00:00Now fresh off of that news, a quiet but powerful protest has emerged in the southern Israeli
00:04community of Kfar Hashim, just steps away from the defense ministry's residence.
00:10Former Hamas hostages and the families of those still in captive gathered for a Shabbat reception.
00:16Their message, bring them home now. The gathering mixed tradition and protest candles lit,
00:21prayers recited, and we heard from Noah Perry, daughter of Chaim Perry, who died in Hamas captivity.
00:26You can stop this, even now, after this decision. Stop this. We know this decision is going to cause
00:36a lot of unwanted death of more soldiers and hostages. Take this down. Stop it now. Bring
00:48all hostages back in one deal. Stop the war now.
00:53Joining us now is Ofa Bronstein, political advisor and president of the International
00:58Forum for Peace. Ofa, thank you so much for joining us. We're hearing from hostage families
01:03there as we speak. Massive anger and pushback at Benjamin Netanyahu's plan and indeed the
01:09security cabinet's plan. Does he even listen to the hostage families anymore?
01:14Not only does he listen to the hostage family, he doesn't listen to the army, he doesn't listen
01:22to the majority of the Israeli. The polls, the last polls are saying that 80% of the Israeli
01:30population wants the end of the war and the release of the hostages. Last week, 660 generals,
01:41head of Mossad, head of the internal intelligence generals, former head of the army, signed a letter
01:52asking for the war to end. This war has no sense whatsoever anymore. Nobody understands the purpose
02:00of it. Even the chief of staff yesterday, Mr. Zamir said that if they will implement the decision
02:07of the cabinet of yesterday, that means that it's a death sentence of the hostages. It's no
02:14doubt that if Israel will implement this decision, then the hostages will be killed. So what is the
02:21purpose of this war? To bring back, if it's to bring back the hostages, it's not the right
02:28way. If it's to eliminate the Hamas, it's not the right way. But I wanted to ask you, is the journalist
02:35Sharuk from Gaza still online? Unfortunately, she is not. If you have a question though, we can
02:43definitely take it to her later. Yeah. I would have loved to ask you a question. What I mean is
02:50the Israeli people, the parents of the family of the hostages, and even in the army today, they don't
02:57think that this operation will be as any reason. It has no sense, no reason, no purpose. It's against the
03:07will of the people, it's against the will of the army, it's against the will of the hostages of the
03:14parents. The purpose in my, if I understand it properly, can be to either to put pressure on
03:20the Hamas, to tell them, listen, we're going to do it, we're going to do it, and it's going to be very
03:25harmful to the Palestinian people, and for Hamas to come back to the table of negotiation, and to get to
03:32to get to a ceasefire, to the end of the war, and to release the hostages and the body that
03:39are still holding, or it's for internal political reason, which means that Mr. Netanyahu is
03:47hostage of a small extremist messianic right-wing member of his coalition. And in this case, it's
03:59going to be a catastrophe, catastrophe for Israel. Israel is already very isolated in the
04:05world.
04:06Let me ask, Ofer, if you will, you're talking, you're referring to Itmar Ben-Gavir, you're
04:12talking about Smotrich as well, the finance minister. I mean, and there was reports of a
04:20shouting match in that security cabinet meeting between El Zamir, the IDF chief, and the government.
04:26How can you possibly lead an Israeli army occupation and control of Gaza City under these conditions?
04:37Surely we could be looking at some sort of disobedience coming up.
04:41It's a very good question. You know, I never heard of, in the middle of the war, in the
04:48cabinet meeting, the chief of staff publicly saying that this is not the right way to go,
04:55saying that it's going to put the hostages, it's going to be a dead sentence against the
05:01hostages, that if it will have to go into it, it won't be for the release of the hostages. So what we are
05:08foreseeing lately in the army, it's first of all, as I told you, 660 very high level security
05:15responsible in Israel signed this letter. We see, sadly enough, dozens and dozens of soldiers
05:23committing suicide. The reserve soldier in Israel don't go back to Gaza anymore. The numbers are
05:31still being kept quiet, not to create a demoralization of the army. And more and more
05:36soldiers prefer not to go to jail than to go to Gaza. And besides that, if this plan will try to
05:46implement it, that means that we need much more soldiers on the ground than they have today. So I don't
05:53know from where this soldier will come. But besides that, if they are staying, they don't
05:59have, they won't be only keep being a soldier. They will have to give services as an occupying
06:08body to 2 million Palestinians, which means food, water, health. I don't really, I don't see after
06:17two years of war, which is the longest one that Israel ever faced, how the army will be able
06:24to do it. And you are right. I do believe that we are going to see more and more in the army,
06:30in the Israeli society, people who are going to say, we are not doing it. We don't understand
06:35why you have to do it. We don't understand the purpose of it. We are against it. We want
06:40the release of the hostages. But we don't want to do it this way. It has to be done through
06:45negotiation. But my concern is that I'm very, I'm very, I was going to say happy to see a lot of
06:53Israelis demonstrating today against this war. But I would like to see the Palestinian side.
