Israel at war: Philadelphi tunnel vision

Control of the Philadelphi Corridor is essential to securing victory, strangling Hamas, and allowing the hostages to return.

By Ruthie Blum, Gatestone Institute

It beggars belief that Israeli defense chiefs with the highest security clearance have been leaking to the media transcripts of top-secret meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a hostage-release deal with Hamas.

Such clearance isn’t easy to come by, as anyone who ever went through the process of obtaining even lower levels of the coveted status can attest.

This involves a thorough grilling — including for many who’ve previously undergone the procedure — with endless forms to fill out, lengthy interviews and lie-detector exams.

The point is that each person participating in sessions relating to the war has gone through this and signed legally binding confidentiality agreements.

It’s a wonder, then, that none of the suspects has been forced to take a polygraph test to determine who, among the select few in the war room, has broken the law by violating his vow of silence.

It’s not surprising, however, that Netanyahu finally lost his temper — regardless of the alleged “shouting session” last Wednesday, during which he reprimanded the crew for being lousy negotiators.

“I am prepared to go very far to release all of our hostages, while maintaining Israel’s security,” he said at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting.

“Our commitment stands in complete contrast to the leaks and mendacious briefings [to the press] on the issue of our hostages.

“These briefings harm the negotiations and, to my great regret, they also mislead the hostages’ dear families. They create a false impression that Hamas has agreed to a deal while the government of Israel is opposed to it.

The complete opposite is true. The simple truth is, that as of now Hamas has not agreed to the most basic conditions of the outline.

“While we have not added even a single demand to the outline, it is Hamas which has demanded to add dozens of changes. It has not withdrawn its demand that Israel not be able to return to the war. It demands that we withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing—its lifelines, which would allow it to rearm and rebuild its strength….

“Hamas is also unprepared to allow any mechanism to check for and prevent the passage of munitions and terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip. It is doing all this because it wants to recover and rebuild, and return again and again to the massacre of October 7, as it has promised to do.”

Netanyahu then reiterated that it is Hamas, not the Israeli government, which is preventing the release of the hostages.

And that it is Hamas, not the Israeli government, which opposes the proposed deal.

Never mind that no average person, let alone Cabinet ministers, should doubt for a second or require reminding of this fact.

Still, the “anybody but Bibi” campaign, which has representatives in Netanyahu’s inner circle, cannot shed its pre-Oct. 7 mentality.

The frame of mind they’re unable to shake has two elements. One is an irrational hatred of Netanyahu specifically and contempt for the national camp in general.

The other is adherence to interconnected ideas about Israeli legitimacy and deterrence. In their worldview, “peace and quiet” trumps “peace through strength.”

To them, purchasing the former cannot be accomplished without Israeli concessions, and the latter is not realistic for a country whose behavior arouses the ire of the “international community.”

Ironically, Netanyahu is actually better than this community’s own politicians at treading cautiously through both types of minefields.

Not that it earns him any accolades at home or abroad.

On the contrary, his accommodations always provide his detractors with an excuse to berate him for belligerence directed at Israel.

It is thus a relief and an expression of his leadership that Netanyahu is not budging on key conditions for a deal with the devil.

One of these, which Hamas has nixed, is a list of the hostages still alive.

Another is Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts the Strip in two, from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

Naturally, neither Hamas nor Cairo agrees to this stipulation.

That Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel Security Agency director Ronen Bar and Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, head of the IDF’s Missing and Captive Soldiers Division, consider it an obstacle to a deal they fear will evaporate if it’s not reached immediately, is a travesty.

Apparently, Mossad chief David Barnea isn’t on board with that assessment, though he’s lumped in with the rest of them in reports on the “rift” between Netanyahu and his “defense chiefs.”

According to the press, citing anonymous officials, the latter feel that the prime minister “doesn’t care about the hostages.”

Channel 12’s Guy Peleg, a leading Netanyahu-basher, went as far as to say in a radio interview that Netanyahu wants them dead.

The public isn’t buying it, particularly not now, with the exposure on Sunday of a huge terror tunnel under the Philadelphi Corridor.

A fraction of the sprawling network of cross-border tunnels in the area, this one is 10 feet high and equally wide—massive enough to enable Humvees and other large vehicles to transport weapons, building materials and terrorists from Egypt to Rafah.

This is why Cairo was so opposed to the IDF incursion into Rafah. It knew full well what it’s been hiding for all these years from its Israeli peace partners.

The tunnel in question was discovered by the fighters of IDF Division 162 and is being examined by the Yahalom Unit of the Engineering Corps.

Plans for its destruction are underway. Part of it will be blown up, and the rest sealed with concrete and iron.

Disturbingly, the IDF brass didn’t publicize the finding until a photo of the tunnel was posted online by one of the soldiers in the field.

It was only after the image began circulating on the internet that the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit had to come clean with inquiring journalists.

This probably won’t stop Netanyahu’s critics from insisting that he’s sentencing the hostages to death by not giving in to Hamas. But most Israelis aren’t that stupid or wicked.

The picture of the tunnel was sufficient for most of the populace to grasp its greater significance. It was the only “leak” this week worthy of praise rather than censure.

Benjamin NetanyahuEgyptHamasPhiladelphi CorridorTunnels