Benjamin Netanyahu stuck to his guns in his effort to remove the incentives for hostaging by Hamas. But it got a lot more difficult after the terrorists murdered six of them over the last few days. And even though Netanyahu won this round in his own Cabinet, that victory may not last. Especially not if Joe Biden gets his way. 

The fight in the Cabinet came from Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, an ally-of-sorts for Netanyahu most times, who objects to Netanyahu's plan to keep control of the Gaza-Egypt border. Netanyahu has made clear that he does not want Hamas to get resupplied or to escape out to the Sinai, especially with the hostages. Gallant considers the policy both unnecessary and provocative, and accused Netanyahu of prioritizing the land over the hostages:

He again turned to the premier and asked: “If Sinwar presents you with the dilemma: Either you leave Philadelphi or you return the hostages, what do you do?”

Netanyahu responded that the imperative to keep the IDF at the corridor was of crucial importance to the state.

Gallant said that was all well and good if it was a decision taking in isolation. But, he asked, “What about when 30 lives are at stake? What do you do?”

The prime minister said: “I stay on the Philadelphi. Only resolute negotiations will force [Sinwar] to fold.”

Netanyahu then demanded an immediate vote on his policy. Only Gallant voted to oppose it, although he grumbled afterward that the Cabinet would eventually come around to his position. 

This is the calculus that should have been used from the start. In fact, it's the calculus that should have been used since leaving Gaza in 2005. The Israelis incentivized Hamas' hostaging strategies with ever-more-absurd concessions and lopsided swaps, the worst of which freed Yahya Sinwar and more than a thousand other Palestinians for one Israeli soldier in 2014. Those concessions led to the current hostage crisis and war, and showed that Hamas represents an existential threat to Israel as long as it controls Gaza -- which they will continue to do if they have resupply lines through the Philadelphi Corridor. 

The long-range choice here is between the current hostage crisis or an endless series of hostage crises. At some point, Israel has to put an end to it, especially if it plans to restart its agricultural industry in the south that makes them self-sufficient. The only way to end this strategy is to stop providing rewards for it and punish terrorists who try it, forcefully and brutally. 

However, after paying these ransoms for decades, the Israelis will be slow to see any wisdom of this approach. Their largest public-sector union, Histradut Labor Federation, called a general strike today that sent thousands into the streets of Tel Aviv, demanding a deal for the hostages. A judge ordered them back to work, ruling that the strike was "political" rather than work related, but the point was made:

Workers shut down public services, tech firms and other businesses, and activists snarled traffic at intersections across the country Monday as hundreds of thousands of people joined a one-day general strike aimed at pressuring the government to seal a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza after the military recovered the bodies of six hostages executed just days ago.

The strike was called Sunday by the Histadrut Labor Federation, an umbrella union representing most public sector workers, as part of a day of nationwide disruptions planned by activists amid growing anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government over the insistence on pressing Israeli demands in talks with the Hamas terror group.

The Israel Business Forum, which represents some 200 of the country’s largest companies, also said late Sunday that workers would be allowed to join the strike, shuttering banks and other businesses. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, however, was operating as usual on Monday.

Hamas certainly wants to encourage this. And they are taking steps to do just that, in fact. Earlier today, Hamas threatened to release tapes of the "last words" of the hostages they murdered last week, hoping to extend their campaign of psychological torture of the Israeli families of these and other hostages:

Hamas has released a video on Telegram on Monday showing the six recently slain hostages speaking into a camera, while also announcing that it will release their "last message to the world" before they were killed.

In the video, all six hostages whose bodies were found by the IDF on Sunday are seen confirming their identities before cutting to still threatening to release their "last messages."

The video ends with a threat to release the message in the coming hours.

One cannot help but sympathize with the Israelis who want an end to this in the immediate sense, and especially the families of all the hostages. Long-range strategies are tough to consider under these circumstances. However, that is why leaders who have the responsibility for national security sometimes have to implement unpleasant strategies in the short term to prevent worse situations from arising later. 

And finally, along comes Biden, who has almost no skin in this game but appears determined to make matters worse anyway. After having spent much of August at the beach while Netanyahu fights the terrorists that just executed an American citizen, Biden has decided that Bibi's the problem:

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that a final deal for the release of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza was very close but that he did not think Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu was doing enough to secure such an agreement.

Ahem. Which side has executed hostages? In fact, which side takes hostages as a war strategy in the first place? And which side started the war on October 7 -- while breaking a US-negotiated cease fire? 

There was a time when the world knew that harming an American abroad meant dire consequences for the perps. Now Hamas has demonstrated that killing Americans will put them closer to a strategic victory in separating the US from Israel, with no consequences at all from this administration. What kind of incentives do we think this sets for Hezbollah, Iran, and every other terrorist state and non-state terror networks?

It's one thing for the Israelis to debate cooperation in hostage strategy. It's another thing entirely for the US to hand Hamas a strategic victory with our own pusillanimity.