Free Gift 

Bibi received advance notice of Trump’s ultimatum, but even Bibi “what’s a gift between friends” Netanyahu can receive one gift too many. Taking the political situation week by week, Netanyahu had hoped for an uneventful Shabbos, allowing him to drag out the time to the second phase of the deal.

The restful weekend failed to materialize. After Trump shocked everyone last Monday by suggesting that Israel demand the release of all the hostages by Shabbos, warning for the second time since his election that Hamas would have to pay a devastating price, Netanyahu found himself wriggling to get out of right-wing ministers’ demands to accept Trump’s terms and kill the deal.

Bibi must have gotten sympathy from veteran Shas ministers, who regularly had to parry headlines about Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s Motzaei Shabbos drashah by saying his words had been “taken out of context.” Netanyahu had to explain to cabinet ministers that Trump was referring to the return of all the Phase One hostages by noon on Shabbos, and that the plan to return the second-phase hostages in weekly trickles still stood.

A week after breathing the crisp Washington air, Netanyahu has returned to the humid climate of Israeli politics. Trump’s off-the-cuff comments about blowing up the deal were jumped on by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir as a concrete plan of action. One could say that Israel’s hard right takes the American president’s words more literally than anyone else.