Former US official: Israel’s Gaza dilemma

Watch Former US official: Israel’s Gaza dilemma - AlArabiya English on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Eli, polls in Israel indicate that two-thirds of Israelis support a ceasefire deal with Hamas

00:06and to bring the hostages home. Netanyahu has not fulfilled his aims eradicating Hamas

00:14and bringing the hostages home. Is President Trump growing frustrated with Netanyahu's

00:20bombardment of Palestine but not actually reaching the goals he set out?

00:25Well, you know, it's interesting, Leanne, what you just pointed to is actually I think

00:32the challenge for the Israelis is that those two goals are sometimes at odds with each other,

00:38meaning that defeating Hamas, and look, the Israelis have already defeated Hamas militarily,

00:45but really I think eliminating them in the Gaza Strip as a presence. That goal is in some ways

00:53in direct conflict with freeing the hostages because whatever is left of Hamas leadership

00:59right now, they are holding the last 20 living Israeli hostages apparently scattered throughout

01:05the Gaza Strip, making it incredibly difficult for Israel to be aggressive and probably achieve

01:13a full-on victory in the way that they clearly can, and they demonstrated with the war in Iran

01:18because Hamas is hanging on to these living hostages, and the Israelis, of course, don't

01:24want to be responsible for killing their own.