Olmert is skeptical of the Gaza proposal\u2019s chances of success, arguing that the last-minute additions Bibi managed to sneak in, including slowing and limiting the Israeli withdrawal and vague language about the prospects for a Palestinian state, were likely a sabotage maneuver to force Hamas to reject the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original proposal President Trump introduced was different,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat will happen if Hamas will try to stick to Trump\u2019s original deal? That could create the difficulties for the Israeli side. But in any event, Bibi doesn\u2019t want an agreement, and he doesn\u2019t want to stop the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposition politician Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, is warmer about the deal and has praised the peace effort, but has also regularly sounded a general alarm, pointing to his 2021\u20132022 record as foreign minister and prime minister to argue that Israel\u2019s isolation is not inevitable. Earlier this month he dubbed Netanyahu the \u201cmain culprit behind [Israel\u2019s] diplomatic isolation.\u201d He added: \u201cEverything is amateurish, careless and arrogant.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Netanyahu\u2019s casting of international criticism as antisemitic still resonates at home. Many Israelis are predisposed to believe the state is one war from annihilation \u2014 a sense of existential risk that Oct. 7 only deepened. \u201cMost Israelis continue to feel the world is against us and that nobody understands us. That\u2019s the right-wing narrative and now plays, I think, to Netanyahu\u2019s advantage,\u201d said Goren.<\/p>\n
The rally-round-the-flag effect has encouraged officials to scoff at outside pressure. \u201cIsrael isn\u2019t isolated, not at all,\u201d a senior official in Netanyahu\u2019s government told POLITICO, requesting anonymity to speak freely. \u201cDon\u2019t be confused by the noise of the loud minority and the radical left,\u201d the official said, adding that in Britain, France and Canada, polling shows majorities are against recognizing a \u201cPalestinian terror state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor, he argued, are investors deterred. \u201cWhat are foreign investors doing? They\u2019re investing in Israel. Our market\u2019s gone up more than 50 percent, more than any other market in the past 12 months. And in the middle of a seven-front war. Why? Because we\u2019re winning the war and people think that there\u2019s a great future in Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cHow\u2019s the market going in Australia and the U.K.?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olmert is skeptical of the Gaza proposal\u2019s chances of success, arguing that the last-minute additions Bibi managed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,54,85,46,47,43,1032],"class_list":["post-48145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}