“The United States will never start a war” – US President John F Kennedy’s ‘peace speech’ in 1963.
“A fish rots from the head down” – Ancient proverb.
President Biden made a speech about his desired outcome in Gaza on 31 May 2024 presented as a truce between warring tribes. There has been different analyses of the speech ranging from right-wing apologia for war (ISW), small L liberal appeasment (Mondoweiss), and more radical interpretations (Electronic Intifada).
Everything Biden said in his address is wrongheaded.
Firstly, Biden has given up on the American pier in northern Gaza. The country that has prided itself on logistical superiority has failed … long after the ‘aid corridor’ was shown to be a sham. The United States government never had any intention of helping the people of Gaza.
In the last eight months, fifty thousand (50,000) Palestinian have been murdered with the assistance of US-made war planes and munitions. Five hundred (500) people have been assasinated on the West Bank with ongoing threats of violence by settlers. Israeli government ministers are saying they are going to wipe out several towns including Qalqilya which is surrounded by the apartheid Wall of Israel.
Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Israelis support the genocide of the Palestinian people. Israelis want the captives back so they can get on with the occupation. Israel is a pariah state supported by the US, Britain, Germany, France, Australia etc. The Israeli government has lost all justification for its actions. President Biden has lost all authority with the youth of America because of his support for the genocide and his attacks on the poor by raising prices. He is a lame duck President. Even Trump in jail would have a better chance at winning the presidential election than Biden.
The key thing is that Hamas, like the National liberation front (NLF) during the American war in Vietnam, has held on long enough so that a worldwide solidarity movement could be built . Palestinian resistance will grow stronger in the coming months and years ahead. And, in the same way that the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa caused a worldwide movement, the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and in the occupied territories has done likewise.
World leaders need to be asked: what about Palestinian people, don’t they get a say in the matter?
We post here reports from the electronic intifada and another from Mondoweiss. We have already published the report from ISW called Biden’s last stand on Palestine. Thanks to Mitch Thompson, Gary MacLennan for bringing these reports to our attention.
Here comes the Boeing F35, twenty times a day
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they’ve murdered no one can say,
If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher, I’d make somebody pay
I don’t believe in Gaza borders and I don’t believe in hate
I don’t believe in generals or their stinking Apartheid state
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher, I would retaliate
On the Raffah border, two million Palestinians wait
To fall down from starvation, or some less humane fate
Cry for Palestina, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher, I would not hesitate
I want to raise every voice, at least I’ve got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher, those Zionists would pay.
[adapted from Bruce Cockburn’s song ]
Ian Curr, Ed.,
2 June 24
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Biden admits Israel’s defeat in Gaza
In remarks delivered at the White House on Friday, US President Joe Biden laid out what he called a “roadmap” to bring an end to the Israeli war on Gaza.
Biden summarized what he said was a new Israeli proposal for a three-phase process to exchange Israeli and Palestinian prisoners of war and captives and bring about a “durable end to this war.”
In its broad outlines, the proposal is very similar to an American-backed proposal that Hamas accepted in early May after Israel had approved it.
But Israel then reneged on the deal and escalated its attack on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and where the majority of the territory’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians had fled after being forcibly displaced from other areas.
If Biden is telling the truth that this is indeed an Israeli proposal, it would appear Tel Aviv is crawling back less than a month later and trying to make it look as if this is its own magnanimous offer, instead of what it really appears to be: a public admission by Israel, communicated to the world by the American president, that it has lost the war militarily.
In what is probably the most important takeaway, Biden stated: “Indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory … will only bog down Israel in Gaza, drain the economic, military and human and human resources and further Israel’s isolation in the world.”
“That will not bring hostages home,” the US president added. “That will not, not bring an enduring defeat of Hamas, that will not bring Israel lasting security.”
It is certain that the US has been telling Israel this privately. But for the president to come out and say it from the White House podium completely undercuts Israel’s public assertions that military victory is within reach.
But there are real reasons for skepticism. Biden pointedly did not mention that this proposal came from or was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden even acknowledged that “there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan, and will call for the war to continue indefinitely. Some, some are even in the government coalition.”
One of those may even be Netanyahu. Given Israel’s deeply divided leadership, Biden may well be working with Israeli officials other than Netanyahu in an effort to pressure the prime minister into accepting this deal.
The following is a rush transcript of Biden’s remarks related to Gaza, with my comments on some key points in between the lines in bold italics.
