Many Israelis have expressed dissatisfaction over their government’s decision to agree to a quick cease-fire with Hamas after the terrorist group fired hundreds of rockets in a short span of time. To protest this move, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman resigned, taking his Yisrael Beiteinu party out of the governing coalition and likely precipitating elections. Yet Zev Chafets believes the government acted wisely:
The political din breaking out in Jerusalem threatens to drown out Benjamin Netanyahu’s uncharacteristic decision to make an accommodation with Hamas. . . . The prime minister calculated, correctly, that doing so would free Israel up to deal with the more ominous threat to the north, from the troika of Hizballah, Syria, and Iran. The decision also suggests he has finally acknowledged that Hamas’s control of Gaza is a political reality that cannot be wished—or bombed—away. . . .
In previous confrontations, Netanyahu has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to seal off Gaza and pound it into submission. This time, his response was more restrained: the air force bombed the Hamas television studio, a couple of evacuated Hamas installations, and a few empty high-rise buildings. No Israeli ground forces were deployed, and the Gaza fatality count was seven. . . .
Netanyahu must now persuade Israelis that he has not gone soft on Hamas. . . . His argument will be that he is simply being realistic. Hamas’s control of Gaza is a fact of life; defeating it with an invasion would be costly and ultimately counterproductive, since it would leave Israel with an even more hostile Arab population. Others have been making this argument for years, but Netanyahu never spelled it out explicitly until his press conference in Paris [on Sunday]. . . .
He will argue, too, that the Iron Dome, and a massive border wall scheduled for completion next year, render Hamas no more than a nuisance, compared to the potent threat of Hizballah. Israel estimates that Hamas has somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 thousand missiles. Hizballah has ten times that many, as well as allies in Syria and Iran. . . . That may not be an easy message for Netanyahu to take into an election campaign, but it is the right one.
Read more on Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-15/netanyahu-made-the-right-call-on-gaza-and-hamas