Not to be overly pessimistic, but I’ve seen these (or functionally identical) headlines too many times to believe it. I don’t doubt that Israel would be willing; their primary goal is Hamas unable to launch large scale attacks and out of power in Gaza, and this deal would give both.
I do doubt that Hamas is serious about agreeing. Their primary goal is to continue in power, and I haven’t seen the evidence that they’re so broken they need to make *any* deal to stop the fighting and continue to exist.
netowi on
That Biden is crowing about a potential ceasefire is emblematic of his embarrassingly bad policy in the Middle East. Any ceasefire that leaves Hamas in control of any part of Gaza is a strategic failure for Israel and, by extension, for the United States.
Biden’s policy has been to provide Israel with the ammunition it needs to *not lose*, but not to *win*, and his public messaging policy has been to spend all day constantly whining about the specifics of how Israel is conducting the war. He is empowering Hamas in negotiations by demonstrating publicly that his focus is not on getting the best possible position for our ally, but on getting everyone to shut up for the next several months, *no matter the cost to Israel*.
If Biden were serious about getting Hamas to the table, we would be giving Israel the heaviest weaponry we’ve got, not just for Gaza but for fighting Hezbollah as well, and we’d be threatening Iran directly in the Gulf unless they pulled the reins back on their proxies. But he is not applying any pressure at all to Hamas or to Iran. In effect, we are being deterred by Iran. Is that a success?
ErwinRommelEyes on
At what point is Biden/The White House just saying vaguely positive things to try to appease voters for the upcoming Presidential election? It feels like they’ve been saying that a ceasefire is just around the corner ever since internal polling turned against the current administration (over half a year ago mind you) It doesn’t even seem like it would be in Israel’s favour to agree to anything when there’s a chance that they get a more favourable deal from a republican president.
kimana1651 on
So I wonder if this is going to get to the root cause of the war? Are raves going to be completely banned from Israel or is paradropping troops into another country to capture hostages going to be banned?
Winged_One_97 on
Even if somehow Israel says yes, Hamas will find a way to muck it up, and if Hamas also say yes, Iran or Russia will muck it up for them, or maybe Egypt will muck it up like the last time.
FeydSeswatha982 on
This part of the article says to me that the “agreement” is dead on arrival:
> The official claimed that part of the deal would see an “interim governance” plan that would be utilized, in which neither Israel nor Hamas would control Gaza. Before this new government takes control, 33 hostages would be released.
I can’t envision any scenario in which Hamas cedes power to an interim government.
WynterRayne on
Are you sure it was Israel and Hamas, not Israel and Harris? Does this all now mean we can focus our efforts on supporting Volodymyr Putin in defending Ukraine from Vladimir Putin?
Titerito_ on
Biden is being pushed out of the election. He had to come up with something big.
panguardian on
Then he called netenhayua prime minister Arafat, before letting off a huge fart, then he froze and Obama led him away. Democracy in action.Â
unseenspecter on
The only reason Hamas would ever agree to a ceasefire is if they faced the choice of being wiped off the planet or agreeing to the ceasefire. If that were the point the war were at, Israel should just wipe them off the map. Hamas are terrorists, through and through. They would simply rebuild and come back for more as soon as they could do so. Those kinds of people have no business being alive.
SirShaunIV on
For God’s sake, please let this one not be a dud, please?
EvidenceBasedSwamp on
Israel is not doing anything. They will wait and hope Trump gets elected. The hardliners fear this is their only chance for a “permanent solution” to get rid of as many Palestinians as possible.
CenterLeftRepublican on
I don’t see how its possible.
Israel’s main goal is to eliminate Hamas.
How can you have a deal with someone that will not be around in a few months?
13 Comments
Not to be overly pessimistic, but I’ve seen these (or functionally identical) headlines too many times to believe it. I don’t doubt that Israel would be willing; their primary goal is Hamas unable to launch large scale attacks and out of power in Gaza, and this deal would give both.
I do doubt that Hamas is serious about agreeing. Their primary goal is to continue in power, and I haven’t seen the evidence that they’re so broken they need to make *any* deal to stop the fighting and continue to exist.
That Biden is crowing about a potential ceasefire is emblematic of his embarrassingly bad policy in the Middle East. Any ceasefire that leaves Hamas in control of any part of Gaza is a strategic failure for Israel and, by extension, for the United States.
Biden’s policy has been to provide Israel with the ammunition it needs to *not lose*, but not to *win*, and his public messaging policy has been to spend all day constantly whining about the specifics of how Israel is conducting the war. He is empowering Hamas in negotiations by demonstrating publicly that his focus is not on getting the best possible position for our ally, but on getting everyone to shut up for the next several months, *no matter the cost to Israel*.
If Biden were serious about getting Hamas to the table, we would be giving Israel the heaviest weaponry we’ve got, not just for Gaza but for fighting Hezbollah as well, and we’d be threatening Iran directly in the Gulf unless they pulled the reins back on their proxies. But he is not applying any pressure at all to Hamas or to Iran. In effect, we are being deterred by Iran. Is that a success?
At what point is Biden/The White House just saying vaguely positive things to try to appease voters for the upcoming Presidential election? It feels like they’ve been saying that a ceasefire is just around the corner ever since internal polling turned against the current administration (over half a year ago mind you) It doesn’t even seem like it would be in Israel’s favour to agree to anything when there’s a chance that they get a more favourable deal from a republican president.
So I wonder if this is going to get to the root cause of the war? Are raves going to be completely banned from Israel or is paradropping troops into another country to capture hostages going to be banned?
Even if somehow Israel says yes, Hamas will find a way to muck it up, and if Hamas also say yes, Iran or Russia will muck it up for them, or maybe Egypt will muck it up like the last time.
This part of the article says to me that the “agreement” is dead on arrival:
> The official claimed that part of the deal would see an “interim governance” plan that would be utilized, in which neither Israel nor Hamas would control Gaza. Before this new government takes control, 33 hostages would be released.
I can’t envision any scenario in which Hamas cedes power to an interim government.
Are you sure it was Israel and Hamas, not Israel and Harris? Does this all now mean we can focus our efforts on supporting Volodymyr Putin in defending Ukraine from Vladimir Putin?
Biden is being pushed out of the election. He had to come up with something big.
Then he called netenhayua prime minister Arafat, before letting off a huge fart, then he froze and Obama led him away. Democracy in action.Â
The only reason Hamas would ever agree to a ceasefire is if they faced the choice of being wiped off the planet or agreeing to the ceasefire. If that were the point the war were at, Israel should just wipe them off the map. Hamas are terrorists, through and through. They would simply rebuild and come back for more as soon as they could do so. Those kinds of people have no business being alive.
For God’s sake, please let this one not be a dud, please?
Israel is not doing anything. They will wait and hope Trump gets elected. The hardliners fear this is their only chance for a “permanent solution” to get rid of as many Palestinians as possible.
I don’t see how its possible.
Israel’s main goal is to eliminate Hamas.
How can you have a deal with someone that will not be around in a few months?