America’s attention is entirely focused on the criminal conviction of Donald Trump by a New York court. Yes, it’s enormously important and a travesty that stains the American justice system. But there is a lot going on that demands our attention including the war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden’s $320 million pier … a lifeline to food and medical supplies, is the perfect metaphor for the Biden administration.”
On Friday, saying “It’s time for this war to end,” President Biden told the world that Israel had made a three-part peace proposal which would begin with a six-week cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from the most densely populated areas of Gaza, a flood of humanitarian relief would flow, and an exchange of some hostages — including Americans — for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Our Border and the Gotaways)
The “new” plan is supposed to lead to a permanent truce and reconstruction of Gaza.
In a surprising move that may end his political career, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to the plan on Sunday. Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy adviser, said it 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 added that Israel remains committed to “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization.”
Israel cannot have it both ways. It cannot destroy Hamas if it accepts Biden’s plan.
Hamas is supposedly looking favorably on the “new” plan. But Hamas has never accepted any terms which would releases any hostages before total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. It has yet to agree to Biden’s plan.
There are three problems with Biden’s “new” plan.
The first problem is that it was Biden’s plan, not Israel’s. It was simply a restatement of Biden’s earlier plans which both Hamas and Israel had rejected. The “new” plan, same as the old plans, would leave Hamas able to govern Gaza and continue its threat against Israel.
Please remember that Hamas’s leaders have promised more attacks like the October 7 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis and others and in which Hamas took about 240 hostages. They promise to keep up such attacks until Israel is destroyed.
The second problem is that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government may collapse because of his agreement to Biden’s plan.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said they are opposed to striking any deal before Hamas is destroyed. The two represent part of the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu assembled shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack. Ben-Gvir vowed to take Netanyahu’s government down rather than accept the Biden terms.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he was also opposed to any truce before Hamas was destroyed and no longer a threat to Israel. This deal is a major retreat from that position.
On the other side of the Israeli political coin former Israeli chief of staff and former general Benny Gantz said he’d quit the coalition if Netanyahu didn’t come up with a post-war plan for Gaza by June 7.
Gantz, who is close to the Biden administration, may yet quit the coalition and possibly bring about another Israeli general election. He has already filed a bill to dissolve Israel’s parliament and cause a general election, the sixth in less than five years. He would need at least sixty-one votes in parliament to dissolve it, a simple majority of the 121 members. There is no indication that he has anything close to that number in support of his bill.
The third problem is that Israeli forces have discovered several tunnels going between Gaza and Egypt.
As we have heard repeatedly, Egypt’s President el-Sisi has refused to accept any would-be immigrants fleeing Gaza. The discovery of the tunnels — which the el-Sisi government must be aware of — indicates Egyptian sympathy (and possibly Egyptian cooperation) with Hamas.
The discovery of the tunnels is enormously significant, pointing — possibly — to Egypt’s willingness to provide a means to smuggle arms and supplies from Iran to Hamas.
In short, Biden’s “new” plan cannot succeed unless Hamas agrees to release the hostages — both alive and dead — among those it took on October 7.
The key to any peace deal is for Hamas to release its remaining hostages. About one hundred have been released so far, and an unknown number — including five Americans — may still be alive. Hamas is also holding the bodies of the dead hostages. Israeli forces have recently found three of the hostages’ bodies in the fighting that continues in the hundreds of tunnels Hamas carved under Gaza.
Has has — so far — refused to release the living hostages, and the bodies of the dead, until Israel withdraws entirely from Gaza and makes its withdrawal permanent.
To Biden, the lives of the hostages — including the five Americans believed to still be alive — is an afterthought. He should, instead, be pressuring Hamas with every diplomatic and military means at his disposal. But so far Biden’s efforts — even his Gaza relief pier — have failed to obtain the release of any of the hostages.
Biden’s $320 million pier, which was supposed to give Gazans a lifeline to food and medical supplies, is the perfect metaphor for the Biden administration. It broke apart in the first big storm that came to it. You would have thought that the engineers would have taken weather into account but you’d be wrong. (READ MORE: Biden Wants Hamas ‘Refugees’)
Whether Hamas agrees to the latest Biden plan is unresolved as this is being written. Even if it does and if it lives up to its obligation to release the hostages the war between Hamas and Israel won’t end.
