The newspaper "Haaretz" highlighted the Israeli plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which was announced by U.S. President Joe Biden. This step represents a significant shift in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy, indicating his desire to end the war while retaining as many options as possible. The newspaper noted that Netanyahu and Israeli generals are secretly moving towards ending the war in Gaza, even though they do not express this openly, explaining that the motivations of the Israeli Prime Minister for stopping the fighting differ from those of his generals.
The newspaper emphasized that in the coverage of Biden's speech on Friday and the developments that followed, an important detail was largely overlooked: for the first time, Israel has formally proposed a political initiative envisioning an end to the war in Gaza in the near future. According to the newspaper, the proposal came from Israel's small war cabinet, excluding the far-right parties in the ruling coalition.
"Haaretz" indicated that Netanyahu not only acknowledged the proposal but also, in a rare challenge, refused to show it to his far-right partners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. In recent days, other partners in Netanyahu's coalition, namely the Shas party and some legislators from the United Torah Judaism party, have publicly expressed their support for the proposal in an official statement.
According to the newspaper, the public stance taken by the religious Jewish politicians aims to assist Netanyahu by providing him with political cover against the far-right. The newspaper pointed out that Netanyahu has come to realize he needs an option to end the war, while always wanting to have as many options as possible.
It mentioned that until a few weeks ago, Netanyahu's inclination was to maintain the status quo in Gaza, as the longer the war lasted, the more difficult it would be for his political opponents to impose early elections and bring him before a government inquiry committee, but his calculations are now changing.
The newspaper views the recommendation from the International Criminal Court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, in May to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu as causing him to feel besieged. "Haaretz" explained that moves within Israeli institutions are pushing Netanyahu to preempt a coalition crisis with the far-right, primarily due to concerns within his coalition, along with the ultimatum from Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz to leave if Netanyahu does not announce a long-term strategy for after the war, and importantly, the imminent ruling from the Supreme Court regarding the conscription of religious school students into the army and stopping government funding for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
It believes that accepting a ceasefire framework would drive the far-right out of the government, leaving Netanyahu without a majority; however, he might continue with support from the centrist Yesh Atid party, led by opposition leader Yair Lapid, who endorses Biden’s proposed initiative, or Netanyahu could opt to dissolve the Knesset and gamble on early elections. The newspaper noted that all these are options for Netanyahu, but he would choose one only at the last moment, with the most important factor currently being his willingness to consider ending the war, even if he cannot express it for clear political reasons.
