Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not agree to a deal that requires Israel to end the war before the destruction of Hamas despite international hopes that a bargain will avert a larger clash between the Jewish state and Iran .
“No,” Netanyahu told Time magazine. “And I think there's a vast consensus in Israel that if we did that, we'll just have a repetition. There’ll be future hostage taking, there'll be a future October 7, and actually worse things that could happen.”
Hamas has tried to use the fate of the Israeli hostages as leverage to force Israel to end the war for months, but Netanyahu has refused. His reiteration of that position, however, will be a blow to the hostages’ families, many of whom believe he has not tried hard enough to free their loved ones, and could portend another dispute between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu, even if U.S. and regional mediators succeed in brokering a more limited agreement.
“The way that I'm seeking to achieve [in] this deal is a way that will maximize the number of hostages that are released in the first phase — living hostages that are released in the first phase — but also that would make sure that Hamas cannot take over Gaza after the deal,” Netanyahu said in the interview when asked if he would end the war in exchange for “all of the hostages.”
That conversation, given Sunday but published Thursday, occurred against a backdrop of international anxiety about a potential Iranian strike in retaliation for the assassination of a top Hamas official in Tehran last week. Iranian officials have pledged to “instill deep regret” in Israel, but Tehran signaled its interest in a “durable ceasefire” just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that a ceasefire deal could provide the two governments an off-ramp from the crisis over the assassination.
“We have pursued two priorities simultaneously: first, establishing a durable cease-fire in Gaza and the withdrawal of the [Israeli military] occupiers from this territory; second, punishing the aggressor for the assassination of Martyr Haniyeh,” Iran’s diplomatic mission at the United Nations said Wednesday evening, according to Al-Monitor .
Blinken argued in a Wednesday evening press conference that “avoiding any action that could disrupt” the ceasefire talks would be key to “bringing calm” to the Middle East.
“So in and of itself, escalation would be a bad thing, but it also has the potential to upend bringing the ceasefire over the line and bringing it to conclusion,” he said Wednesday.
Blinken regards the ceasefire as a first agreement as an initial step to “break the cycle” of violence between Israel and Iran.
“It’s also critical that we break this cycle by reaching a ceasefire in Gaza,” he said earlier this week. "That in turn will unlock possibilities for more enduring calm, not only in Gaza itself but in other areas where the conflict could spread.”
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Netanyahu, for his part, has signaled his opposition to a short-term deal that evolves into a permanent end to the fighting, if that means that Hamas remains in place.
“That is something that would run against everything that we were talking about,” he told Time. "I think it's important to achieve it, not only because we eliminate that front so close to the center of our country …but also to send a message to the other elements of the Iran terror axis,” he said.
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