahu Cancels War Cabinet on Gaza's Postwar Governance
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The Facts
The Israeli war cabinet's Thursday meeting to discuss plans for Gaza's postwar governance was canceled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he reportedly caved into pressure from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party and agreed to discuss the matter in a meeting of the larger security cabinet next week.
Israel's Channel 12 had speculated that Mossad chief David Barnea and Israel's hostage envoy Nitzan Alon would relay an updated Qatari proposal to the offer Israel made earlier this month seeking the release of about 40 remaining female, elderly, and sick hostages in exchange for a large group of Palestinian prisoners and a two-week truce. Hamas officials have reportedly said that the group will only accept a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip in exchange for the hostages.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Though, of course, Israel has a right to dismantle Hamas's military capabilities, it must wage this war in a humane way. The amount of civilians being killed will only galvanize Palestinians against peace and push them into the arms of Hamas. A more thorough and surgical campaign is now needed to eliminate Hamas's leadership in Gaza, as Israel is losing global support.
Pro-Israel narrative
Though this has been a tragic war, Israel cannot allow Hamas to survive. It seems that the Biden administration wants to pressure Israel into a ceasefire, and Israel must push back against such short-sighted thinking. Israel is a sovereign country and has the right to defend itself from terrorism and pursue its own interests. Hamas's military capabilities must be eliminated so that the group can never launch a terrorist attack like Oct. 7 again.
Pro-Palestine narrative
Israel continues to demonstrate that its war is not against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered the north of the strip unlivable, as it kills Palestinians at an unprecedented rate. Though the US, Israel's biggest ally, wants to minimize the war's intensity, it must instead exert more pressure to end the war completely.
