The Political-Security cabinet confirmed overnight Friday that the IDF will remain in the Philadelphi corridor as part of the efforts to release the hostages. Cabinet ministers said during the debate that this decision brings the possibility of a deal closer, as it makes it clear to Hamas that it will have to compromise on the Philadelphi corridor, as well as its demand that the IDF end the war and withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
Eight ministers voted in favor of the layouts presented by the Prime Minister. Ministers Yoav Gallant and objected and Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir abstained.
Netanyahu said during the debate that the October 7 catastrophe was possible as a result of the Philadelphi corridor not being under Israel’s control.
STREETS OF PHILADELPHI
The Philadelphia Corridor is a buffer strip, approximately 14 kilometers long, on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, established upon the completion of the withdrawal of the IDF from Sinai in 1982 as part of the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The Rafah Crossing is on the corridor, with the IDF controlling the passage of individuals and goods between Gaza and Egypt. The corridor remained under Israeli security control even after the Oslo Accords.
However, in a clear sign of the insanity that took over Israel’s security establishment following the Oslo Accords, in September 2005, the IDF withdrew from the Philadelphi as part of the “disengagement” plan that gave us the expulsion of 8,000 Jews from their thriving Gaza Strip communities, the Hamas takeover of 2007, a decade and a half of constant fighting against Hamas, and eventually the October 7 massacre.
In May 2024, the IDF recaptured the corridor, including the Rafah crossing, during the Battle of Rafah in the Iron Swords War. Starting in June 2024, the IDF destroyed the houses that stood along the axis and expanded it significantly while destroying tunnels and terrorist shafts in the area. In August 2024, a tunnel was located under the Philadelphia axis, three meters high, which allows the passage of vehicles. At the same time, the IDF paved the entire length of the expanded corridor with the kind of asphalt blanket that says we’re here to stay.
In the cabinet discussion, the ministers were told that from a preliminary examination by forensic professionals, most of the dead abductees were murdered in the first half of the year, and not in the last few months.
TIGHTEN YELLOW RIBBON
In response to the cabinet’s decision, the headquarters of the left-leaning families for the return of the hostages (there’s a rival, right-leaning group of families that supports the government) said: “After almost a year of neglect, Netanyahu does not miss an opportunity to make sure that there will be no deal. There is not a day when Netanyahu does not act in a real way to endanger the return of all the abductees home.”
Of course, there is no such thing as a deal, Hamas has rejected every deal that did not involve a complete IDF withdrawal and the terrorists’ return to ruling Gaza. The talks in Qatar and Cairo are conducted over nothing substantial, since, like I said, Hamas is not involved. The entire effort is a media hoax intended to create the delusion of a deal and to paint Netanyahu as the heartless politician who wants all the hostages dead.
One particularly pathological Israeli politician, Opposition Leader and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, even announced that Netanyahu did not have a soul. He repeated this proclamation in every interview over several days. Cynical? Oh, we left cynical eight months ago.
On Thursday, 25 hostage families appealed to the High Court of Junction to remove Netanyahu from the position of the sole decisionmaker regarding the hostages.
Separation of government branches? We don’t need no stinking separation of government branches.
The petitioners told the court their petition was based on Section 40 of the Basic Law: Government. If the court entertains this notion, it would be the most extreme impressionistic reading of a law ever. Section 40 reads: “The state will not start a war nor will it take a significant military action that could lead, with a high degree of probability, to a war, except by virtue of the government’s decision.”
All the subsequent sub-items deal with the need for the prime minister to alert the appropriate Knesset committees about his decision to go to war, based on his judgment.
It’s all part of the ongoing campaign that began in November 2022, as soon as the Ashkenazi elite realized that they could never again win in fair and open elections unless they scared the right into submission with massive acts of hooliganism that would deteriorate public order. It didn’t have to be over the judicial reform, it didn’t have to be over the atrocities of October 7, it didn’t have to be over the false equivalency of total victory versus hostage release – they would have used the weather if they had to, and they might just do it, too.
