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Blog post for today - Is A Cease Fire Around the Corner
Israel has accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by US President Joe Biden, an aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday, as Jerusalem waited for a Hamas response.
The three-phase proposal, which Hamas has yet to accept and which the war cabinet discussed on Sunday night, would see the return of the remaining 125 hostages over a period of time.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal unveiled on Friday, was “a deal we agreed to – it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them. There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israel’s conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization,” have not changed.
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told ABC that the proposal itself was an Israeli one, which was transmitted to Hamas already on Thursday night. “We’re waiting for an official response from Hamas. We would note that publicly, Hamas officials came out and welcomed this proposal,” Kirby said.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the defense establishment was exploring day-after governing plans for Gaza that did not include Hamas. “We will isolate areas [in Gaza], remove Hamas operatives from these areas, and introduce forces that will enable an alternative government to form – an alternative that threatens Hamas,” he said. He stressed that Israel would not accept the rule of Hamas in Gaza at any stage in any process aimed at ending the war.
US Secretary of State Blinken held separate phone calls on Sunday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz about the latest proposal for a hostage deal with Hamas. “The Secretary commended Israel’s readiness to conclude a deal and affirmed that the onus is on Hamas to accept,” according to a readout of the call with Gallant released by the State Department. Blinken stressed that the terrorist group in Gaza “should take the deal without delay.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Monday that Hamas views the latest proposal “positively,” and that “we are now waiting for the Israeli response.”
Blinken claimed in both calls that the proposal “would advance Israel’s long-term security interests,” telling Gallant that it would enable “the possibility for further integration in the region.” The Biden administration has for months been engaging in a diplomatic push for Israeli-Saudi normalization.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted the bipartisan invitation to address a joint session of the US Congress. The invitation was issues in the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Minority Leader of the Senate, both Republicans, along with the Minority Leader of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate. Given that it can be assumed that the invitation carried the blessing as well of President Biden, although it is not clear if, when or how he will meet with Netanyahu.
On a personal note, I still feel that Netanyahu will be walking into a challenging situation, Certain members of both houses will not attend as a protest (For example, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has already said that he will boycott the session) and there will no doubt be massive demonstrations in Washington against the Prime Minister and Israel’s conduct of the war. We all have to hope that Netanyahu will be smart, choose his words carefully, and represent Israel in the best possible light.
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From Israel: Unconscionable and Vile!!
By Arlene Kushner
When writing my posts I strive for a professional tone even when I am tempted to use intemperate language. In this instance, as in the past, I will refrain from the intemperate, but confess readily that right now this requires an extraordinary degree of self-control. The lying, the attempted manipulation, the deceit…
Those who understand, will understand
Before I begin an examination – hopefully brief – of what is happening with respect to Biden’s “plan” for the end of the war in Gaza, I want to expand upon my earlier comment in one regard: I had noted in my last posting that Biden has, from the beginning, gotten in Israel’s way, when it came to our attempts to take out Hamas – even though Hamas represented an existential threat.
Most people accept the rationale that this is all political: That the tenor of US thinking now is progressive (it’s more than just a couple of states where he is seeking votes), and he is playing to this. That he is willing to throw Israel under the bus in order to garner votes.
I would not dispute the fact that there is likely truth to this. And were it the beginning and end of it, it would be deplorable enough. We certainly realize by now that we must disregard all of Joe’s comments about being a Zionist in his heart, always having our back, etc. It’s a myth. There has been enough written about his political history – his clash with Menachem Begin, for example – to know that the notion that he cares about Jews and Israel is a crock. I remember the unseemly furor he made when he was here as vice president and some routine building plans in Ramat Shlomo were announced.
However, I want to suggest that there is also something else going on. That something else is a tendency to protect or favor Muslims.
Why would I say this? Because of his mentor and guide, Barack Obama.
There is a reason that many refer to Biden’s term as president as Obama’s third term. He is on the scene (I believe he is the only former president to remain in Washington DC after leaving the White House), present and wielding influence over a man whose mental competency has deteriorated. What is more, Biden’s administration is chock full of individuals, including Antony Blinken, who served first under Obama.
To the point, we might look at Rob Malley, who was Biden’s envoy to Iran, and before that in the Obama administration. Malley had his security clearance revoked for a year and now the FBI is investigating the possibility that he placed classified information in the wrong hands.
Obama was a Muslim according to Islamic law, and in my view, he quietly functioned with that identity. What was clear to me from the get-go is that he favored and protected Muslims. Radical Muslims.