Ali Abunimah 31 May 2024
Annotated transcript of President Biden’s proposal:
For the past several months, my negotiators of foreign policy, intelligence community and the like, have been relentlessly focused not just on a ceasefire, that would inevitably be fragile and temporary, but on a durable end of the war, that’s been the focus, a durable end of this war. One that brings all the hostages home, ensures Israel’s security, creates a better day after in Gaza without Hamas in power and sets the stage for political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Biden officials have publicly avoided talking about a ceasefire or an end to the war that fell short of Israel’s stated goal of destroying Hamas. This is now quite a turnabout.
Now after intensive diplomacy, carried out by my team, my many conversations with leaders of Israel, Qatar and Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, Israel has now offered, Israel has offered a comprehensive new proposal.
As noted above, Biden says this proposal comes from “Israel,” but nowhere does he confirm that it comes from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been the chief obstacle to ceasefire negotiations.
It’s a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages. This proposal has been transmitted by Qatar to Hamas.
Today, I want to lay out its terms for American citizens and for the world.
This new proposal has three phases, three. The first phase would last for six weeks. Here’s what it would include: A full and complete ceasefire. A withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza. Release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
There are American hostages who will be released at this stage and we want them home.
Additionally, some remains of hostages who have been killed will be returned to their families, bringing some degree of closure to their terrible grief. Palestinian civilians would return to their homes and neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza, including in the north. Humanitarian assistance would surge with 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every single day.
With a ceasefire, that aid could be safely and effectively distributed to all who need it. Hundreds of thousands of temporary shelters, including housing units, would be delivered by the international community.
All that and more would begin immediately. Immediately. During the six weeks of phase one, Israel and Hamas would negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end to hostilities.
These broad terms are similar to what were reported to be the terms of the deal that Hamas accepted in early May and which Israel had considered nonstarters.
Now I’ll be straight with you. There are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two.
Israel will want to make sure its interests are protected.
But the proposal says if the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as the negotiations continue. The United States, Egypt and Qatar would work to ensure negotiations keep going, all agreements, all agreements, until all the agreements are reached, and phase two is able to begin.
Then phase two would be an exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza. And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary ceasefire would become in the words of the Israeli proposal, “the cessation of hostilities permanently,” end of quote, cessation of hostilities permanently.
Historically, Hamas has rigorously implemented deals it agrees to while Israel has habitually violated them. We can expect nothing different if a deal here is finally reached
Finally, in phase three, a major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed would be returned to their families.
That’s the offer that’s now on the table.
Again, it sounds a lot like the US-approved offer that Hamas accepted in early May and that Israel reneged on.
And what we’ve been asking for, it’s what we need. The people of Israel should know, they can make this offer without any further risk to their own security because they’ve devastated Hamas forces over the past eight months. At this point, Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another October 7. It’s one of the Israelis’ main objectives in this war, and quite frankly, a righteous one.
Any close observer of the battle on the ground knows that this is not true. Israel has done virtually no damage to the resistance’s fighting ability as is clear from how Israel forces have gone back into some of the first areas of Gaza they entered in the north, and faced fierce resistance and suffered huge losses even in recent days, such as in Jabaliya.
I know there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan, and will call for the war to continue indefinitely. Some, some are even in the government coalition.
And they’ve made it clear they want to occupy Gaza. They want to keep fighting for years, and hostages are not a priority to them. Well, I’ve urged the leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal. Despite whatever pressure comes. And to the people of Israel, let me say this, as someone who has had a lifelong commitment to Israel, as the only American president who has ever gone to Israel in a time of war, as someone who just sent the US forces to directly defend Israel when it was attacked by Iran, I ask you to take a step back and think what will happen if this moment is lost. We can’t lose this moment.
Here Biden is trying to appeal directly to Israelis, but it may be futile since most Israelis support the genocide. It is odd that he would be appealing to Israelis, including the Israeli government, to accept what is supposedly an Israeli proposal!
Indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory, will not bring Israel, will not bring down – will only bog down Israel in Gaza, drain the economic, military and human and human resources and further Israel’s isolation in the world. That will not bring hostages home. That will not, not bring an enduring defeat of Hamas that will not bring Israel lasting security.
But a comprehensive approach that starts with this deal will bring hostages home and will lead to a more secure Israel. And once a ceasefire and hostage deal are concluded, it unlocks the possibility of a great deal more progress, including, including calm along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The United States will help forge a diplomatic resolution, one that ensures Israel’s security and allows people to safely return to their homes without fear of being attacked.
The two above paragraphs are important admissions by Biden that Israel is incapable of winning military conflicts either in Gaza or on the northern front with Lebanon, where the formidable Hizballah resistance organization is entrenched. He’s telling Israelis that if you want “calm,” you have to do a deal.
With the deal, the rebuilding of Gaza will begin, Arab nations and the international community, along with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, to get it done in a manner that does not allow Hamas to rearm. And the United States will work with our partners to rebuild homes, schools and hospitals in Gaza, to help repair communities that were destroyed in the chaos of war.
