00:00 That's right. He called the demands delusional. He said that giving in to them would be a
00:05 surrender to the terror group and would only set Israel up for the next massacre, which
00:14 is a reference, of course, to October 7th.
00:17 You know, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated, doubled down, that he wants to
00:24 see a total victory in the Gaza Strip. For him, that means dismantling Hamas, pushing
00:30 out its leadership. And we have to remember that the deal that Hamas just put on the table
00:38 in many ways would have preserved their position in the Gaza Strip. They talked nothing of
00:44 relinquishing power or handing over power to another governing body. They essentially
00:51 just wanted the Israeli forces to leave and to be able to rebuild Gaza. But of course,
00:58 that would bring in lots of materials that would also allow them to rebuild.
01:04 Hamas put into this proposal, this answer to the Paris framework, so many demands that
01:11 were out of the box. I mean, the Israeli prime minister's office did not expect Hamas to
01:16 come back with a deal that they would grab or take right away. But this one included
01:23 so many things that were just what sources say really crossed a red line. They're trying
01:29 to get changes in the policy of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. That's the shared holy site
01:36 between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. They're talking about lifting the siege. And the number
01:42 of Palestinian prisoners to be released was very high, including those who were serving
01:49 time for murder, something like 500 they wanted released.
01:54 So this was really, it appears it was meant to be a non-starter. And Israel and the prime
02:00 minister are taking it as such, that Hamas is unwilling right now, it looks like, to
02:06 make a real deal. And so Netanyahu dismissing it, but it's important to say he didn't close
02:13 the door on negotiations. He didn't say we're calling off talks with Hamas. He just said
02:18 this, you know, these demands we just can't accept.
02:22 Okay. And do you get the impression, I mean, especially given the hostage dimension to
02:28 this situation, do you get the impression that the majority of Israeli people agree
02:33 with the course of action outlined by the prime minister this afternoon?
02:39 That's a good question. I think the hostage, the families of the hostages don't necessarily
02:45 agree with Netanyahu or the defence minister, Yoav Galant, who continue to say that the
02:52 enormous pressure of the Israeli army operation in the Gaza Strip is the best way to bring
03:00 the hostages home, that it will put a kind of, you know, pressure on Hamas to break and
03:06 cut a deal. The families of the hostages believe now, most of them, that the operation may
03:13 actually endanger the lives of their loved ones, because we've seen already Israel killed
03:19 by accident, three hostages, and there's some questions about the deaths of others, their
03:25 bodies that were retrieved by the IDF.
03:29 But outside of the families of the hostages, I think the country is, you know, I think
03:35 they're divided. Some people do believe that the military operation is the way to go. But
03:42 I think that where Netanyahu has a kind of disconnect with the Israeli public is that
03:48 they don't believe that getting the hostages out and freeing them is really the most important
03:54 thing that the prime minister is focusing on. And I think somewhere in his messaging
03:59 that has been lost. And they, you know, and they believe Israel has a moral obligation
04:05 to bring home those innocent civilians that were brutally kidnapped, some of them killed
04:11 in captivity, because the state did not protect them, because the army wasn't there, because
04:17 there was this huge failure.
04:19 And so there is a strong part of the public here who believes, you know, Netanyahu needs
04:25 to be putting the hostages first. And if that means it's a military operation, it's a military
04:31 operation. If it means negotiating with Hamas, it's negotiating with Hamas. But there seems
04:36 to be still some questions about what is Netanyahu's first priority.