I must make my case briefly here but provide two examples. For his very first international speech after becoming president he went to Egypt and invited the Muslim Brotherhood to come hear him, even though the Brotherhood was outlawed in Egypt. Then-president Mubarak was so incensed that he didn’t attend the speech. But I noted it then and understood this signaled something of great seriousness.
In 2009, there was a mass shooting in Fort Hood, TX by Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim psychiatrist who had confessed to an associate that he felt it was impossible to be a loyal American and a loyal Muslim at the same time. He killed 13 people.
This was clearly a terror attack. Obama, as president, insisted that this be listed as a “work accident.” You see, this poor psychiatrist was just overworked.
I suggest it serves us ill to forget these incidents and neglect to at least consider Obama’s influence on Biden’s thinking and decisions.
In my opinion, there would have been ways for Biden to show the progressives in the electorate that he protected Arabs, without attempting to stop us just as we moved to take out Hamas.
He could have promoted his activity to get humanitarian aid into Gaza for the civilians. He could have bragged about the fact that he prevented Israel from the major attack in Rafah that had been planned and forced a much more moderate action. And so on.
But he was protecting Hamas, attempting to provide them with the opportunity to come back in Gaza in strength.
This is enough to inspire intemperate thoughts. Very intemperate.
I want to cite some extremely important observations by Asher Fredman, senior managing fellow for the Misgav Institute for National Security (with emphasis added). I recommend that you read his entire article, “Biden's deceptive hostage deal threatens Israel's existence”, and then, please, share it very broadly. It contains critical information.
“The deal laid out by US President Joe Biden in his May 31 address on the war in Gaza is disingenuous and disastrous... The plan he described, if implemented, would create an existential threat to the State of Israel…
“Biden then made a statement of unparalleled chutzpah: ‘The people of Israel should know they can make this offer without any further risk to their own security because they’ve already devastated Hamas forces over the past eight months...’ The reality is that Hamas still has many intact fighters and senior leadership – even if it is now operating as smaller terror cells rather than battalions, or laying low until the IDF withdraws.
“Once reconstruction began in Gaza, the Islamist terror group would quickly rebuild its capabilities. The idea that leaving Hamas in power does not constitute a severe risk to Israel’s security, especially to those Israelis in the western Negev region, is ludicrous.
“President Biden suggested that the United States would ‘help forge a diplomatic resolution, one that ensures Israel’s security’ and that ‘with a deal, a rebuilding of Gaza will begin... in a manner that does not allow Hamas to re-arm.’
“He ignores the inconvenient truth that diplomatic resolutions have failed time and again. They failed to prevent Hezbollah from greatly increasing its arsenal following the Second Lebanon War…
“Likewise, the idea that with Hamas still in power, reconstruction could take place without enabling the terrorist group to rearm, is simply laughable. The current war in Gaza has revealed the far-reaching extent to which supplies that entered Gaza over the years, including for humanitarian purposes, were used first and foremost by Hamas, to build its terror infrastructure.
“With regard to those who would oppose such a plan, Biden claimed that ‘the hostages are not a priority for them.’
“This was a false and outrageous statement.
“The fact that there are those who recognize that leaving Hamas in power will destroy Israel’s deterrence and encourage countless murderous attacks and kidnappings of Israelis does not mean that they care any less about the hostages…
“It is important to realize that while Hamas may be willing to release some of the hostages, it will never release all of them, as they serve as a human shield for its leadership. Under the deal that Biden describes, a ceasefire will continue, and Hamas will remain in power, as long as negotiations over the second stage of the hostage release continue – negotiations that can drag on for years.
“Biden then assured that the ‘United States will always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.’
“Let there be no mistake, however. Biden did not say that he supports Israel’s right to destroy the genocidal terrorist organizations bent on its destruction.
“He said that Israel will have the right to shoot down rockets fired at its cities, while its citizens hide in shelters. This is the Biden doctrine with regards to Israel: Defense, yes. Offense, no.
“If the fighting stops with Hamas in power, the ‘day after’ will never begin. We will simply return to October 6. Only this time, with zero deterrence…”
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Judicial Watch announced that the White House admitted in a federal court that the transcript of President Joe Biden’s testimony to Special Counsel Robert Hur is not accurate and is missing “filler words (such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’)” and words that “may have been repeated when spoken (such as ‘I, I’ or ‘and, and’)” which were sometimes “only listed a single time in the transcripts.”
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