Important Palestinian source: If Zini takes over as head of the Shin Bet, the PA will stop security coordination

The Israeli government is using the war to annex the West Bank and renew settlement in Gaza. In January 2023, we reported on the government's intentions, and on its use of the legal coup and weakening of the judiciary to pave the way for this. When the war began, there was an opinion in the coalition that the end of the government had come, and of course the end of the idea of annexing the West Bank. A few days later, the desperate came to their senses, and in our assessment, they already decided to harness the war for its original intention, namely, to extract sweet from bitter. Later, they called the trend absolute victory. During the war, we reported as early as January 2024 that Hamas was ready to give up its rule, disarm, and the Palestinian Authority was ready to commit to working to free the hostages. The Israeli government's refusal to end the war suggested that the declared goals of the war were not the final stop of the fanatic government. In this sense, in our assessment, the Israeli government is using war to achieve its fundamental, undeclared goal, the annexation of settlements, and following developments, such as Trump's statement regarding Gaza, also to transfer residents from the Gaza Strip.

We are not sure that Trump’s statement was not ordered by the coalition. This is evidenced by Trump’s large-scale retreat from his statement, after shaping the new American interest, which is no longer centered on Israel. A very senior source on the right reported to us about the fundamental goal of the Israeli government, annexation of the West Bank, in January 2023. Since then, statements have been made by Ministers Levin and Smotrich about the central importance of settlements, which made it clear that they are completely consistent with the source’s statements about the secret agreement among coalition members to strive for annexation of the West Bank.

The Palestinians also now understand that the war is being harnessed to achieve the government’s goal, annexation of the West Bank and settlement and transfer in Gaza. This cannot be said of the Israeli press, which continues to largely allow political messages to pass as news reports and continues to position factual analysis as a political position. Inferior Israeli journalism, complicit in the reality in which the Israeli government has been able to deceive the public for so long, and during so many events since January 2023. Almost two years after the start of the war, it becomes clear that the watchdog of protecting freedom, liberties, democracy, and political fairness is a faded leaf that does not fully understand its professional duty, and its enormous importance to the fundamental values of Israeli society, and therefore to the existence of Israel.

And here we need to stop and clarify. Are there not extremist positions that do not stem from an irrevocable political belief but from a factual analysis of reality? Of course there are.

So how do you distinguish between them? In most cases, it is impossible to distinguish, and there is certainly no mathematical formula for this, far from it; only the individual with the positions can distinguish with certainty in the depths of himself, and if he is trusted, he is probably authentic and balanced. In addition, the diligent observer may also probably distinguish by prolonged observation of the subjects of the messages, if all their reports are rigidly and irrevocably subordinated to their political views. Trust in any case is a key word, in the complex world, and not knowledge. And once again the cliché that all people hold political beliefs; but political belief must be contrary to the analysis of reality, in half the cases with theoretical probability, otherwise it would be possible to say that life is shallow. And no one has yet died who testified to the shallowness of life on his deathbed.

By Mati Cohen