President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Wednesday night in another attempt to pressure Israel into further concessions to Hamas in a bid to save the faltering hostage release talks brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar.
In a readout following the call, the White House said Biden and Netanyahu “discussed active and ongoing US efforts to support Israel’s defense against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, to include ongoing defensive US military deployments.”
Iran — and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah — continue to threaten a “major response” to the July 31 assassinations in Beirut of Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukr and Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, both of which are being blamed on Israel.
The Israeli government has taken responsibility for the elimination of Fuad Shukr, but not for the assassination of Haniyeh.
“The President stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles,” the White House added.
The call came the same evening Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to leave Doha after visits to Israel and then Cairo in his continuing effort to close the deal. Talks — without the essential second party, Hamas — are set to resume this weekend in Cairo.
“With our partners in Egypt and Qatar, our message is simple, it’s clear, and it’s urgent: We need to get the ceasefire and hostage agreement over the finish line, and we need to do it now,” Blinken told reporters on the tarmac in Doha.
“Time is of the essence because with every passing day the well-being and lives of the hostages are in jeopardy. Time is of the essence because every single day women, children, men in Gaza are suffering without access to adequate food, medicine, and at risk of being wounded or dying in fighting that they didn’t start and they cannot stop.
“We’re united in our work with the parties to try to bring this agreement across the finish line. And Qatar and Egypt in particular are in direct contact with Hamas, working to bring it along as we work to conclude this agreement,” Blinken said — tactfully avoiding any mention of the fact that Hamas has refused to send any representatives to the talks since Gaza terror leader Yahya Sinwar was elected “absolute leader” following the assassination in Tehran of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh.
“President Biden put out a detailed plan for a ceasefire and
the release of hostages in May. The entire world endorsed it. The UN Security Council endorsed it. And since then we’ve been working to bring the parties along,” Blinken said — again, failing to mention that the only party refusing to “go along” with the plan has been Hamas.
“As we were working on implementing that plan, it was necessary hearing from both the parties to provide some clarifications,
to provide some additional detail, and that’s exactly what went into the bridging proposal that our three countries put forward just a little over a week ago.
“Israel has now accepted that proposal – I heard that directly from Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday – and we hope and expect that Hamas will do the same,” the Secretary said.
Hamas, however, is not cooperating and repeated its refusal to accept any proposal — including the latest one — that varies from its original demands: the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from every part of Gaza, reconstruction of all destroyed areas and the release of hundreds of senior terrorists from Israeli prisons.
Recently Hamas added another condition: a pledge from Israel not to kill Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7th massacre, abduction of hundreds of hostages and who was serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison until 2011, when he was freed with more than a thousand other terrorists in a swap for a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
“We’re engaged every single day with Israel, and our Qatari and Egyptian partners are engaged with Hamas, and over the coming days
we are going to do everything possible to, one, get Hamas on board with the bridging proposal, and then to make sure that both parties work on and agree to necessary details of implementation that would allow everything to go forward, Blinken added.
Problem 1: Egypt AGREES with Hamas on at least one of the sticking points that would ultimately lead to another existential war against Israel.
Problem 2: Hamas is rejecting the “bridging proposal” just as it has rejected every other proposal offered since last November, when it violated the one temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal it had agreed to.
