After bravado promises to “shake” the country, Sunday’s demonstrations fell short of their goal as despite efforts to bring hundreds of thousands to a huge demonstration on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, according to police estimate, only about 80,000 made it. The organizers and several media outlets claimed “300,000 people participated in the demonstration,” but pictures and drone videos don’t lie.
It was supposed to be easy to get hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere. The day before, an attempt to release six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza, based on accurate intelligence, resulted in the execution of all six at gunpoint when Hamas thugs realized the IDF was nearby. This heartbreaking failure became the subject of the latest attack on the Netanyahu government which has been steadfast in refusing to surrender to Hamas even in exchange for the lives of the hostages.
It was stunning to realize just how adept Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, is at reading and manipulating the Israeli public. For him, it’s like taking candy from a baby when the baby is insisting you take it already.
So, protesters clashed with police, 29 were arrested – a very high number that attests to their desperation. A few hundred demonstrators blocked Ayalon highway and set a fire on the asphalt because, you know, how could they not. They were saving the lives of the hostages.
Last Thursday, the security cabinet voted 8 to 1 to hold on to the Philadelphi corridor, even at the cost of hostages’ lives. The one opposing vote belonged to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, suggesting that a good portion of the IDF and the security establishment would like to abandon Rafah and the corridor. Mind you, that’s the same IDF and security establishment that gave us October 7.
“We made a super justified decision,” Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday, after the discovery of the six executed hostages. “Now we’ll change it, after the terrible murder? Of course not. This is an existential war against the Iranian axis. I want a deal, and I am convinced that one is possible if we are united and powerful. There will be concessions – but not on this. We must not consent to the murder of hostages nor accept a small number of released hostages, in order to bring about a deal.”
The math here is terrifyingly simple:
- Sinwar will never let all the hostages go because they are his ticket to freedom.
- However many hostages are released in exchange for IDF withdrawal from Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, it would be a death sentence to those left behind.
- As soon as the IDF is out of southern Gaza, thousands of Salafi volunteers and tons of military equipment will move into the Strip, giving Sinwar a new lease on life.
- There will never be a return of the IDF to southern Gaza “at a later time.” What will be is a repeat of October 7.
- 5. As an “added bonus,” as soon as Israel gives in because of the hostages, the world would be full of Arab terrorists looking for Jewish hostages as their first step in planned attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets.
Chairman of the Histadrut labor union Arnon Bar David on Sunday afternoon declared a countrywide strike as a means of forcing the government to change its strategy in Gaza. Even Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said the strike was illegal and appealed to the labor court to forbid it. Strikes are a last-resort means in a labor dispute. They are not supposed to be a political tool to undermine the government.
In practice, it seems that the strike is falling short of the organizers’ expectations, much like Sunday night’s rally on Kaplan Street. Many organizations and institutions have announced that they will violate the call to strike, and most of the strike’s influence is likely to be only in the center of the country.
Most of the medical centers in the conflict areas will operate as usual, the aerospace industry and Ashdod port will operate as usual, the clinics of Israel’s largest HMO, Klalit, will operate as usual, a large part of the public transportation services and the Israel Railways company will operate as usual, the light rail in Jerusalem and Ben Gurion Airport will endure only a partial suspension, dozens of cities and government offices have already announced that they will not join the strike.
According to News14, these are some of the cities that have announced that they will not participate in the strike: Rehovot Municipality, Or Akiva Municipality, Bat Yam Municipality, Or Yehuda Municipality, Hod Hasharon Municipality, Givatayim Municipality, Kiryat Tivon Municipality, Emek Hefer, the Arava Regional Council, Ra’anana Municipality, Gezer Council, Kfar Saba Municipality, and Herzliya Municipality. The Haredi cities of Beitar, Modi’in Ilit, and Elad will function as usual.
