Why Can’t We Do Two Things at Once?

I don’t often agree with much that US President Trump says but he said something during the meetings with European leaders in Washington earlier this week that Israel should listen to carefully and act on as well.

A member of the press queried the President as to whether there needs to be a cease fire in the Russia-Ukraine war while negotiations for a peace agreement are in progress? Trump responded that while it would be nice to have a cease fire so that the killing would stop, it is not critical to the negotiating process to get to a peace agreement. I agree and we should learn from that here as well. We can have two operational plans in effect at the same time.

To be specific, at the moment there is an agreement by Hamas on an offer that is close to what US Envoy Steve Witkoff presented last May, to pause the fighting for 60 days, have 10 live hostages and 18 deceased hostages returned to Israel in exchange for the release of 150 or so Palestinian security prisoners presently incarcerated in Israel. Hamas would also like the agreement to specify that negotiations will then take place to come up wit a final peace agreement between Israel and Hamas. Our government is presently reviewing the offer.

Simultaneously, the IDF is continuing to plan for a full-scale takeover of the Gaza strip including taking control of Gaza City and one other area that is still under the control of Hamas. Military preparations are under way, hundreds of thousands of reservists have been put on notice for an October call up and the required equipment is being moved into place.

From the standpoint of a lay person living here, there does not appear to be any obstacle to accepting the current offer that is on the table while continuing the preparation for the takeover of the two parts of Gaza under discussion. By keeping the IDF at the ready and agreeing to accept the hiatus in military operations Israel would be in a good strategic position to have its cake and eat it too.

First of all, 28 of the 50 hostages currently held in Gaza would return to Israel.  Secondly, the fighting would stop, as would the killing, at least for some time.  Finally, if we here see any indication of what’s left of Hamas rearming, or planning any kind of attack on Israel, or once again firing rockets at Israel, we can immediately reimpose the military option as planned. My guess is that at some point we will need to do this, but at least it would give our troops some time to regroup, for the military to rearm and for the families of 28 hostages to have close of this 682-day ordeal.

To me, this is a practical solution not an ideal one. But in what has turned out to be a very long war against a non-state enemy who has no rules and just two desires…..to stay in power and to eliminate Israel, we may have no reasonable choice but to take our victory in pieces.

If we do this, we will not have eliminated Hamas and while that is the desired goal, it may not be a realizable one given that Hamas is as much an ideology as it is a political military force, albeit much less potent than it was on October 6^th. Not sure how we come to terms with that when so many people both in government here and the US government as well are urging us to “finish the job.” Yet it is still not clear that the job can be finished nor is it clear how we will know it is finished.

With so many unknowns, perhaps it is best to take a partial win now and simultaneously prepare for the next confrontation which most surely will occur sooner or later.

In Kohelet, in English, Ecclesiastes, it says: “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” Seen in this light, a bird in the hand is worth much more than two in the bush, if only we don’t strangle it by indecision.