'I listen to the Palestinians. There is no hostage deal,' says Einat Wilf, former foreign policy advisor to Shimon Peres

“...And I realized I’m not hearing that there’s a deal. And it was breaking my heart because my country is being ripped apart.” 

A former left-wing member of the Israeli Knesset has been speaking against the flow of mass protest regarding the hostages, claiming that negotiating with Hamas terrorists was never going to work.

Dr. Einat Wilf grew up in the Israeli peace camp and still supports the idea of two autonomous states for two peoples. She has just witnessed the Palestinian rejection of the offer too many times.

“They always told us what they wanted, we just didn’t listen,” Wilf told Jonny Gould at Talk TV in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks. “They said it very clearly: ‘From the River to the Sea,’ no Jewish state in any borders whatsoever. They have been consistent in this view for a century.”

Wilf should know. She was foreign policy advisor (2002-2006) to one of the best-known peace deal architects, former Israeli president and prime minister, Shimon Peres, while he was deputy prime minister. She herself was also a passionate advocate for the Oslo Accords between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), signed in 1993 and 1995.  

Following the negotiations of the '90s, Wilf told Israel National News - Arutz 7’s Yoni Kempinski, that she “began to truly listen” to the Palestinians:. “And I realized that as Israel was negotiating with the Palestinians, as America was pressuring Israel to offer even more, as Israel was offering even more, the Palestinians were never there. They were never at a point in which they were really willing to come to terms with a Jewish state.” 

Wilf said that she was already aware of this dynamic when she began following Israel’s negotiations in October after the unprecedented kidnapping of 251 people: civilians and soldiers; Israelis and foreigners; children and the elderly, including Muslims and Jews.

“I will preface by saying that I think it’s an abomination that Hamas is even being negotiated with, that you could kidnap people from their beds and be considered a legitimate negotiating partner,” she said. 

Wilf, well-known for explaining the problems with UNRWA and the perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee issue, has co-authored the book, ‘The War of Return.’ Israeli-born and educated in the U.S., France and England (PhD Political Science, Cambridge University) she had made one vow to herself over the past two decades; that she would listen to the Palestinians “without wishful thinking.” 

All of the news around the hostage deal, she explained, is for all to hear, without requiring special intelligence. “I’m not hearing that there’s a deal,” she realized. “And it was breaking my heart because my country is being ripped apart. Our people are fighting each other: ‘Take the deal. Don’t take the deal…’ 

“And I’m like, is there a deal? I’m not hearing that there’s a deal!”

Wilf said there is an illusion of a deal, but that, shockingly, Hamas continues to essentially demand the same thing that it demanded on Oct. 8, to “basically to go back to October 6 with zero consequences.” 

“That’s why they took and kidnapped people from their beds as an insurance policy, so that they can show to the world that you can invade Israel, butcher its citizens, and then suffer no consequences,” she explained. 

“And if anyone wants to ask, as far as Hamas is concerned, they suffered no consequences. They don’t care about the people killed. They don’t care about the destruction. Whatever murderers we killed, they will replace them as long as they’re considered a legitimate negotiating partner and in a position to demand remaining in control in Gaza. They’ve paid nothing.”

Wilf was asked what could be done differently. Her advice revealed that the discovery of the six murdered hostages in Gaza was a watershed moment, especially since they were kept deep underground, without benefiting from any of the food aid that poured into Gaza.

“First and foremost,” she said, “make it clear. Say, ‘We’re sorry; we made a mistake. These are not people with whom we should negotiate,’” she said, referring to Hamas terrorists.

In addition, she suggested: “We should have done it on the first day, but I think we should still do it, especially now that we’re learning more about how they held the six hostages who were executed. We should have closed our borders, made it clear that this is an enemy, that Gaza is an enemy, and that we are under no obligation to supply them, not with fuel, not with anything."

“They have a border with Egypt. We are under no obligation. In the past people said, ‘Oh, but if we don’t give things in, they will starve the hostages.’ We know that they starved the hostages anyway, so we are under no obligation to them.” 

Wilf said the third thing to do is the opposite of what the terrorists “really, really want,” which is a return of Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip. She said that Israel should “constantly push everyone to the south,” and clear the north, “kilometer by kilometer,” only stopping once the hostages are returned.

“That’s at the minimum,” she said, in order to put sufficient pressure on Hamas to release the hostages. “There might be other ideas, but what matters is to actually do something.” 

“You do not get to invade a country, butcher, kidnap, and then be considered a legitimate negotiating partner,” she added. 

Wilf included the neighboring states as uncooperative partners in terms of the return of the hostages.

“Qatar and Egypt are playing a double game. They’ve just been using the negotiating as a tactic to purchase time and to protect their interests in Hamas.” 

“So we’re done negotiating,” Wilf concluded. “We know how they treated the hostages that they executed. So we are closing our borders. We’re done supplying them because they’re clearly not giving food to the hostages. This is an implacable enemy and we are not supplying them.” 

Arutz 7 is a conservative Israeli channel, but Kempinski put the challenge to Wilf regarding the supposedly tough stance of what many define as a 100% right-wing nationalist government.

“Exactly,” she said. “I don’t think, ever in Israel’s history, we had a government that talks such a high and mighty game and either does nothing – that’s the best case – or does the opposite. But at the end of the day, you just have to look at the outcome.

“After 11 months of a failed diplomatic campaign, and a whole [mis]management of this campaign, Hamas is in exactly the same position and feels strong enough and confident enough to demand exactly the same thing they demanded on October 8. That’s the definition of a failed campaign.”

The foreign policy expert answered the unspoken question of how the world might respond.

“By all means, we gave 11 months to your failed negotiations. You have a better idea? Let us know. Until you have a better idea, that’s what we’re doing. And we’re being very simple. There’s actually a means to end this: Release the hostages and it stops.”