The Times of Israel 17, January 2025 Trump has repeatedly criticized the Israeli war effort for being slow, indecisive and “losing the PR war.”
And so a new dynamic is in play. Israel can do what it takes to win, but Trump, it appears, wants it to show it is willing to try a ceasefire, publicly and clearly.
When Hamas inevitably tries to rearm or launch a rocket, Israel will have its excuse to return to fighting, perhaps better prepared and with better intelligence penetration of the Hamas ranks than on October 8, 2023
And in the meantime, it will have handed Trump his political win in the form of a ceasefire, and won his backing for a more intensive fight against Hamas.
If that’s the basic dynamic, it explains much of Netanyahu’s and Hamas’s actions over the past two weeks.
It explains why Netanyahu is standing up to far-right resistance.
Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s public anger serves to highlight the conciliatory stance Netanyahu wants to project, to the incoming Trump administration.
