President Joe Biden said on Monday that he did not believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing everything in his power to get a ceasefire deal in place despite his agreements in recent weeks and months to various proposals.
Negotiations for a ceasefire are ongoing, though the emphasis for a deal gained even more steam following the Israeli forces' recovery of the bodies of six hostages , one of whom was an American, who had been murdered days earlier. Netanyahu remained defiant on Monday as thousands of Israeli protesters poured into the streets urging him to finalize a hostage release deal.
"[The United States's] posture needs to completely change," Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner. "The problem is the reason why, in the end, if you do nothing to Hamas and you do nothing to Hamas's sponsors and you give Hamas as propaganda and psychological warfare time to succeed, there's only one potential target to put pressure on after all of those stakeholders, and that's a democracy that's susceptible to public pressure and that's Israel."
Biden said "no" when he was asked by reporters whether he believes Netanyahu is doing everything in his power to get a deal done. He did not address Hamas in the brief remarks. However, a day earlier in a written statement, Biden said, "Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes," following the death of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, while Vice President Kamala Harris called Hamas an "evil terrorist organization" that has "more American blood on its hands."
The statements from Biden and Harris did not say how the U.S. would force Hamas leaders to "pay for these crimes" or whether his death would result in any specific change to the administration's policies or stances. Their remarks, according to Goldberg, were "in some ways their strongest to date but still self-contradicting, and we're not seeing what the details are, if any, of their promise to hold Hamas accountable."
Goldberg argued that if the U.S. wanted to pressure Hamas to get a deal across the finish line instead of leaning on Israel, it could do so by pressuring Qatar and Egypt, both of whom are also acting as mediators along with the U.S., to push Hamas to get it to agree to a deal. Several senior Hamas leaders live in Doha, Qatar, and Egypt has allowed for its land to be used as a smuggling route for the terrorist group in the strip.
About 100 hostages, seven of whom are American, are believed to be still held by Hamas, with their well-being largely unknown. Four of the American hostages are still believed to be alive. Hamas has not allowed any hostages to go since the late November weeklong ceasefire deal, though Israeli forces have carried out multiple rescue missions.
Previous attempted deals
August 19 : Israel accepts bridging proposal, according to U.S.
June 10 : Blinken says Israel has "accepted" a deal and urged people in the region to "press Hamas to say yes"
April 29 : Blinken urges Hamas to accept "
extraordinarily generous " proposal
The U.S. has said at several points in recent months that Israel had agreed to various deals and called on Hamas to do the same, but a deal has eluded both sides.
Two weeks before the president's commentary about Netanyahu over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had agreed to the bridging proposal and called on Hamas to do the same.
“The next important statement is for Hamas to say yes and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Blinken said at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Aug. 19.
During an earlier trip to the Middle East in June, he said Israel had accepted the proposal that Biden had made public about a week and a half earlier, and he urged "governments throughout the region, to people throughout the region is: If you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes."
Back in early May, Hamas said it agreed to the deal on the table and had accepted a deal Blinken had called "generous," but in actuality, it "responded with amendments or a counter-proposal, and we're working through the details of that now," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at the time.
The bodies of the six hostages were recovered this weekend from tunnels under Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza. The Biden administration was very opposed to Israel carrying out operations in the area earlier this year due to concerns that a full ground invasion could incur overwhelming civilian casualties. Biden went as far as threatening to cut off offensive military aid to Israel if it carried out a ground invasion in Rafah, where an overwhelming percentage of Palestinians had fled earlier in the conflict.
Prime minister @netanyahu on Biden blaming Israel for lack of hostage deal:
“These murderers executed six hostages, and we’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, murder more hostages and you will get more concessions.” pic.twitter.com/xKPkPfUo8e
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid)
September 3, 2024 Philadelphi corridor
One of Netanyahu's biggest sticking points is that he wants Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphi corridor, which is a strip of land that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border. Israeli forces have found more than 100 tunnels in the area, which Hamas is believed to have used for several years to smuggle goods and weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
Netanyahu's belief is that giving up control of the border would allow Hamas to rearm and reconstitute itself, posing a long-term threat to Israel's security.
"The Philadelphi corridor is of cardinal importance both in bringing the hostages and ensuring that Hamas will be crushed and that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to us," he said. "I want to make it clear: I am flexible where I can be flexible, I am not insistent where I can be flexible, and I am not flexible where I must be insistent. On this, we must all be insistent. Otherwise, we will receive all of this disaster again."
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that a deal Israel had agreed to would include the removal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas, "including those areas along the [Philadelphi] corridor."
"The proposal says that they have to remove themselves to the east from densely populated areas and that core essential element of the proposal has not changed," Kirby added. "But the Israelis have said publicly that they believe that even in so doing, that they would need some security along that corridor."
Netanyahu addressed the international pressure placed on him throughout the war and said he would continue to withstand it.
"It was very difficult for us to overcome the international pressure, which I withstood, in order to go into Rafah. See what it has cost us. There was considerable pressure on us," he said. "They brought us to the ICC a day or two before the decision. They knew that we were going to approve the decision. We have been subjected to an embargo that is spreading."
Also on Monday, Biden and Harris received an update from the U.S. negotiation team on the status of the bridging proposal outlined by the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt, the three countries acting as mediators between Hamas and Israel.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida indicated that the Hamas guards securing the hostages had been told to murder them if they believed an Israeli rescue operation was underway. He also said additional rescue attempts will have similar outcomes to the incident this weekend.
Obaida's threat implies that the only way for Israel to save the hostages is to agree to a deal to end the war.
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The mediators have sought for several months to get a deal across the table but have nothing to show for it since the weeklong ceasefire in late November ended. During that deal, more than 100 Israeli hostages were released by Hamas, and about 100 remain trapped in Gaza.
Also on Monday, the United Kingdom announced it was suspending some weapons shipments to Israel that it deemed could be plausibly used to commit acts in violation of humanitarian law in Gaza. The announcement, plus Biden's comments, indicate Israel's growing isolation globally as the conflict drags on.
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