Biden needs to mandate a reassessment from the State Department immediately.
After news of suppression of intelligence, Biden proposed the ceasefire. The agreement would have allowed him to have direct oversight of the negotiations between Israel and Hamas and ensure they remained within international law.
Without the ceasefire, he’s back to relying on a compromised intelligence report and congressional support for munitions supply. Deviation from both of these branches would certainly land him in an impeachment trial for acting in bad faith.
The official aims, or the obvious ones?
So, the “Israeli” proposal Biden was talking about is not supported by Israel.
On this specific issue, I’m not even mad at Israel. The US is free to offer potential deals. But it does not get to unilaterally declare that one side has agreed to it.
The story would be different if Israel had a history of listening to the US and caring about its image. In that case, establishing a narrative that it is an Israeli deal would put pressure Israel to accept it; as the alternative would be to loose face internationally and embarres and hurt the credibility of their ally. Even in that case, it would be a tough call, because that kind of hard ball burns a lot of political capital. However, that is a moot point, as Israel has clearly demonstrated those concerns are not a major factor in its decision making.
As to the merits of Israel’s decision to reject the deal. The complete military defeat of Hamas is a practical impossibility. At best, you will get a hollow victory where something forms under a different name.
Netenyahu does list a more restricted goal:
the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities
What you are left with is pure terrorism. No counterparty you can negotiate with. No internal counterbalance that cares about civilian concerns (aa week as those voices are already within Hamas). Just a loose knit enemy with no interrest other than violence, and no capacity to surrender.
Whats more, even in principle, Netenyahu’s position is incompatible with any negotiation. A deal entered into with an organization that has no military or governmental abilities is worthless. Hamas would have no capability to enforce the deal.
Biden announced it after receiving an agreement from Netanyahu. They agreed to it yesterday and backtracked today.
Why, it’s almost as though Netanyahu is deliberately trying to make Biden look foolish and weak.
It really just makes himself look like more of an untrustworthy bastard than he already did, which is impressive.
If Biden, once again, lets Netanyahu do this without meaningful consequences, then Biden literally is foolish and weak.
Honestly, at this point watching Biden and Netenyahu is like watching a friend with an abusive partner, but they just won’t leave, always coming to their defense and totally believes that god will help save them.
Like. No. He’s a genocidal maniac. Get a divorce. It’s okay, if your Zionist prophecy is real, it’ll attend to itself.
Israel war aims: kill all Hamas.
Biden: I just don’t understand why Hamas won’t accept a deal that meets Isreal’s aims.
You’ve got that reversed. Israel refused the deal because it doesn’t allow them to eradicate Hamas.
That is what I said. Israel will never accept a deal that doesn’t allow them to kill the other party in the negotiations, and Biden is confused why he can’t just negotiate his way to peace.
Biden isn’t confused. Netanyahu agreed to the ceasefire yesterday and changed his mind today. Hamas remains in agreement of the ceasefire terms.
Today, Israel confirmed it supports the deal.
U.S. officials said they are encouraged that Netanyahu hasn’t pushed backed on Biden’s speech or denied it reflects the Israeli proposal delivered to Hamas several days ago.
So… the opposite of what Israel proposed yesterday?
Not necessarily. Netanyahu said “no permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed and all hostages are released.”
In yesterday’s proposal, hostages are freed in phase two which is before the permanent ceasefire in phase three.
The question is whether “Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed” already. Biden seems to think so. I think this may be a sign that Israel is about to declare victory.
