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For months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has refused to provide a timeline for ending the war against Hamas in Gaza, a reticence that his critics see as a political tactic. But he was put on the spot this weekend by President Biden’s announcement outline a truce proposal.
Mr. Netanyahu, a conservative, has long had to contend with personal, political and national interests. Now he appears to be facing a difficult choice between the survival of his hard-line, hawkish government and repatriating hostages held in Gaza while putting himself and Israel at risk. into a new course away from increasing international development. Isolation.
The prime minister’s critics have portrayed him as indecisive and say there are two Netanyahus: a pragmatic activist in the small war cabinet he has formed along with some moderate opponents, pushing promote its public legitimacy; and another is being held hostage by far-right members of his ruling coalition, who oppose any concessions to Hamas and who ensure his political survival .
Mr. Biden on Friday outlined the broad terms he said were offered by Israel to U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators, who are pushing for a deal to halt fighting and liberate Hostages held in Gaza. Israeli officials confirmed that the terms were in line with a ceasefire proposal that had been given the green light by Israel’s war cabinet but had not yet been presented to the Israeli public.
Analysts say these are difficult times for Netanyahu, or Bibi, as he is commonly known.
Mr. Biden “took Mr. Netanyahu out of his haze and presented Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal himself,” Ben Caspit, a biographer and longtime critic of Mr. Netanyahu, wrote in Maariv newspaper today. Sunday, a Hebrew daily newspaper. “Then he asked a simple question: Does Bibi support Netanyahu’s proposal? Yes or no. No nonsense and hot atmosphere.
The leaders of the two far-right parties in the coalition – Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister – have explicitly threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government if the prime minister agreed to this agreement outlined by Mr. Biden before Hamas was completely destroyed. Some hard-line members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party said they would join them.
At the same time, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, two former military commanders who joined the emergency government during the war, threatened to withdraw support from their moderate National Unity party before the 8th. June if Mr. Netanyahu does not appear. with a clear path ahead. And opposition parties have start organizing to try to overthrow the government.
Proposed ceasefire includes three stages. They will see scores of hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons; The temporary ceasefire will turn into a permanent ceasefire, with a third phase involving an internationally backed effort to rehabilitate Gaza.
More than 100 hostages were released under a more limited deal last November. An estimated 125 hostages, living and dead, remain held in Gaza by Hamas and other armed groups.
Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy adviser, said in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper that Biden’s proposal was “a deal that we agreed to.” Adding that many details still had to be ironed out, Mr Falk said: “It’s not a good deal but we really want all the hostages released.”
Israelis must analyze two statements after Mr. Biden’s speech that Mr. Netanyahu’s office unusually released on the Sabbath. The statements neither strongly supported the proposal nor denied that it had been presented to the mediators. Instead, they are conditional and open to interpretation — seemingly designed to leave Netanyahu’s options open.
The first statement said that Netanyahu had authorized the Israeli negotiating team to come up with a proposal to release the hostages and also “allow Israel to continue the war until all objectives are achieved, including destroy Hamas’s administrative and military capabilities.” .”
The second reiterated those conditions for ending the war and added: “The notion that Israel would agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are met is unfounded.”
Notably absent from Mr. Netanyahu, however, was the oft-proclaimed goal of “total victory” over Hamas in Gaza — a slogan that Mr. Biden on Friday dismissed as a Vague goals mean indefinite war.
