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…”
Law, Power, and Justice 
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