TEL AVIV — As Hamas prepares to deliver its verdict on a proposed deal for a cease-fire and the freeing of more than a hundred hostages in Gaza, ministers, political analysts and people close to Israel’s prime minister say the accord threatens to tear apart the country’s right-wing Cabinet.
While Hamas deliberates, Israel’s war Cabinet is expected to discuss the deal during a meeting Sunday evening, according to Israeli media.
But Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister of national security, threatened last week on X that “a reckless deal = the dismantling of the government.”
Hours after Ben-Gvir’s comments, opposition leader Yair Lapid volunteered his center-left Yesh Atid Party to enter the Cabinet to rescue the coalition and the hostage deal if Ben-Gvir withdraws.
Even if the current government survives, the conflict over the hostage deal exposes profound rifts in Israeli society. The deal pits dueling narratives of Israel’s vision of itself against each other: its solemn pledge to its soldiers and citizens that no one will be left behind, versus Israel’s oft-stated goal that it will destroy its enemies at any cost.
“Where do you put the primacy in terms of those who say, look, if these hostages aren’t prioritized, they will die in captivity and that will be devastating for the Israeli public and it could really rip the fabric of the Israeli social contract,” said David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a professor in Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. “The other side would say we’ve come this far to defeat Hamas, and if Israel withdraws before the job is done, Hamas will be emboldened to do more Oct. 7s.”
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Looming over the conversation is the 2011 deal by Netanyahu to release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier whom Hamas held captive in the Gaza Strip for more than five years. In exchange for Shalit’s freedom, Israel released more than a thousand…
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