While many are hoping that Israel’s easing of some restrictions on the Gaza Strip as good will gestures for reducing violence and tension along Israel’s southern border will help to bring about peace, the actions offered by the government have triggered discontent among some of Netanyahu’s own coalition partners. Using the carrot and stick, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that the government will “reward” the Hamas terrorists for allowing “calm” to continue in the form of opening the Kerem Shalom crossing – Palestinians’ only entry/exit point for goods into and out of the Gaza Strip – and enlarging the off-shore areas in which Gazan fishermen can fish to a distance of 9 miles. But to colleagues in the coalition such as Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the head of the Jewish Home party, the gesture borders on the absurd. In a statement, Bennett condemned the gestures, saying, “This is a prize in return for 130 days of terror, rockets, snipers and incendiary balloons. This ‘quiet’ will award Hamas total immunity to replenish tens of thousands of rockets threatening all parts of the country, and allow them to launch a war against Israel at a time and under conditions most convenient to them.” Bennett and his followers were particularly outraged that the government would reward Hamas while it continues to hold the bodies of two soldiers killed in the Israeli ground operation in 2014 while the government should be using any and all points of pressure to gain the bodies’ release.
Give the gift of hope
We practice what we preach:
accurate, fearless journalism. But we can't do it alone.
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
Join us.
Support The Media Line. Save democracy.
