The Israeli Palestinian Post

The rift between the Chief of Staff and the Prime Minister is deepening. In the professional and non-political military sense, in the eyes of Chief of Staff Zamir, Benjamin Netanyahu's actions could wreak havoc on the political and military independence of the State of Israel. The Chief of Staff has consistently supported and continues to support ending the war, and he supports an agreement to end it, but he does not support the format that Donald Trump is imposing on Israel. The Chief of Staff sees this format as a violation of the IDF's basic command system and the subordination of the Israel Defense Forces to a foreign entity, even if it is Israel's great friend. In our assessment, the Chief of Staff believes that this Western move is a profound violation of the sovereignty of the State of Israel and its path since its founding.

On August 31, we reported on the development of the rift between Chief of Staff Zamir and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Zamir believed that Israel should reach an agreement and end the war, and these are the things that were said between them: Netanyahu: "You are not implementing the cabinet's decisions and are acting against them." Zamir: "I must say, we have nothing to look for in Gaza, Hamas has been defeated."

Regarding the negotiations currently taking place in Cairo between Egypt and senior Palestinian Authority officials: In exchange for Israel's agreement to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the end of the war in a limited arena of the PA, Egypt, Israel, and probably also Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, the Palestinian Authority is prepared to outlaw Hamas throughout the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and to condition its political participation in the PLO on recognition of all the PA agreements, primarily the Oslo Accords, i.e., to oblige it to recognize the State of Israel as a condition for its political existence (as for its military existence The PA and Egypt will commit to ending the military existence of the Nazi-Islamo organization.) Cairo is now even re-electing the names of the members of the committee that will govern Gaza (we wrote about this committee and the names of its ministers here exclusively and extensively about ten months ago; in our assessment, most of the names mentioned then have remained the same today). The security establishment in Israel, headed by the IDF, rejects the current format, which according to the Chief of Staff transfers practical control over the IDF to the American president. An Arab source told us yesterday that the Shin Bet also supports resolving the conflict in the Israeli Palestinian arena, and not in the American international arena, and this indicates that, as he promised the president, Shin Bet head Zini is indeed adopting, at least on this matter, a state position. Although it is possible that Zini and his associates see American intervention as jeopardizing the chance of annexation of the West Bank, and this is the main motive for their position. See today's editorial on the role of the Israeli press in turning Israel into a protectorate, by turning journalistic truth into a political side, contrary to the fanatical view, and also see in the main story the expansion on the alternative plan that Egypt and the PA leadership are trying to establish for a joint Middle East solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the context of the Chief of Staff's opposition to becoming a protectorate, it should be mentioned in historical terms that Jewish history in the Land of Israel clearly indicates that the three previous sovereignties of Israel came to an end after the Israeli public and its leaders did not agree to become a protectorate of Assyria, Babylon, and Rome. In the first holocaust, three-quarters of the people of Israel were lost, in the second holocaust, the First Temple, which was built by King Solomon, was lost, and in the third holocaust, the Second Temple was lost, and in the second Bar Kokhba revolt, in the second century AD, the Romans changed the name of the capital of Israel to a Roman name, expelled the Jews from it, and prevented Jews from entering their capital, Jerusalem, for centuries. Therefore, failure to prevent the current American protectorate program could lead to the exact same result of a complete and absolute refusal by the Israeli public to become a protectorate of the West or the United States, a fundamental view that was even forever inscribed in the Declaration of Independence.