Law, Power, and Justice

Wednesday 15 January 2025

Hamas and Israel have reached a cease fire.  According to Haaretz, all Israeli hostages are to be released.  (Note: We don’t know how many of them are alive.)  The IDF will withdraw from Gaza.  Finance Minister Smotrich and Defense Minister Katz are opposed to the deal.

Haaretz (Israeli newspaper 1/15/25)

• Palestinian PM says Palestinian Authority should run Gaza.
• Trump’s decision to push hard towards a cease fire has “triggered turmoil in Israel’s far-right Religious Zionism party.  The Religious Zionism Party is led by Bezalel Smotrich.
• Smotrich’s far-right archrival Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for Smotrich to join him in toppling the government if the deal goes through.
• According to Ravit Hecht, writing in Haaretz,
• Smotrich is a “respected cabinet member, to whom others attribute sound judgment.”  He was leaning towards partnering with Netanyahu on the deal, but a  “storm has ben brewig within Religious Zionism” which led him to adopt a “more defiant stance.”
• Sweeteners like  expanding West Bank settlements or annexing part of the West Bank may be offered as a consolation.
• The far right believed that annexation was “in its pocket,” but Trump seems to be headed towards “Saudi normalization…in which Palestinians would receive some form of diplomatic payoff – the complete opposite of…annexation…”