Zeinab Al Saffar | The Lines

The overwhelming majority of the public understands that continuing the fighting only endangers the lives of prisoners and leads to their deaths. For this reason, all polls show broad and consistent public support for an agreement that would return all prisoners, rather than continuing the war in Gaza.

So, how does the prime minister manage to deceive the public time after time? It's simple. This is Netanyahu's skill at "divide and conquer," as he constantly separates the issue of prisoners from the issue of ending the war.

When the issue of prisoners is raised, Netanyahu and his media outlets are keen to direct the discussion to the number of prisoners whose release he is demanding. This makes it appear as though he is doing everything in his power to maximize the "gain" from the prisoner swap deal.

While in reality, they could all have been brought back long ago within the second and third phases.

Netanyahu's true goal, as the Shin Bet chief said, is "to conduct negotiations for the sake of negotiations, not to recover prisoners." Any other goal that would force an end to the war would pose a political risk to him.

So, he gains a few more months of stalling, through sporadic rounds of violence, only to then break the agreement and return to fighting, as he has done repeatedly,

And if someone dares to ask, "Can't you bring them all back? Didn't Hamas declare more than a year ago its willingness to bring them all back in exchange for ending the war?" then the rhetoric changes, attention is diverted, and the intimidation campaign begins under the slogan that terrifies every Israeli: "Ending the war before eliminating Hamas will lead to a repeat of what happened on October 7."

Journalists fall into this rhetorical trap time and again. Analysts who yesterday pointed out that 70% of Israelis support the release of prisoners, even if it requires ending the war, now speak of the danger of Hamas returning to power in Gaza.

For this reason, Netanyahu felt threatened by the pilots' letter and other letters of support, signed by tens of thousands of reserve soldiers, which undermine the rhetorical separation between the prisoners' issue and ending the war.

Ending the war is not a "price" but rather a security and political interest for Israel.

Therefore, demanding an end to the war in order to return prisoners is not a "rebellion," and an organization cannot be defeated by military force alone.

The way to deal with Hamas is to create a political alternative and provide a diplomatic horizon.

The way to ensure that what happened on October 7 will not happen again is to establish a strong and effective defense system. Netanyahu knows all this, but it does not serve his political survival, so why should he care?

This time, Netanyahu will not succeed in separating the connection between ending the war and the return of the prisoners. The truth will triumph over lies.


@ZSaffar