Netanyahu Should Respond to Abbas Letter with Unilateral Ceasefire

The world political situation is at an incredibly sensitive juncture. If the reports are accurate about a recent letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (cf. In first, Palestinian Authority's Abbas condemns Hamas's October 7 attack | The Times of Israel), then Prime Minister Netanyahu should recognize that Israel's eight-front existential crisis has reached an inflection point and he should respond to Abbas by issuing a unilateral Israeli ceasefire prior to the reconvening of the Tenth Special Emergency Session at UNHQ in New York on Thursday (cf. Spanish UN resolution calls for ‘all measures necessary’ against Israel | JNS.org). Netanyahu might deliver a short and powerful announcement of the ceasefire along the following lines: "President Abbas should have said all of this sooner, and the UN General Assembly with him, but it might not be too little, and it might not be too late. In recognition of this significant turning point in Israel-Palestine relations, I am ordering the IDF to observe a unilateral ceasefire until noon Israel time on 30 June 2025. The point of this ceasefire is to put the onus squarely on the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council - where it has belonged since 8 October 2023 - to get all of our hostages back, to disarm the terrorist group Hamas, and to bring law and order to Gaza. It's up to the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council to get every hostage back to Israel during this ceasefire window. Israel will not release any Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails in return for our remaining hostages. Israel will not be complicit in another round of unconscionable prisoners-for-hostages capitulation to Hamas. I pray that this ceasefire will become permanent. I pray that the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council will employ every reasonable tool in their power to return all of our hostages by 30 June 2025. Do your job, UN Member States. Demand the immediate, dignified, and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas, and put some real teeth behind your words. Mean what you say. Don't force Israel to release more Palestinian terrorists serving life sentences in exchange for our innocent hostages. If Hamas won't agree to the terms set forth in the letter sent by President Abbas to France and Saudi Arabia, and if Hamas won't unconditionally release all of its remaining hostages by 30 June 2025, then the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council must acknowledge Israel's right to pursue a complete military victory - or they must explain and implement a better UN alternative. As far as humanitarian aid to Gaza is concerned, the Israeli government believes that exclusive reliance on the GHF is a necessary and legal fallback until all of our hostages are returned or the UN Security Council issues a consensus resolution in accordance with key elements of the Abbas formula (cf. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Operational Update Ministry of Foreign Affairs)."