Standstill in Gaza – turmoil in Israel
by Sacha Wigdorovits i
Greenland does not normally have much to do with Israel. And neither does Venezuela, apart from the previous regime’s proximity to Iran and the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.
However, the Jewish state is currently benefiting from both. Because of US President Donald Trump, the world’s attention is focused on the South American country and the resource-rich Danish island. Meanwhile, the unresolved conflict in Gaza has taken a back seat, at least temporarily.
However, this is also due to the fact that the implementation of the 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced by President Trump at the end of September 2025 is currently making no progress. Even the vociferous support from numerous European and Middle Eastern countries and the UN at the time has not changed this so far.
Not even the first phase of the plan, which should have lasted just 72 hours, has been fully completed. It is true that the Israeli army IDF in Gaza has withdrawn behind the yellow line agreed in the plan. But even after three months, the whereabouts of the last dead hostage are still unclear. Like the other 47 living and dead hostages, this one should originally have been handed over to Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas within three days.
However, there are other reasons for the lack of progress in implementing the plan. For example, the composition of the international peace council under the leadership of President Trump has still not been clarified. It is also unclear who will participate in the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which is supposed to ensure peace and order in Gaza. This is after the planned disarmament and disempowerment of Hamas, which is also currently written in the stars.
The composition of the Palestinian authority consisting of technocrats, which is to administer Gaza under the supervision of the International Peace Council, is also still unclear. The Israeli domestic intelligence service Shin Bet has apparently expressed reservations about four of the twelve candidates proposed by Egypt.
According to the American news site Axios, the US government now wants to address these unresolved issues at the World Economic Forum WEF in Davos next week and announce how things should proceed in Gaza. However, current developments in Venezuela and Ukraine could delay the announcement.
Such a delay would be entirely in the interests of the current Israeli government. Because militarily, it still has the situation in Gaza under control even after the withdrawal behind the yellow line. And the fact that the Islamofascist mullah regime in Iran, which was the main supporter of Hamas, has to fight for its survival against the rebellious population also suits the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government urgently needs this calm on the external front. After all, it has less and less control over the situation in the West Bank, which is plagued by increasing settler violence, and in its own country.
The latter can be attributed in particular to the bill for general compulsory military service for the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox). This bill is drafted in such a way as to conciliate the ultra-Orthodox parties in the Knesset (parliament). But it stands in stark contrast to what the Israeli Supreme Court demanded in 2024: namely to abolish the general exemption of the Haredim from compulsory military service, which has been in force since the founding of the state.
This is because the draft is de facto a law for the “exemption from service” of the ultra-Orthodox. This is causing outrage not only in the IDF, which is dependent on additional reservists, and among the secular population, but also among Zionist religious Jews who also perform military service.
This conflict reached its highest and lowest point to date when a bus drove into a crowd of Haredim protesting against compulsory service in Jerusalem a few days ago. One young demonstrator was killed and three others were injured. The bus driver’s lawyer justified the incident by saying that his client had felt threatened by the crowd. This account was confirmed by an initial police investigation.
In order to maintain his power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to refuse to enshrine the military service of the Haredim in a law that contains no loopholes for exemption from service. This gives Naftali Bennett, who is likely to be his biggest rival for the parliamentary elections in October, a steep lead.
Bennet recently announced that, as Prime Minister, he would present a law that would bring numerous financial benefits to those serving in the military, for example in terms of training. On the other hand, state support for those who refuse to serve in the army is to be massively reduced. In this way, he wants to get significantly more Haredim to do military service. It is estimated that there are currently around 80,000 ultra-Orthodox young men of conscription age.
So while there is nothing new in Gaza for the time being, the battle between the secular population and the Zionist religious on the one hand and the ultra-Orthodox on the other is raging ever more fiercely inside Israel. This will not change until the elections in October. And probably not afterwards either.
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