This is very vague language, probably deliberately so to obfuscate the reality that Israel and the United States have failed to destroy Hamas. They are not going to replace Hamas and yet somehow they are going to reconstruct Gaza while sidelining Hamas. But it is notable that Biden does not make grand declarations either about Hamas being removed and says nothing about who will rule Gaza. That’s all for the good, because that is solely a Palestinian decision. The only way to get this reconstruction done is with Hamas’ agreement, and that seems to be what Biden is implicitly acknowledging.
And with this deal, Israel could come more deeply integrated in the region, including, it’s no surprise to you all, including, you know, a potential historic normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. Israel could be part of a regional security network to counter the threat posed by Iran. All this progress would make Israel more secure, with Israeli families no longer living in the shadow of a terrorist attack.
This sounds like an effort to offer Israel incentives, but it is delusional to think that after perpetrating genocide, that Israel is going to be integrated into the region. The situation after this genocide is not going to be a return to regional business as usual.
All this would create the conditions for a different future, a better future for the Palestinian people. One of self-determination, dignity, security and freedom.
It is notable here that Biden doesn’t say anything about the “two-state solution,” but resorts to lofty slogans about “self-determination” and “freedom.” Those terms can be made to mean anything, including limited autonomy in a bantustan.
This path is available once the deal is struck. Israel will always have the right to defend itself against the threats to its security and to bring those responsible for October 7 to justice. And the United States will always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.
If Hamas fails to fulfill its commitments under the deal, Israel can resume military operations. But Egypt and Qatar have assured me and they are continuing to work to ensure that Hamas doesn’t do that. The United States will help ensure that Israel lives up to their obligations as well.
Again, it is Israel and the United States who cannot be trusted in any deal, historically. Biden, for instance, has opposed Israel’s attack on Rafah, only to turn around and approve it and even to justify its atrocities.
That’s what this deal says. That’s what it says. And we’ll do our part. This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal.
Hamas says it wants a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal. For months, people all over the world have called for a ceasefire. Now it’s time to raise your voices and demand Hamas comes to the table, agrees to this deal and end this war that they began.
This is galling, given that it is Biden and Israel who long refused any talk of a ceasefire, while Hamas accepted the US-backed proposal earlier this month. It is also absurd to claim that Hamas “began” this war, as if history started on 7 October 2023.
Of course there’ll be differences on the specific details that need to be worked out, as natural. If Hamas comes to negotiate ready to deal, then Israel’s negotiators must be given a mandate, the necessary flexibility to close that deal.
Biden has claimed that this is an Israeli proposal, and yet here he’s calling on Israel to give its own negotiators a mandate. Why would he need to make that appeal publicly if Israel was behind this proposal and wanted to make it happen?
The past eight months have marked heartbreaking pain, pain of those whose loved ones were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th. Hostages and families waited in anguish. Ordinary Israelis whose lives are forever marked by the shattering event of Hamas’ sexual violence and ruthless brutality.
And the Palestinian people have endured sheer hell in this war. Too many innocent people have been killed, including thousands of children. Far too many have been badly wounded.
This is so disingenuous. While Biden repeats Israel’s mass rapes lie, he talks about the death and destruction in Gaza as if he had no personal role in it. He approved it, called for it, armed Israel to carry it out, and is still doing so to this day.
We all saw the terrible images from a deadly fire in Rafah earlier this week, following an Israeli strike against targeting Hamas.
It is outrageous that Biden is justifying and excusing Israel’s attack on refugee tents in Rafah.
And even as he worked to surge assistance to Gaza, with 1,800 trucks delivering supplies, these last five days, 1,800, the humanitarian crisis still remains.
I know this is a subject on which people in this country feel deep, passionate convictions. And so do I. This has been one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about this, nothing easy about it.
Through it all, though, the United States has worked relentlessly to support Israeli security, to get humanitarian supplies into Gaza, to get a ceasefire and a hostage deal to bring this war to an end.
This is another gross distortion of the US role. Israel deliberately shut off all aid routes into Gaza and the United States helped it cause starvation and catastrophe by cutting off funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. At any time, the US could have used its enormous leverage to force Israel to reopen the crossings it closed, but Washington has refused to do so.
Yesterday, with this new initiative, we’ve taken an important step in that direction. I want to level with you today as to where we are and what might be possible.
But I need your help.
Everyone who wants peace now must raise their voices. Let the leaders know they should take this deal, work to make it real, make it lasting, and forge a better future out of the tragic terror attack and war.
