Amit Segal and Amnon Abramovich
Amit Segal and Amnon AbramovichCourtesy:

Commentators Amit Segal and Amnon Abramovich disagreed on air, on Channel 12 News, on the question of whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza due to political considerations.

Abramovich praised Biden for standing on Israel's side and added that he believes that "Netanyahu is interested in continuing the war indefinitely."

Segal, on the other hand, accused the US administration of not allowing the IDF to move forward in the Gaza Strip, "If it weren't for Biden's delusions, if he had allowed us to take focused and quick action, we would have already been after the war."

Abramovich claimed that the situation is exactly the opposite and Biden is not the one preventing the progress of the war. "Netanyahu delayed the ground entry, then Khan Younis, and he has delayed Rafah until today."

Segal replied, "If Netanyahu is prolonging the war, I believe that this is a charge of conspiracy, no less than the claim that someone in the Shin Bet initiated this attack to weaken the right-wing government."

He asked, "Does anyone really think that this massive deployment of the army, that the cabinet ministers are telling Netanyahu that it is possible to get rid of Sinwar, return the hostages, capture Gaza, and Netanyahu for his personal reasons says no, we will pull this out longer, and soldiers will die?"

"This really sounds like a problematic claim to me," concluded Segal.

Journalist Nir Kipnis commented in his column on the Ma'ariv website about the conflict between the two and wrote, "We must ask those who are averse to questioning the leadership of the security forces, but are ready to attribute any human wrongdoing to Netanyahu: let's assume for a moment that the Prime Minister is so unrestrained that he is artificially prolonging the war; how exactly is he doing this?"

He continued, "Does he call the Chief of Staff to come to him in the middle of the night and whisper instructions in his ear that contradict the Cabinet decisions?" Or maybe Gadi Eisenkot, whose son was killed in Gaza, and Benny Gantz, whose son is serving on the front line, are also partners in this secret plot?"

Kipnis concluded, "Of course, this is all nonsense. That's why Segal did the right thing when he put Abramovich in his place. There is enough serious and even justified criticism that we can throw at Netanyahu, without falsely accusing him of prolonging this bloody war."