SEATTLE TIMES
A Hostage Deal is a Poison Pill for Israel
Bret Stephens
September 3, 3024

…Huge demonstrations in Tel Aviv, coinciding with the heartbreaking funerals of six murdered hostages, have demanded that the prime minister agree to a cease-fire deal to obtain the release of additional hostages, at the cost of conceding one of Hamas’s core demands: an Israeli withdrawal from a strip of land known as the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Gaza from Egypt. Netanyahu has refused, insisting in a news conference on Monday that Israeli forces will not leave. Netanyahu is right, and it’s important for his usual critics, including me, to acknowledge it. He’s right, first because the highest justification for fighting a war, besides survival, is to prevent its repetition. READ MORE