06:59I heard Sherouk with a lot of attention, in contact with my Palestinian friends in Gaza.
07:07They have to understand, if the Hamas release the hostages, it will be over.
07:14Even if the Israeli government has another agenda, it won't have any more excuses to go on.
07:21So the pressure has to be put on the Hamas as well. They have to give up weapons.
07:26They have to stop shooting at soldiers. It has no purpose. When we shoot at a soldier,
07:31and they kill one soldier, the day after it's 1,000 Palestinian who are dying.
07:35So I understand that whatever the Israeli army is doing, it's wrong. Whatever the Israeli government
07:42is deciding, it's wrong. But whatever the Hamas is doing, he's doing it against his own people.
07:49Each time, each time that we shoot at a soldier, it will be a lot of casualties on the Palestinian side.
07:58And why not to release the hostages?
08:02It is a valid question to pose. That is certainly on the ground, and of course you understand the very delicate nature of responding to that in the Gaza Strip.
08:14We would obviously love to get that answer. Can I just ask something in terms of the international reaction?
08:20You are yourself the Middle East envoy for France and under Emmanuel Macron.
08:25France has made it very clear that it does not support this. It wants a ceasefire immediately.
08:30Do you believe that this decision is going to speed up the decision of traditional Israeli allies for a two-state solution and to recognize the Palestinian state?
08:41I hope so. And not as a response to the Israeli policy.
08:49But that's the only way we understand now that whenever the war will end, the Israelis and the Palestinians won't be capable of going back into negotiation.
09:00So that means that at this point in time in history, outside health is needed.
09:08And the direction that France took and 12 other countries already are going to follow us.
09:14And we believe that more we will do the same by September to recognize the Palestinian state.
09:20And then it's a change of paradigm.
09:23So far for the last 30 years, we were told the Israelis and the Palestinians will negotiate.
09:28And at the end of the negotiation, it will be the creation of a Palestinian state.
09:32It did not work.
09:34The Palestinians and the Israelis are not negotiating for over 20 years.
09:37So what we are proposing is let's recognize the Palestinian state.
09:41Israel and the Palestinians later on will go into the details, the future of Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders, security, economic, economical relationship.
09:52But they will have to do it as equal.
09:55I strongly believe that if a Palestinian state existed before the 7th of October, the 7th of October would have not happened.
10:05We see it on the West Bank.
10:07The Palestinian authorities placed demonstration against Israel in Ramallah than in Paris, New York or Berlin.
10:14The Palestinian authorities, as weak as they are, are doing their best not to have any violent activity in the West Bank.
10:24Thank you so much.
10:27I'm sorry to cut you short.
10:29We will have to move on to other matters.
10:31But Ofer Bronstein, a political advisor and president of the International Forum for Peace, just joining us there, talking about that international reaction as he left off.
10:39Germany has added its voice.
10:42It's announced that it will be halting all arms exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza, citing the humanitarian toll of the war.
10:48The Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, voicing his disappointment directly to Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a phone call this Friday, saying Israel's goal is not to take over Gaza permanently, but to free it from Hamas and allow a peaceful government to take its place.
11:05That announcement also met with skepticism.
11:08Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy have also been meeting near London this Friday amidst the growing tensions on the U.K.'s plan to recognize the Palestinian state.
11:18Vance said, I wasn't sure what such recognition would even mean, given the lack of a functional government there.
11:25And when asked about Israel's intent to occupy Gaza City, he replied, I wouldn't go into such conversations.
11:30Vance adding, if it was easy to bring peace to that region of the world, it would have been done already.
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