good evening and thanks for joining us on this Monday night I'm Raven Santana and for Brianna Vannozzi, just this weekend three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed by their own country's military despite one of them waving a white flag when confronted by the Israeli soldiers The Killing sparked outrage across the globe forcing US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to travel to the region to put public pressure on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to be more precise and outline their strategic objectives in Gaza looking at the civilian toll it is taking in addition to the three hostages 1,00 Israelis have been killed and more than 18,000 Palestinians since the conflict began meanwhile many Israelis are questioning what's taking place and the war tactics being used and are now calling on Netanyahu to resign for that and more I'm joined by associate professor of politics at Rutgers University Camden Michael Boyle who is an expert on terrorism us national security policy and Middle East politics Michael thanks for joining me thank you for having me so let's start with the headlines from the weekend three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed while one was holding a white flag this horrific act has no doubt altered the perspective of this conflict no matter what side you're on what was your reaction to this moment so I I think it raises a couple different political consequences the first my first reaction was that do this was going to increase pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu because there's already been a movement from within side Israel suggesting that the Israeli government needs to do more to prioritize the release of hostages as opposed to fighing the war in Gaza and I think this is going to sharpen this a sense that Netanyahu maybe isn't doing as much as he should the second is is going to raise real questions about the Rules of Engagement that the IDF is operating with in Gaza and what we know about this particular incident was that the three hostages came out they waved the White Flag they had removed their shirts to make sure everyone knew there was no explosive on them and they had spoken in Hebrew to to call to surrender the idea that that was then that they were then killed is going to raise some real questions about well what are the rules of engagement that the IDF is operating with and what are they doing to rescue hostages and are they being maybe as careful and discriminate as they should be so I think it's going to place pressure on that Yahoo to release the more hostages it's also going to raise some questions about whether Israel's campaign is may be asurgical and precise as they say it is well on the topic of raising questions now Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is in Israel meeting with prime minister Benjamin neton Yahoo demanding he more clearly defined his War objectives and Milestones right but the prime minister is vowing to fight to the end so what does the next stage of this conflict look like and is there any chance of a real ceasefire right now there is a possibility of a ceasefire if the pressure over the hostages grows on Netanyahu and we know that for example the CIA director William Burns is negotiating via Qatar with Hamas for another short-term ceasefire that would release more hostages so so there is a possibility of a ceasefire on the horizon whether it's a durable ceasefire is a second question I think at core what we're seeing with secretary Austin coming to see the Israeli government is a difference over what this war should look like and what the day after should look like right now um Israel's can is claiming they will essentially fight the war till the very end the United States is calling for a more targeted operation surgical strikes Elite combo units but less sort of what I describe as main infantry fighting the second question is who controls Gaza the day afterwards the US has made it very clear that the Palestinian Authority is the only actor in town that the US will back to govern Gaza afterwards and over the weekend benj Netanyahu essentially said we'll never let that happen and so right now I see between United States and Israel is a real sort of parting of the ways of the views is to how the war is conducted and what the postwar looks like and I'm not sure that's going to resolve without a confrontation well Michael we know there are calls even from Israelis for Netanyahu to step down saying enough is enough so will he I don't think so and Netanyahu is the great political Survivor of Israel he has been at the very top of Israeli politics for over 20 years the idea that he's simply going to give up is not in fact actually the case actually I think you can read a lot of what he's doing recently as about his own political survival that is to say positioning yourself as the person who's going to defy the Americans fight the war to the very end and who might even block a Palestinian State on the grounds that they don't want another October 7th terrorist attack to happen again it's kind of part of his electoral strategy he plays to the right by saying I'm the guy who can stop this from happening again and I'm the guy who will defy International pressure and so I think that's part of what's going on at the moment is that Netanyahu is making that play and increasingly it's look like looking like he's playing politics with the hostages and he's playing politics with the war which is making him even more deeply unpopular at home and increasing the level of pressure that he has abroad Michael Boyle thank you so much for joining me thank you for having me