On Tuesday night an analysis of Israel's lack of response to rockets fired at Sderot form the Gaza Strip said that one possible reason Israel might have remained mum was Egyptian involvement in brokering a long-term truce between Israel and the criminals in Gaza. And indeed, on Wednesday an Egyptian representative arrived for talks with Prime Minister Bennett.
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Anyone who thinks that the current Israeli government, which includes four MKs from an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, is capable of applying any leverage to Egypt or Hamas is badly deluded.
We are seeing a dramatic erosion in American deterrence and image in our region โ a situation in which Iran is pulling the strings of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and funding Hamas, not to mention the nuclear talks in which we can assume how "hard" a line the Americans are taking. The trend is clear and destabilizing the geostrategic balance in the region, which is necessarily bad for Israel.
Everything happening here is bad news, and with a government of "healing" like the current one, no one is concerned about any determined Israeli step in the right direction, as its helplessness continues to grow.
It's worth pointing out that the Egyptians aren't mediating between Israel and Hamas out of any great love for Israel. They are taking care of Egyptian's biggest interest, which is preventing escalation in the Gaza Strip that will prompt the Muslim Brotherhood to light up the streets of Cairo with riots. Egypt doesn't want that, and will do all it can to prevent it. The question is, where are Israel's interests in all this?
We should think back to the days of the Obama administration and understand the correct tactics at both the diplomatic and military levels. Israel must act aggressively, in any way possible, to damage Hamas' capabilities. Now more than ever, Israel needs to say that Gaza must demilitarize voluntarily or be forced to, set an ultimatum, and prepare the military to show the entire region that Israel will no longer ignore attacks, and the next time there is need to enter Gaza โ it will be the end of Hamas' military wing. If the Americans and the Egyptians want quiet, they need to take serious action to demilitarize Gaza. This is the only condition that Israel should insist upon during truce talks. No demilitarization โ no truce.
The issue is that, unlike Operation Cast Lead in 2009, the IDF is much better prepared for a ground operation in Gaza, and has plans that can be executed relatively quickly. To put it simply, Bennett needs to show force in a way that will spur power players to rein in Hamas and start the process of demilitarizing Gaza.
But there's a problem โ Bennett can't. He has no room to maneuver due to the political situation in Israel. A reality like this only underscores the limitations of the current government, even more so when Biden is president of the US.
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