Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is attempting to peddle the line that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the Biden proposal for negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire, but that Hamas has rejected it.
This position is simply dishonest, and forms part of a pattern whereby the Biden administration runs interference for the extremist, fascist Israeli cabinet, which has repeatedly rejected any call for a ceasefire. In fact, the Israeli government has issued no communique stating its acceptance of the Biden plan, and both Netanyahu and powerful cabinet members have on the contrary vocally rejected elements of the Biden plan.
On Sunday, according to the Israeli newspaper Arab 48, Netanyahu told the families of soldiers killed in the Gaza campaign, “There was no deal because we will not give up on completing the war objectives. The main disagreement with Hamas revolves around the commitment to end the fighting without completing the objectives.”
Netanyahu’s war goals are the complete destruction of Hamas (and apparently of Gaza in general). Netanyahu says he will not end the fighting until all his goals are fulfilled. He openly said that “there was no deal” because it would require stopping short of wiping out the people with whom he is negotiating.
Biden’s three-stage plan begins with a pause in the fighting and partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, then a prisoner exchange and complete Israeli withdrawal, and then the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip. But this plan implies that the fighting would end permanently so that rebuilding could start. Netanyahu is rejecting this third stage and pledging to start the war back up as soon as the hostage exchange is complete. You have to ask what advantage the latter proposal has for Hamas, or for anyone in Gaza. Although Biden represented the plan as Israeli, Netanyahu has disputed that.
The Young Turks Video: “Netanyahu Declares War on Biden’s Peace Deal”
After Monday’s UNSC resolution for a ceasefire, a high Israeli official told Arab 48, “Israel will not end the war before achieving all its goals.” These included “eliminating Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, returning all hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
And this is why it is disingenuous for Blinken to say that Netanyahu accepted the Biden plan whereas Hamas rejected it.
Moreover, Netanyahu’s political coalition in parliament has a slim majority of 64 seats out of 120. His coalition partners, drawn from the Israel equivalent of neo-Nazis, have made it clear that they will withdraw from the government if he negotiates with Hamas.
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich thundered that they would withdraw from Netanyahu’s government and cause the government to collapse if he accepted Biden’s proposal. Their Religious Zionism/ Jewish Power fascist bloc has 14 seats, which would leave Netanyahu with only 50 and would cause him to lose the prime ministership.
This is why you haven’t heard Netanyahu give a speech saying he accepted Biden’s proposal or that he accepted the UNSC ceasefire resolution. He can’t. He wouldn’t be prime minister the next day. This is why we have to hear from Blinken that Netanyahu privately assured him that he would go along with the Biden plan. And this is why Blinken has to put the blame on Hamas, because otherwise the Biden administration would have to admit that their own ally is refusing to cooperate.
It *is* refusing to cooperate.
So why is Blinken condemning Hamas for intransigence? Its leadership accepted the Biden plan, but just wants a guarantee that after a multi-phase hostage exchange there will be further negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire and that the Israelis won’t just start the war back up as soon as the last hostage is out. It is a war crime for Hamas to have taken those hostages, and it is horrible that those poor people are still being held. But realistically speaking, Hamas took the hostages as bargaining chips. What Biden and Blinken are asking is for them to give the chips up for no gain, so that they end up being even weaker than before, as Netanyahu immediate revs back up his massive war machine.
These are the second and third phases that Hamas will accept, according to a text published by Middle East Eye:
- The Second stage (42 days):
15. Announce restoration of a sustainable calm (cessation of military operations and hostilities permanently) and its commencement prior to the exchange of detainees and prisoners between the two sides – all remaining Israeli detainees who are living men (civilians and soldiers) – in exchange for a number of prisoners in Israeli jails and detention centers to be agreed upon, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
The Third stage (42 days):
16. The exchange of all human remains between the two sides after locating and identifying them.
17. The commencement of the implementation of the plan for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip for the duration of 3-5 years including houses, civilian facilities and civilian infrastructure and the support of all those affected under the supervision of a number of countries and organisations including Egypt, Qatar and the UN.
18. Ending the full blockade on the Gaza Strip, including opening of the border crossings, especially Rafah crossing, facilitating movement of people and transfer of goods, and providing electricity around the clock in all areas of the Gaza Strip.
Guarantors of the agreement:
Qatar, Egypt, the US, the UN, Turkey, Russia, and China.
That’s not a rejection of the Biden plan.
Blinken appears to believe that if he can get Netanyahu to pause the fighting and move to hostage negotiations, he can create momentum toward a truce and a cessation of hostilities, regardless of what the extremist Israeli government says in public.
But Blinken is naive if he thinks that Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich will yield to such mere diplomatic momentum.
Blinken is frustrated with Hamas because it wants more than a vague expectation of momentum toward a truce. It wants a genuine cease-fire and end of hostilities. This position implies that it does accept a ceasefire, it just doesn’t believe that the Israeli government does. And given how truculent and slippery the Israeli government has been on this issue, you can’t really fault this suspicion.
Yahya Sinwar and the other leaders of the Qassam Brigades, the Hamas paramilitary, who are doing the dickering are themselves wretched war criminals and you only wish they could be whisked off to the Hague for trial. If the Israeli military were merely trying to accomplish that goal, one could just wish it luck. The reason a ceasefire is necessary, however, is that the Israeli government is waging a total war on Gaza civilians. More tens of thousands of innocents will die if this war goes on. Biden said that the toll “cannot be 60,000.” But that is where we are headed.
The way you get a deal is for Biden to be presidential and read Netanyahu the riot act, and start bringing some pain to the far right government.
Otherwise, why bother to give that speech at the end of May? Is it just in hopes of gaslighting the left of the Democratic Party that the president is doing something? Because giving a speech is not diplomacy, and neither is being dishonest with us about Tel Aviv’s actual stance.
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