https://arab.news/5m4nk
The gap between the reality on the ground and the virtual reality in the minds and rhetoric of Israeli officials has reached astonishing proportions.
It is understandable that a political leader facing elections, and perhaps the end of his career, if not his personal freedom, might resort to exaggeration to boost his standing. But the claims and conditions Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attaching to the US-brokered ceasefire effort go far beyond political spin.
The most glaring example is Netanyahu’s insistence that the Palestinian resistance must unilaterally disarm. The demand is presented in a vacuum, without any explanation of how, or by whom, such disarmament would occur. Palestinian fighters, who have endured unprecedented losses alongside their communities, have not been defeated. Israel has inflicted massive destruction, but it did not win the war; nor has Hamas — or any other resistance faction — surrendered. The notion that they would simply hand over their weapons without any political quid pro quo is divorced from reality.
Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, have said that they are open to a long-term hudna (truce). Several have stated they would relinquish weapons to a legitimate Palestinian government — but certainly not to an occupying army. And no country can reasonably be expected to accomplish militarily what Israel failed to do over two years with overwhelming force.
