Biden’s optimism about truce deal “an illusion”, says Hamas official

Crescent International

Safar 13, 1446 2024-08-18

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

For two days (August 15 and 16) American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met Israeli officials in Doha, Qatar to hammer out a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Hamas declined to attend the talks saying it had already agreed to a proposal that Joe Biden had announced on May 31, 2024 from the White House Rose Garden.

It was presented to Hamas in writing on July 2 after it was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution No. 2735 in June.

Biden said it was an Israeli proposal but Benjamin Netanyahu’s office immediately rejected this claim.

The statement from his office said what Biden announced was different from what Netanyahu had agreed to.

There is a clear pattern to Netanyahu’s tactics.

Each time the Americans present a proposal that they say has been agreed to by the Israeli prime minister, he turns around and rejects it.

Instead, he intensifies attacks on unarmed Palestinian civilians killing scores to make it extremely difficult for Hamas to accept such conditions.

This was also the case during the latest round of talks (August 15 and 16).

Israeli war planes bombed Palestinian refugee camps killing scores of them even while mediation talks were underway.

In the 24-hour period (August 17-18), Israeli planes killed at least 25 Palestinians, including eight members of the same family in Deir el-Balah, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

What Netanyahu wants is the release of Israeli prisoners in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.

He wants to continue to occupy Gaza, try to eliminate Hamas—an impossible mission even according to Israeli military officials—and to demilitarize Gaza.

In the meantime, he insists on bombing Gaza, killing innocent civilians.

According to official count, more than 40,000 Palestinians, among them 18,000 children, have been killed since October 7, 2023.

The actual number is probably much higher.

A study by the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, put death toll at 186,000.

Not surprisingly, Hamas cannot agree to zionist-American demands.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that Netanyahu remained the main obstacle to a ceasefire and captive exchange deal.

Another Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri said: “We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats.”

Critics of the Netanyahu regime, and Biden himself, have said that the prime minister is stalling negotiations and is not interested in a ceasefire.

Ending the war would mean the collapse of his regime because the neo-Nazis in his cabinet would withdraw their support.

He is extremely unpopular with a large swathe of the Israeli population including family members of Israeli prisoners captured by Hamas.

Netanyahu faces not only corruption charges but also charges of failing to prevent the Hamas-led operation of 7 October, 2023.

With the collapse of his regime, he will be in handcuffs and hauled to prison.

That would be the end of the political career of this ruthlessly ambitious politician.

As the latest round of Doha talks were underway, Biden expressed optimism about the prospects of a deal.

He claimed “We are closer than we’ve ever been,” to a ceasefire deal.

Hamas, however, dismissed Biden’s optimism as “an illusion”.

Netanyahu keeps on adding new conditions each time an Israeli proposal is presented to Hamas via the Egyptians and Qataris.

They in turn get the proposal from the Americans.

The latest “proposal” being presented to Hamas includes Israel’s occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor separating Egypt’s Sinai from the Gaza Strip.

It also includes Israeli army’s occupation of the Netzarim corridor running east-west that splits the tiny Gaza Strip right in the middle.

The zionists insist on establishing checkpoints to monitor the movement of people from south to north.

They do not want any Palestinian to carry weapons from the south to the north.

This was confirmed by The New York Times, according to documents it reportedly saw.

In a revealing twist, a senior US official told reporters on August 16 that the stipulation that no Palestinian carrying arms would be allowed to travel from southern Gaza to the north “is a core provision of the deal”.

How did it become a “core provision of the deal” when it was not part of the May 31 proposal announced by Biden?

It is clear that the US is not a mediator but an active participant in zionist crimes against the Palestinians.

Is it surprising that Hamas cannot accept such a deal?

It calls for disarming Hamas, accept the split of Gaza into two enclaves and Israel’s continued military occupation.

The zionists, of course, would also maintain the siege of Gaza to starve the Palestinians.

American claims of “optimism” and “progress” are a trap for Hamas.

When it rejects such a deal, as it has no choice but do so, Hamas, not Israel, would be blamed for not willing to make a deal.