The United States is still pressuring Israel to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Israel agreed to the terms of a cease-fire that will see all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops leaving Gaza.
Secretary Blinken does not appear to have consulted with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about it, though.
There’s a lot to unpack here.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that despite reported comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has agreed to withdrawals of IDF forces from Gaza that are laid out in the recent mediators’ proposal to get closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
“The agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of IDF withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that,” said Blinken in remarks to reporters before departing Qatar.
Blinken was responding to Israeli media reports that Netanyahu told a group of families of terror victims and hostages that he conveyed to Blinken that Israel will not leave the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border and the Netzarim corridor, which bisects Gaza, “regardless of the pressure to do so.” They are “strategic military and political assets,” Netanyahu added, according to the reports.
It would seem to be a mistake to give up those corridors, as they allow Hamas to resupply, but what seems a greater mistake for Israel is to agree to anything that leaves Hamas intact and in charge of any part of Gaza. The only thing this will accomplish is to allow Hamas to regroup, re-arm, and try again, and who knows but that perhaps they will coordinate more effectively with Hezbollah for a two-pronged attack, which would be much harder for Israel to counter.
Secretary Blinken has reportedly warned Israel that the United States will not accept any agreement that leaves IDF troops in Gaza — or that removes Hamas from the board.
🚨Blinken demands capitulation. 🇺🇸 🇮🇱
Warns Netanyahu: We will not accept a long-term occupation of GAZA. A deal must be reached within days to end the war with Hamas intact. – @N12NewsYou thought this was about hostages? It was never about hostages. pic.twitter.com/B3MGAjiNje
— Ron M. (@Jewtastic) August 20, 2024
Earlier on Tuesday, my colleague Becca Lower reported on the initial news of the possible agreement:
Previously on RedState: Blinken, Netanyahu Break Bread on ‘Bridging’ Ceasefire Deal Israel Can Live With
Becca writes:
Blinken went on to call the meeting with the Israeli leader “constructive,” adding that Netanyahu “confirmed to [him] that Israel supports the bridging proposal…. the next important step is for Hamas to say ‘yes.’”
The AP notes that no details were released on what this “bridging” proposal might include. In recent days, the Hamas terror group evinced disappointment that the U.S. is being so chummy with Israel. Anyway, here’s what Blinken said:
See it for yourself.
US @SecBlinken clarifies that Israel has accepted the bridging proposal for a hostage deal and a ceasefire.
“It is now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” he added. pic.twitter.com/Pl0ImW9VTL
— Oren Marmorstein (@OrenMarmorstein) August 19, 2024
Here’s the catch (there’s always a catch:) Hamas has not yet agreed to any of this, and as we also learned on Tuesday, the IDF has recovered the bodies of six of the remaining hostages, who were executed by Hamas.
See Related: HEARTBREAKING: IDF Recovers Bodies of Six Hostages Executed by Hamas
Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be contradicting Secretary Blinken’s statements on the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostage families Tuesday that a cease-fire deal may not be reached and that the Israeli military will not relinquish control of the Gazan-Egyptian border, a key demand of the Hamas militant group.
And Hamas also weighed in:
The Biden administration has been promoting a bridging proposal amid hopes a deal could be hammered out by week’s end. After Netanyahu announced Monday that Israel could accept the plan in principle, Hamas released a statement dismissing the plan as little more than a list of Israel’s demands. Hours later, President Joe Biden accused Hamas of “backing away” from a deal.
Hamas expressed “great astonishment and disapproval” for Biden’s claim, blaming the “complete American bias toward the Zionist occupation and the full partnership in the aggression and war of genocide against defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
In simple English, it looks like Hamas has told Israel and the United States where they can stick their agreement, that being in a place where the sun indeed never shines.
The terms of the agreement proposed by the United States — the one that Secretary Blinken claims Israel agreed to — as well as Israel’s stated priorities and Hamas’s demands, all have one thing in common: They leave the hostages, however many that Hamas has not yet murdered, twisting in the breeze. But Israel has to be considering the strategic picture here, and heartbreaking as the plight of the hostages is, any deal that leaves Hamas in charge of Gaza or, indeed, present in any form whatsoever, should be unacceptable for Israel. It’s baffling that the Biden administration seems incapable of absorbing this reality; leaving Hamas in charge in Gaza would have been much like driving Germany out of France, the Low Countries, Poland, and the Soviet Union in 1944, and then telling Hitler that he had better go back to Berlin and behave himself.
That’s not how any of this works.
The United States needs to acknowledge what Israel seems to understand all too well: Any peace deal that leaves Hamas in existence is unacceptable to Israel and for very good reasons.
