It seems doubtful that many people in Israel believe anything that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his press conference last night. Certainly not Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), who lambasted Netanyahu’s performance as “pointless political spin,” arguing that what he had said about the Philadelphi Corridor “has no relation to reality.”
“Not one professional buys this spin. Not the security personnel, not the international system, not the fighters who are actually in Gaza and know the reality there. I don’t have a presentation with pictures, but there are facts,” he said, reported Times of Israel. “Israel evacuated the Philadelphi Corridor 19 years ago, and Netanyahu voted in favor. Both in the government and in the Knesset. Netanyahu was prime minister for 15 years. It did not occur to him to recapture the Philadelphi Corridor.”
“The issue of the corridor is not Netanyahu’s concern, but instead the Ben-Gvir-Smotrich Corridor,” he continued, referring to fanatics National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, without whom Netanyahu’s government would collapse. “At least Netanyahu said one truth: that he does not want to end the war,” Lapid continued. “He said it three times, that he doesn’t want to end the war, which means he doesn’t want to make a hostage deal, he wants war forever. His words tonight had one terrible meaning: he will not make a deal.”