It is not easy to find Menahem Begin’s grave among the 150,000 graves in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, founded 3,000 years ago. The Israeli Prime Minister (1977-1983) did not want to be buried on Mount Herzl and preferred this place, with a privileged view of the Esplanada de les Mesquitas, which for Jews is where the Second Temple stood. The former Likud leader hears the muezzin’s voice every day from the minaret of the Ras al-Amud mosque, just a few meters away.
Begin went down in history for first signing peace with an Arab country, Egypt, with President Anwar al-Sadat. The treaty was initialed in front of the President of the United States Jimmy Carter, and was worth the Nobel Peace Prize to Begin and Sadat, who in 1981 would be killed by Islamist Egyptian soldiers accused of treason for recognizing the State of Israel .
Thanks to those Camp David agreements, Gaza can receive humanitarian aid, which until now only entered through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Since the weekend, groceries have also been arriving provisionally through the Kerem Shalom crossing, at the crossroads between Gaza, Egypt and Israel.
However, humanitarian aid, restricted by Israel to 200 trucks per day, is not enough for the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza – 80% of whom are displaced – and all international initiatives seeking a new ceasefire use this issue as an excuse. Presented by several Arab countries, the latest initiative in this regard was to be debated last night in the UN Security Council and the negotiations focused on avoiding the US veto.
Since humanitarian aid and ceasefire go hand in hand, everything indicates that progress is being made towards a new truce. After the army “mistakenly” killed three hostages, Benjamin Netanyahu, pressured by the families – he met again yesterday – is softening his position. The Prime Minister did not say it, but President Isaac Herzog did: “Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid to make possible the release of hostages.” If Netanyahu orders a halt to the fighting again it will only be to free the largest number of hostages.
In a statement, Hamas again yesterday “categorically rejected” a negotiation with Israel as long as there is no truce, but the Islamist group also said it was open “to any initiative that contributes to ending the aggression against our people and to open the steps to bring help”.
The good relations between Israel and Egypt, fostered by the Camp David agreements, also allow the Egyptian intelligence services to play an important role in mediating with Hamas, together with the Government of Qatar.
Another sign that something is moving is that, after visiting Israel, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Doha yesterday and praised “Egypt’s efforts together with Qatar”, which led to the release of 105 hostages in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners during the seven-day truce in November. It is not known exactly how many people are still being held, but it is estimated that they are between 118 and 138.
Austin met with Qatari Prime Minister Muhammad bin Abderrahman al-Thani, who had met with Mossad director David Barnea and CIA director Bill Burns in Warsaw on Monday. A new truce is not imminent, but the fact that it is being discussed again at a high level, and that Netanyahu and Herzog are lowering their tone, is a good omen. In any case, the latest demand put forward by Hamas in November, to exchange the hostages for all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, about 8,000, seems unaffordable for Israel, although the families of the abductees defend it in order to see their loved ones back home
After a hypothetical cease-fire, the war and the bombings would continue, despite the fact that Hamas and the international community would try to take advantage of it to make it definitive. As of yesterday, Israel had killed 19,667 Palestinians in Gaza, of whom 8,000 were children. There are already 52,586 wounded, most of whom are not being treated in hospitals, so a new truce would give them more opportunities to receive help to recover or survive.
