Biden's Proposal Offers Hope to Hostages' Families – but Falls Short of Netanyahu's Promises - Israel News - Haaretz.com
The speech delivered by U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday came across like a near-final American effort to return Hamas and Israel to a path to negotiations in the hopes of ending the war in the Gaza Strip.
What is unclear, at this point, is to what extent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware of, or even involved to some degree, in U.S. plans. The president presented his proposal for a deal as an Israeli one. But it seems that, as has often been evident throughout the negotiations, there are gaps between the American and Israeli interpretation of such proposals – mainly with regard to the stages of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and its extent.
The mediators – the U.S., Qatar and Egypt – must also bridge a critical point of disagreement between the two sides. Netanyahu has declared, and did so again after Biden's speech, that the war will continue even after a hostage deal is completed. For Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, there is no deal without a commitment to completely end all combat.
Seen through a video camera viewfinder, U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the situation in the Middle East, in the State Dining Room of the White House on May 31, 2024.Credit: AFP
The extent of advance coordination between the mediators and the two negotiating partners ahead of Biden's detailed speech is unknown. Is this an attempt by the mediators, one that Hamas was told of in advance, to impose a settlement on Israel? Or – and this seems less likely, for now – does Netanyahu actually want external pressure as an exit ramp from the road of an endless war that he knows in his heart of hearts he cannot win?
In a background briefing to the press following Biden's speech, a senior administration official said that the president had in fact presented the latest proposal made by Israel. He claimed that the onus is now on Hamas to prove that it will not scuttle a deal. This sounds like an attempt by the administration to hold Netanyahu to things he writes and says behind closed doors. If that is indeed the Israeli proposal, Netanyahu will find it hard to explain it to his far-right partners. It contradicts some of the things he has said in public until recently.
The Biden administration prepared a comprehensive effort. A few hours after the speech, Netanyahu received an official invitation from the two major parties in the U.S. to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress. The prime minister has been waiting for such an invitation for many long months. Democrats were in no rush to agree until now, angered by how he was managing the war. It now seems that there is a mixture of various carrots and sticks at play that are designed to make Israel more amenable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to his Likud party faction meeting at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem May 20, 2024.Credit: Ronen Zvulun/ REUTERS
Setting Biden's speech for Friday evening, Israel time, afforded a hiatus of almost 24 hours during which two religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition could not respond because of Shabbat. Netanyahu's office strayed from its usual conduct and issued a response that night – one that made it difficult to discern what his reaction was.
Before that, an anonymous source (this time, it's not certain that it was Netanyahu himself) assailed the proposal. This source claimed that it would constitute a victory for Hamas. Midday on Saturday, another announcement was made by the Prime Minister's Office, in English only. It labeled any proposal that did not include "the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities" as a non-starter.
As Shabbat ended, the prime minister again found himself stuck between Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir on one side and Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot on the other. The far-right wing of the coalition's objection to the proposal is self-evident. For this gang, it's more important to beat Hamas than to get the hostages back alive. Ending the war will cut off their dreams of restoring settlements in the Gaza Strip and close the window of opportunity they planned to use to topple the Palestinian Authority's rule in West Bank cities.
The National Unity Party already has one foot out the door, a week before the deadline it set for leaving the wartime government without a postwar plan for Gaza. If Netanyahu accedes to Biden's pressure, he will need Gantz and Eisenkot in the government. Biden's speech may restore some wind to the sails of the protest movement, which is demanding the return of the hostages, an end to the war and, according to most of its participants, the resignation of the government and a new election. So far, it has been beset mainly by feelings of urgency and despair. Biden may have provided it with some hope.
Another seven months
Several of Biden's statements raise concerns from Israel's perspective. He wants to end the war now, but as Netanyahu's response indicates, Biden does not say how Hamas' rule in Gaza will be ousted, with Israeli military actions not having achieved this. Biden argues that Israel can suffice with the damage it has already wrought on Hamas, which will not allow it to repeat the slaughter of October 7. This is far from what Netanyahu promised his voters, even if the prime minister has recently reduced his frequent mention of achieving total victory.
Smoke billows following Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 31, 2024.Credit: AFP
On the other hand, the lives of dozens of hostages are at stake. A hundred and twenty-five Israelis and foreigners, civilians and soldiers, are still being held in Gaza. According to some assessments, almost half of them are no longer alive. Obviously, the combination of their imprisonment conditions, abuse by Hamas and Israeli attacks are putting the lives of the remaining ones at risk.
On Friday, Hamas released another hostage video. This time, it contained the voice of hostage Noa Argamani, who was pleading for her and the other hostages' lives. In any analysis of the pros and cons of a deal that may soon come to pass, supreme importance must be given to the lives of these hostages. The failure of the government and the defense establishment in abandoning them on the day of the massacre and in failing to return them since then is a wound that will remain unhealed in the Israeli public psyche.
People attend a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and to call for the release of hostages kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 1, 2024.Credit: Marko Djurica/ REUTERS
Last week, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said that the war in Gaza would last for at least seven more months. Before the furor created by this remark had abated, another one arose. Statements made during a tense discussion he had held with families of the hostages were aired by Channel 12 News.
Hanegbi, according to people present at that meeting, accused some of their representatives of being overly dramatic, hinting that there would be no further deal beyond a humanitarian one in which women and elderly hostages are returned. According to Gil Dickmann, one of the families' representatives interviewed on Army Radio, Hanegbi said that without a change in public opinion polls, Netanyahu would not pursue a deal.
With backbencher coalition lawmakers assailing the hostages' families and Netanyahu supporters physically assaulting them in the streets, it is no surprise that the hostage families' fury is mounting. The question is whether these issues, including Biden's speech, are enough to bring the masses out of their apathy and return them to the streets. This scenario greatly worries Netanyahu, as attested to in part by a Haaretz report by Gidi Weitz, according to which Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar rebuffed pressure by Likud ministers to use the Shin Bet as a secret police service against protest organizers.