Only Bibi: The meeting between Kushner and a senior Hamas official is an insult to the memory of the murdered

It is hard to imagine what the relatives of those murdered in the October 7 massacre felt when Jared Kushner, the envoy and son-in-law of the US President, met with Khalil al-Hayya, one of the few senior Hamas officials from before October 7 who survived the targeted killings that followed.

The failed assassination attempt on al-Hayya, on Qatari soil, led not only to an embarrassing Israeli apology for violating the sovereignty of the financier of the October 7 attack (and, according to suspicions, also some elements in the Prime Minister's Office), but also granted the man immunity — temporarily, one hopes — from another assassination attempt.

In the internal Palestinian arena, al-Hayya gained points that certainly did not hurt him in the race for the position of head of the Hamas political bureau (for which he competed against Khaled Mashal), that is — the most senior person in the leadership of the terrorist organization. Therefore, the insult in the very existence of the meeting between the man who is perhaps the closest to Donald Trump and the arch-terrorist should burn in the heart of every Israeli.

Al-Hayya is no small fry; he was Yahya Sinwar's deputy and is considered his successor in the terrorist organization — meaning he adopts a radical line and advocates close cooperation with Iran. Al-Hayya, who called the October 7 massacre a "historic moment," indeed sees it as such — a turning point that raised the Palestinian issue to the top of regional priorities.

Israelis can argue among themselves whether it is possible to end the campaign that began with the murderous invasion through an arrangement — whether this is even a realistic option with the Palestinians, but even those who believe that the conflict has no horizon other than a political one, understand that al-Hayya is not a partner for any move, certainly not one that will bring peace — the man is an Israel-hater of the worst kind.

If it were Bennett

One should not be naive: Israel also conducted and will certainly continue to conduct contacts with Hamas. It did so before October 7, and it does so after, but at least for the sake of appearances, Israel was careful not to sit in the same room with Hamas representatives.

It is hard to even imagine what would have happened here if a prime minister other than Benjamin Netanyahu had intended to meet with an American envoy, just hours after the latter's meeting with a senior Hamas official. Imagine Naftali Bennett or Yair Lapid meeting with Kushner after the latter granted legitimacy and effectively qualified as a statesman someone who sees the massacre as a miraculous spectacle.

They would have said it was an insult to the memory of the murdered, they would have claimed that we turned from partners of the USA into their lackeys, into a footnote in the big real estate deal that an American president is promoting with the help of his associates, to whom we sold our national honor. They would have said — and they would be right.

And what would have happened if Kushner had been the envoy of a Democratic president like Joe Biden, or perhaps an envoy of the European Union? It is likely that official Israel would have protested loudly, demanding that the envoy fly back to the USA or Europe, instead of taking a direct flight from the meeting with al-Hayya to a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu.

The problem is that Kushner did not fly to Israel but was almost sucked into the political vacuum created here. Benjamin Netanyahu, who linked his freedom to his political fate, is fighting a rearguard battle against the trends emerging in the polls: the status of Tali Gottlieb on the Likud list for the next Knesset occupies him today more than the Iranian nuclear program, certainly more than the terror from Gaza.

And what about the silence of the opposition, which should have demanded satisfaction for the insult to the relatives of the murdered? It too is related to the elections: each of the candidates to succeed Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister hopes to win the blessing of Donald Trump — and in any case, not to anger the hot-tempered "ginger" (whose word can erase a potential candidate).

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Total defeat

And so we received the horrifying spectacle of Kushner and al-Hayya. A spectacle that raises the question — not only what the bereaved families think, but also what the Gazans think, what they think in Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, or Ankara, when they see al-Hayya in the status of a head of state?

Many Israeli citizens, even those who advocate a political solution, demanded (rightly!) from the country's leadership to start speaking "Arabic instead of Western," after the October 7 massacre.

Instead of that happening, it turns out now that Hamas has learned to speak Western better than us: Kushner sat yesterday with the leader of the terrorist organization — and today he is meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel. What a disgrace.

One can argue what a "total victory" in Gaza is and whether this phrase is even possible. One thing is certain — even those who argue about what a total victory is in their eyes, know what a total defeat looks like — and this is exactly what it looks like: an envoy of the most powerful superpower in the world sits next to one of the perpetrators of October 7 and treats him with the respect of a head of state.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the one who today shakes a hand that just last night shook the hand of the head of the organization of murderers. The main thing is that he started his morning by greeting Likud members and urged them to choose a winning list, one that will be able to prevent the establishment of a government with Mansour Abbas...