“Yes, we won.” So declared the influential Israeli commentator Amit Segal in a column in Israel Hayom after Israel and Hamas reached a US-brokered ceasefire deal last week.
On the surface, Segal’s confidence appears strange. Yes, the current agreement returns all the remaining hostages—an official war aim, and an achievement that Israelis value immensely. But Israel could have retrieved all the hostages much earlier, when more of them remained alive. “This deal could have been done a long time ago,” writes longtime Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin, “Hamas agreed to all of the same terms in September 2024.”…..more
