Will Steve Witkoff bring the ceasefire in Gaza to stage two?

Photo: Flash90 Images

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After Hamas publicly rejected Israel’s proposal to extend the first phase of the deal, no hostages were released last Shabbos, for the first time in weeks.

Hamas’s stance led to the dramatic announcement at midnight Motzaei Shabbos that the Israeli cabinet had accepted Trump envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal, to extend the ceasefire through Ramadan and Pesach in exchange for half the remaining hostages being released on day one. The rest would be released on the final day, once a permanent ceasefire is negotiated.

Israel remains skeptical of the proposal, but is willing to give Witkoff — due to arrive in the region this week — a window to exert pressure on Hamas. Paradoxically, Bibi’s dilemma is compounded by the relative freedom of action America appears to be leaving him. Netanyahu has always excelled at finding excuses to avoid taking action. One time it’s the High Court, another time the attorney general, again the defense minister or the chief of staff. But America’s veto has long been the most effective excuse.

That excuse has vanished ever since President Trump flanked Bibi from the right, advising him to demand the release of all the hostages. The public pressure and petty humiliations Bibi became accustomed to during the Obama and Biden administrations are now reserved for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Luckily for Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich isn’t interested in going down as the person who brought down a right-wing government at the start of a dream second Trump term. Just last week, settler leaders celebrated the retirement of the term “the West Bank” from the administration’s lexicon, and Smotrich understands that toppling a right-wing government now will be remembered forever.

This backdrop is what explains Israel’s ambiguous language as well as the framing of Witkoff’s proposal as an extension of phase one. Hamas’s stubbornness, though, brings us closer to the resumption of war than we’ve been since Trump took office.

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With the start of Adar, when Chazal advise us to schedule court cases, Netanyahu received some reprieve in another arena — the Jerusalem District Court, which has relocated to an underground cellar in the Tel Aviv District Court, for security reasons.

At the beginning of his testimony, we predicted that Netanyahu would do everything in his power to avoid appearing in court three times a week. In this case, Netanyahu has risen to the task, coming up with a steady supply of excuses.

Netanyahu’s testimony has become a continuous power struggle, with the prime minister using every opportunity to project his authority while the judges do their best to run the proceedings as if the defendant were a common man. This is reflected in the smallest of contretemps, such as Netanyahu’s request for a minute of silence on the day of testimony that coincided with the Bibas funeral. Justice Rivkah Feldman-Friedman, who chairs the panel, instinctively refused, playing into Netanyahu’s portrayal of judicial elites as out of touch.

Netanyahu’s latest excuse — an urgent security deliberation with the Military Intelligence chief — even triggered alarms in Iran, which gains unusual insight into Netanyahu’s activities on his court days. Netanyahu emerged from that farce with the upper hand, with the judges accepting his request to reduce his sessions from three times to twice a week, starting on Rosh Chodesh Adar.

Netanyahu is aware that the verdict in his trial will be delivered at some point in the distant future, after a commission of inquiry on October 7 presents its findings to the public. He’s fighting not only for the court’s verdict, but for the verdict of public opinion. And in that arena, Netanyahu is running circles around the media-illiterate judges of the Jerusalem District Court.

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Netanyahu is fighting over the media narrative in another arena — October 7. The timing of the release of the IDF’s internal probe by outgoing Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who was perceived as trying to cover up the establishment’s failures, drew unprecedented criticism, even from the state comptroller.

Though Halevi will soon trade his uniform for civvies, he’s fighting with Netanyahu till the last minute. Netanyahu felt the need to dispatch a letter to him demanding to be informed of the IDF’s findings directly, not through the media.

Netanyahu also finds himself in a showdown with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. The latter is clinging to his position despite obvious hints from Netanyahu, who wants him to resign. Bibi has already dismissed him from the hostage negotiating team in favor of Minister Ron Dermer, who will manage all the contacts with the American teams on everything from Iran to Gaza.

This time, as a minister in the Israeli government, Dermer will effectively reprise his role as Israel’s ambassador to the Republican Party during the first Trump administration. Dermer was the key link between Trump and Bibi, and holds much of the credit for Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Ronen Bar received a legal boost last weekend, with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s directive to open an investigation into the alleged ties between the prime minister’s advisors and the Qatari government.

Netanyahu’s advisors deny the allegations, but they’re still a boon for the Shin Bet head and the Attorney General, since they complicate Netanyahu’s efforts to dismiss them.

The only senior defense official to back Netanyahu’s version is Mossad chief Dedi Barnea, who rejected former Defense Minister Gallant’s claims about the missed opportunity to destroy Hezbollah in October 2023, clarifying that the pager operation wasn’t operationally viable at the time. Barnea stated that the decision to launch the operation was ultimately made by Netanyahu himself, in direct contradiction of Gallant’s version.

Ultimately, the conflict is about history’s verdict regarding the responsibility for October 7. From the morning of October 8, Netanyahu has been struggling to reframe the fiasco as a military and intelligence failure of which he was a victim, not a participant. If he’d only been wakened at 4 a.m. that morning, everything would be different. The problem for him today is that his government seems to be operating on the energy level of 4 p.m. on a workday.

The Scoop

Hushed Motions

“Imagine Amit Hadad, Netanyahu’s defense attorney, serving simultaneously as the defense, the prosecution, and the judge.” That was the analogy drawn by officials in the Prime Minister’s Office to the IDF’s internal probes, overseen by Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar. The only issue is that Netanyahu should be the last to complain, given his efforts to prevent the formation of a state commission of inquiry.

“To find out Netanyahu’s priorities, you have to look at what makes him angry,” a coalition leader told me this week. “When one of my backbenchers dared to voice support for a commission of inquiry, I received a furious phone call from the Prime Minister’s Office demanding that he be silenced.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1052)