(Summary: A dozen Palestinian prisoners, no matter how “heavy” their crimes, and a wide, luxurious buffer zone are neither achievements nor victories, and abandoning them is not a “price” Israel pays for the release of the missing – source).

When the missing return and the details of the “deal” being negotiated by Hamas and Israel delegations in Egypt become clear, the burning question that must be asked is “Why wasn’t this done before?” Two months ago, six months, or even a year ago, when some of the missing who will return in coffins were still alive. According to reports, the negotiations focus on less than a dozen “heavy” Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences – who killed dozens of Jews, sent fighters, and detonated bombs – and on delineating the Israeli withdrawal area. This is the “retail sale” phase of the negotiations, where each side wants to achieve something else, show it does not concede, and flex muscles after the hands-down victory in the arm-wrestling match. We noticed it was not between Israel and Hamas but between Netanyahu and Trump – who decided, with insane delay, to stand with the Israeli public.

Netanyahu, it must be acknowledged, managed a struggle against a stubborn and determined opponent. There were moments when it seemed this opponent was about to win and succeeded in cornering Netanyahu in the ropes of the ring, from which it is difficult to escape. But each time, the Prime Minister displayed his tremendous abilities, the intelligence he acquired over years of training and battle rounds, and with amazing dance moves, he managed to slip away from the opponent’s choking embrace.

The name of this opponent is neither Hamas nor even Trump. It is “the Israeli public.” Netanyahu succeeded in throwing it to the ground every time it seemed to rise. Now too, and perhaps especially now when it seems everything is over and the public is about to win, to achieve its aspiration to get its missing, end the war, and begin rehabilitating itself after two years of devastation – caution, alertness, and tense vigilance are required for fear the deal will collapse because Netanyahu will try to extort another small “victory image” and refuse to release Marwan Barghouti, Hassan Salama, Ahmed Saadat, and four or five other Palestinian “symbols” sentenced to hundreds of years in prison.

What is the fear? That these prisoners will revive Hamas and they will invade Israeli towns again? The “Al-Aqsa Flood” did not wait for their release to storm fences and occupy the Gaza envelope towns, and according to Netanyahu, Hamas has already been crushed and eliminated several times. Or perhaps his sleepless nights are due to fear that these prisoners, especially Barghouti upon his release, will raise the flag of the Palestinian national revolution and establish the Palestinian state recognized by the whole world?

However, this fear more than anything else testifies to the great importance and status of these prisoners, to the extent that if we abandon them, it will “cut off” the huge achievement we made in eliminating Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, and Yahya Sinwar.

Equally false and misleading is the bargaining over the depth of the withdrawal and the width of the buffer zone, that strip of scorched earth supposed to protect the Gaza envelope towns from a new invasion. The relevant question is not whether the buffer zone will protect Israel, but whether such a buffer zone would have succeeded in protecting Israel on October 7, when the army, the Shin Bet, and the “political level,” as Netanyahu describes it, were asleep under the warm blanket of the mistaken concept, protected by a blind separation strip. A motivated army and conscious leadership not preoccupied with messianic visions and criminal sponsorship of a terrorist organization do not need a security belt but eyes that see clearly.

A dozen Palestinian prisoners, no matter how “heavy,” and a wide, luxurious buffer zone are neither achievements nor victories, and abandoning them is not a “price” Israel pays for the release of the missing. Israel has already paid a terrible price, and it will be doubled if it does not get the counterpart – its 48 missing, whose return alone can start its reconstruction.