The Truth About the Gaza Deal

[Prairie Gates]

Netanyahu found a face-saving way to fold.

Israel was losing the war. Their recent offensive was stalled - again - in Gaza City. They had already lost world opinion almost completely. Last week, two million Italians protested the Netanyahu regime, shutting down much of the country in an unapproved general strike. That was just a sample of what's been happening everywhere. Netanyahu was further losing domestic opinion in Israel itself. The IDF was failing at every objective other than pure destruction for destruction's sake.

The "Deal" was structured in a way to give Netanyahu and Trump the appearance of a victory. It does so by basically giving Hamas everything it wants in a "Round 1," and then leaving the "Round 2" materials for later. That this was also seemingly timed to push Trump over the line for a Peace Prize only speaks to the utter cynicism of both regimes. Hamas gets a 100 to 1 hostage exchange, opening up of aid (that was supposedly not being blocked, let's remember!), and a ceasefire. Israel gets its last 20 living hostages back (they've been unable to locate a single hostage for months). Hamas puts off disarmament and has thus far rejected the truly bizarre re-colonization of Gaza under an insane British mandate, complete with dipshit Tony Blair. Some of us are old enough to remember that the war would never be over until every last Hamas member had been hunted down and surrendered, and Gaza was completely disarmed.

So, anyway, that's where we are. We should all, of course, be very grateful that the overt genocide has been halted, and that hostages are being freed.

[FakeNoose]

1. It seems that American Jews are no longer supporting Bibi

I may be wrong about this because I'm not Jewish, and all I know is what I read on DU.

However when Israel was first attacked, there was an outpouring of support for Israel and against Hamas. A lot of money raised and sent to Bibi, etc. Now here we are 1 year and 1/2 later, and there doesn't seem to be much of a plan to end this. What have we done to help the poor starving Gazans who are dying by the hundreds daily? It's completely inhumane and even the American Jews can see that this has to end. Meanwhile Netanyahu is on another revenge tour of his own. And no ... I'm not anti-semitic.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. That is backed up by a recent Washington Post poll

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/06/jewish-americans-israel-poll-gaza/

There isn't an equivalent poll from early in the conflict, but it does show that

Sixty-eight percent give negative marks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership of Israel, with 48 percent rating it “poor” — a 20-percentage-point jump from a Pew Research Center poll five years ago.
...
Jews in the poll are almost evenly divided over Israel’s actions in Gaza, with 46 percent approving and 48 percent opposing.
...
But when the merits of the U.S.-Israel alliance are divorced from the Gaza war, 47 percent say U.S. support for Israel is at about the right level, with 32 percent — about a third — saying the U.S. is too supportive of Israel and 20 percent saying it is not supportive enough. The share saying the U.S. supports Israel too much is up 10 points since 2020 and 21 points since 2013 compared with Pew surveys conducted those years.

[Ilsa]

6. Netanyahu is secular, but conservative. I wonder

how easy living there will be as the ultra Orthodox population grows? I've read that most techies and secularists live in the Tel Aviv area, whereas Orthodox live in Jerusalem and newer settlements. How long will secularists, Arab Israelis, and religious, non-Orthodox Jews be okay with their schism on issues like taxes, who is exempted from IDF service, assimilation of Jews in modern Christian nations, etc? And how will non-Israeli Jews feel about supporting Israel with the internal issues they have?
I digress.

[WmChris]

2. How long

How long after the live hostages are returned before Netanyahu finds a way to start bombing again?

[Prairie Gates]

3. But then the great triumph of the peace doesn't play out

The truth is that Netanyahu has to end the war because it is not winnable. He is taking this victory lap along with Trump, but the Phase 2 requirements are already receding into the memory hole. They gave Hamas everything they wanted, and they're pulling out. What does one call that?

[WmChris]

5. Yet more to be revealed

The first step was the easy part but there's a long way to go after the victory laps for the cameras and pundits before we can relax.