Israel pushes back against Biden’s ceasefire plan, US says it could be ‘decisive moment

The US said a fresh ceasefire proposal that would pause fighting between Israel and Hamas for at least six weeks could mark a “decisive moment” in the conflict — if both sides agree terms after several failed attempts at peace.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Israel was working on an alternative to Hamas rule in Gaza that involves isolating areas to remove Hamas operatives and introducing forces that will allow the building of an alternative government.  

Israel pushes back against Gaza ceasefire outlined by Biden

Two days after US President Joe Biden laid out what he called an Israeli proposal to end its war on Hamas, it was clear that key aspects of the deal had not, in fact, been embraced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As the war in Gaza approaches its eighth month, the impasse between Israel and Hamas over exchanging hostages for prisoners remains unchanged: Israel will pause fighting but not end it as long as Hamas’ governing and military structures remain intact, while Hamas will free hostages only if it’s guaranteed a permanent ceasefire.

Biden said Israel had battered Hamas enough to prevent it from carrying out another attack like the one on 7 October, when it killed some 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, and that the time had come to end the war, free the hostages and start to rebuild the badly damaged Gaza Strip.

Israel’s subsequent campaign to destroy the group has left more than 35,000 people dead in Gaza, according to authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, and triggered a grave humanitarian crisis.

“[Hamas] don’t have the military capabilities to do what they did on the seventh of October,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House, said on Sunday on ABC’s This Week.  Militarily, “the Israelis have accomplished most of their goals in Gaza”, he said.

Netanyahu’s government says preventing another 7 October — the worst massacre in the country’s history — is the wrong criterion. Its position remains that Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the US and European Union, must be deprived of any aggressive capacity and that Israel won’t stop until that’s been achieved.

Biden laid out a three-phase plan on Friday.

Hamas said it welcomed any proposal “based on a permanent ceasefire” as well as “a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”.

Israeli officials said the plan they’ve agreed to doesn’t include a permanent ceasefire and Netanyahu issued two statements over the weekend contradicting Biden.

In the first statement, Netanyahu said he’d authorised his negotiators to present a proposal aimed at returning the 100-plus hostages remaining in Gaza, but which “would also enable Israel to continue the war until all its objectives are achieved, including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities”.

Read more: Biden sticks to ‘tightrope’ Israel policy as Rafah deaths mount

The second statement was more pointed: “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat.”

The idea that Israel would agree to a permanent ceasefire before those conditions were fulfilled was “a non-starter”, the statement added.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Israel was working on an alternative to Hamas rule in Gaza that involves isolating areas to remove Hamas operatives and introducing forces that will allow the building of an alternative government.

White House officials told reporters on Saturday that Netanyahu’s comments were related to domestic politics and part of an effort to appease his right-wing flank.

But that appears to have been wishful thinking from officials with their own political difficulties — left-leaning and young Democrats who may not vote for Biden in November because of the Gaza war.

Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition partners indeed rejected what Biden put forth in Israel’s name. As Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Saturday night, “I just spoke to the prime minister and made clear to him that we will have no part in a government that agrees to the proposed outline and ends the war without destroying Hamas.”

But concerns go beyond the far right. Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war Cabinet, stopped short of welcoming the Biden speech, saying merely that it was time “to formulate the next steps”.

There is, nonetheless, growing pressure in Israel for a deal that frees the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war. Opposition leader Yair Lapid endorsed Biden’s speech, as did President Isaac Herzog, and weekly demonstrations within Israel advocating for the war’s end have grown to more than 100,000. Leaks from within Israel’s negotiating team make clear that some members would accept an end to combat in exchange for freedom of all hostages.

Members of Israel’s security establishment — including former generals who run think tanks — are also ready for that. They say that with 36,000 Gazans dead, according to Hamas estimates, and no sign of the capture of top Hamas leaders, Israel should focus on repairing its fraying relationship with Washington and the Arab world rather than keep the fighting going.

Some have taken to the airwaves to endorse Biden’s argument that “indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of ‘total victory’ will only bog down Israel in Gaza, draining the economic, military and human resources, and furthering Israel’s isolation in the world”.

Biden’s speech was clearly aimed at bolstering that perspective and pushing Netanyahu into that camp. As of Sunday, it was far from clear that it was working.

US says fresh Gaza ceasefire proposal is ‘decisive moment’

The US said a fresh ceasefire proposal that would pause fighting between Israel and Hamas for at least six weeks could mark a “decisive moment” in the conflict — if both sides agree terms after several failed attempts at peace.

Israel and Hamas have held back-and-forth negotiations via Qatari and Egyptian mediators throughout the nearly eight-month war that’s convulsed the Middle East and devastated the Gaza Strip.

The two sides have been unable to reach an agreement to pause the fighting since a short break in late November. Negotiators appeared close to striking an understanding about a month ago, only for talks to fall apart. Since then, Israel has sent ground troops into Rafah, the southern Gazan city where it says some Hamas leaders and thousands of fighters are based.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke separately by phone about the proposal with his counterparts in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all countries key to longer-term regional stability. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres endorsed the framework.

For Biden, an agreement would help blunt the political damage he’s sustained, as his support for Israel has fractured his electoral coalition. Progressive voters have called on him to break with Netanyahu and restrict arms shipments, while a series of high-profile protests on college campuses have added further pressure.

Biden sketched out a three-part road map for the agreement, with a first phase that would last for six weeks and see Israel withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza. Hamas would release some hostages and the bodies of some of those killed in captivity, while Israel would return some Palestinian prisoners.

A second phase would see the exchange of all remaining living hostages and the removal of Israeli troops from Gaza, followed by a third phase that would see a major reconstruction plan commence. DM