WASHINGTON – WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is ignoring resistance from senior Israeli officials while pressuring Israel and Hamas to agree to a three-phase agreement which could immediately bring home dozens of Israeli hostages, free Palestinian prisoners and perhaps even bring about the end of the game in the nearly eight-month-old case Gaza War.
Biden’s Big Swing – During a Difficult Time re-election battle – could also demonstrate to a significant portion of its political base, demoralized by its handling of the conflict, that it is doing its part to end the war that killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and left hundreds of thousands of people fighting to satisfy basic needs.
White House officials said Monday that Biden’s decision to go public with what he describes as an Israeli proposal – just one day after it was handed over to Hamas – was driven by the desire to put Hamas in the spotlight. The move diverged from the US administration’s position throughout the conflict to allow the Israelis to speak for themselves regarding hostage negotiations.
“The president felt that where we are in this war, where we are in the negotiations to remove the hostages, that it was time for a different approach and to make the proposal public, to try to energize the process here and catalyze a different outcome,” the spokesman said. White House national security voice John Kirby.
Almost immediately after Biden detailed the proposal — which includes a ceasefire and the phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza if Hamas releases all hostages — the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu The office said it would continue its war until Hamas was destroyed.
Netanyahu’s political survival depends on a far-right coalition that is adamant in eradicating Hamas. He sowed further doubts about the proposal’s viability on Monday when he told an Israeli parliament committee that there were certain “gaps” in the way Biden laid out the proposal. The prime minister said the Israelis “reserve the right to return to war.”
Kirby downplayed differences between Biden and Netanyahu and highlighted that the proposal was Israeli. He added that Biden agrees with Israelis that Hamas should not rule post-war Gaza nor does he “expect Israel to have to live alongside this type of terrorist threat.”
“It wasn’t about interfering with the prime minister, the war cabinet,” Kirby said. “It was about exposing to the public how well, with what fidelity and with what assertiveness the Israelis presented a new proposal. That’s how much they really want this to happen.”
But even if Hamas agreed to the terms, it would require Netanyahu to make some difficult political calculations. Two of the main members of his far-right coalition – National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – threatened to leave Netanyahu’s government if he approves the proposal. This would cause the coalition to collapse.
Smotrich said on Monday that agreeing to a ceasefire would amount to Israel’s humiliation and surrender. Increasing military pressure, he said, is “the only language understood in the Middle East.”
Biden last week expressed concern about those in the Israeli government who “want to keep fighting for years” and do not see the release of the hostages as a “priority.” Government officials on Monday warned Israeli officials that becoming bogged down in Gaza could be detrimental to Israel’s national security.
“Endless conflict in Gaza in pursuit of some idea of total victory will not make Israel safer,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Netanyahu also faced pressure from families of hostages – officials say about 80 people captured by militants i They are still alive in the October 7 attack and Hamas is holding the bodies of another 43 people – to reach an agreement to release their loved ones. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, however, promised over the weekend to provide a political safety net to Netanyahu, ensuring that his government would not fall into the deal.
Even as the proposal faces strong headwinds, the Biden administration said it was cautiously optimistic that a deal could be reached.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan urged world leaders to support the proposal.
“They need to train their eyes on Hamas this week and say it’s time to come to the table to make this deal,” Sullivan said in an appearance at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition conference in Washington.
To that end, Biden spoke Monday with Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, a key Hamas interlocutor, and said it was “the best possible opportunity for a deal,” the White House said.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said the U.S. distributed a draft resolution seeking support for the proposal from the other 14 members of the UN Security Council.
Sullivan, meanwhile, spoke to his Turkish counterpart, Akif Cagatay Kilic, about Turkey using its influence over Hamas to get it to accept the proposal. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Hamas and welcomed the group’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, for talks in April.
Group of Seven leaders on Monday also endorsed the deal.
“We call on Hamas to accept this agreement, which Israel is ready to move forward, and we urge countries with influence over Hamas to help ensure this happens,” the G7 leaders said in a statement.
Biden acknowledged last week that it would be difficult to move beyond the first phase of the proposal.
The first phase would last six weeks and would include a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of several hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The Israelis, according to the proposal, would also allow 600 humanitarian aid trucks to enter Gaza every day during the first phase. The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza.
Hamas is likely to make huge demands on which Palestinian prisoners are released and will call on Israel to ensure that it does not continue to attack top Hamas leaders.
Aaron David Miller, former US Middle East peace negotiator, said that even reaching the first phase – and the six-week pause in fighting – would cause a “de-escalation of the military campaign, fewer people would die”.
“I’m not sure they can wait much longer,” said Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Negotiations only work in the end if the parties feel sufficient pain accompanied by prospects for gain, and this creates urgency. The only party in a hurry here is the Biden administration.”
In fact, the Israeli authorities see the conflict in a much longer term.
Last week, Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said he expected the war to drag on for another seven months, in order to destroy the military and government capabilities of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.
But with US Election Day just over five months away, Biden faces increasing pressure to more quickly resolve the Middle East conflict that has left him without support.
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AP Writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Matthew Lee contributed reporting.
