As the Israeli cabinet is to meet to consider a plan for a full military takeover of Gaza, one journalist believes Israeli citizens want a deal that will end the war quickly and that the proposal may represent a ploy to get Hamas to negotiate.
The Israeli cabinet is due to meet on Thursday to consider the proposal as families of those being held by Hamas have said that the move would risk "disaster" for their loved ones.
Gregg Carlstrom, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent, joined Ciara on Newstalk Breakfast this morning and says that Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to reoccupy the Gaza Strip does not tally with Israeli sentiment.
Gaza reoccupation
Describing the overall sentiment of Israelis, he said that “if you look at any of the surveys, about 70-75% of Israelis [...] want a deal that releases all of the hostages [...] and ends the war.”
Carlstrom explained that the Israelis are becoming more aware of how they are perceived internationally: “For a long time, Israelis ignored it or shrugged off the criticism from abroad.
“But what we’ve seen over the past few weeks [...] and the policy changes with countries like France, the UK and Canada announcing that they’re going to recognise a Palestinian state.”
Carlstrom said that some Israelis feel that there is a “diplomatic tsunami, as some officials call it.”
Carlstrom said that the plan “might just be talk [...], unless we see Israel call up significant numbers of reservists, [...] there's a good chance that this might just be a way of trying to put pressure on Hamas.”
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have reportedly raised concerns too.
“The army chief has been very clear, in private, that he doesn’t support this proposal - and this is an army chief that was hand-picked by Netanyahu.”
There is a belief that ending the war is possible with “significant American pressure on Netanyahu.
“I hate that I’ve been saying over and over for months now that it all depends on Donald Trump - but it does”.
However, Carlstrom says that “You really don’t know one day after the next which side of this Trump is going to come down on.”
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