Biden is placing himself here as a hapless outside observer, instead of what he is, the key enabler of Israel’s genocide. He is and has always been the key decision maker who could have stopped Israel’s extermination campaign at any time. For months, Americans have been raising their voices against him, demanding he stop the flow of weapons to Israel, that he stop vetoing UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions, that he stop opposing and frustrating efforts to hold Israel accountable, whether at the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court.
It’s time to begin this new stage, for the hostages, hostages to come home, for Israel to be secure, for the suffering to stop. It’s time for this war to end. For the day after to begin.
For all his evasions, distortions, lies and victim-blaming, the key takeaway from Biden’s speech is an admission of both Israeli and American failure and the search for a face-saving way out. But if Biden really wants to end the war, he does not need to publicly beg and cajole Israeli leaders. He can just stop the flow of weapons.
From the electronic Electronic Intifada (meaning resistance).
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Understanding Biden’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire
While the details of Joe Biden’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire remain vague it does make one outcome of the fighting clear: Israel and the United States lost.
As U.S. President Joe Biden stepped up to the microphone on Friday, he checked his watch before beginning his speech, joking that he wanted to make sure it was afternoon. Given that he was almost an hour late to the speech, someone might have told him behind the scenes to wait until it was close to the beginning of Shabbat in Israel. That way, far-right, and Sabbath-observant, ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir would have to wait a day to respond to a speech they certainly did not want to hear.
Nor was Biden’s speech one that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have been very pleased with, although he must have known it was coming well in advance.
Biden spent the bulk of his talk presenting what he called “a new Israeli proposal” for ending the slaughter in Gaza. On one hand, the plan he presented was remarkably similar to the one Israel rejected in early May, subsequently claiming that Hamas had “altered” it when they accepted the idea.
This raises the question of why Israel would suddenly accept it now. Part of the answer came shortly after Biden’s speech, when both houses of Congress, and the full bipartisan leadership, issued a formal invitation for Netanyahu to address a joint session in Congress, likely at the end of August or early September.
The politics around all of this are cynical, but there can be little doubt that the mass demonstrations around the United States and Europe, throughout the Arab world, and even in Israel pressed all the parties involved in talks to at least get a real offer on the table. Still, those same politics may still mean Israel’s onslaught will continue.
What we know of the proposal
Like the deal on the table a few weeks ago, the proposal Biden put forth is divided into three stages.
In Stage One, there would be a complete ceasefire for six weeks. Israel would withdraw from “all populated areas of Gaza”; Hamas and other militant groups would release some hostages, including women, elderly and wounded, in exchange for the release of “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners; Palestinian civilians can return to their homes anywhere in Gaza; and at least 600 trucks of humanitarian aid would enter Gaza every day.
Some crucial details remain unclear. Perhaps the most important one is what Israel withdrawing from “all populated areas of Gaza” means. If Israel will not be engaging in any military operations, then the presence of troops seems perfunctory. And, if Palestinians can return anywhere in Gaza, that leaves precious little “unpopulated” land in the tiny, overcrowded Strip.
Stage Two is somewhat open-ended, and the details are supposed to be worked out during Stage One. Biden did explicitly say that if those negotiations were not complete by six weeks, the ceasefire would be extended until they were.
The second stage would see an agreement on a permanent end to hostilities, the release of all living hostages held in Gaza, and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Given that there seems to be no framework for that permanent cessation, the prospect of success in so short a time is dubious.
Stage Three would then see the return of the remains of all dead hostages, and the start of a massive reconstruction effort in Gaza by the international community.
What’s missing
The plan is clearly incomplete as presented, and it raises the question of whether there are more key details to be worked out or if these issues, some of which are very significant, weren’t included in the announcement for political reasons.
Perhaps the biggest point that is absent from Biden’s presentation is governance. It is unfathomable that either Israel or the United States are prepared to tolerate a Hamas government. The Palestinian Authority might have an easier time taking over if Hamas accepts this offer and spins it as a victory for the Palestinian people. But would Israel really agree to that? Would the people of Gaza be willing to accept some sort of international coalition in temporary control of Gaza? That, too, seems unlikely, although it may be a price worth paying to end this torment.
The questions of war crimes, the case before the ICJ, and potential arrest warrants from the ICC remain open. If the major violence in Gaza ends, it is quite possible that those cases could all disappear, and with them, the hope of accountability for powerful states and their leaders who commit war crimes. It is, again, hard to fathom Israel ending its slaughter only to face those charges, and hard to imagine the United States sitting idly by for that.
There’s also an obvious issue of enforcement. Biden stated that if Hamas violates the terms of this proposal after it is agreed to, Israel could then resume its genocidal campaign. That’s a threat Israel will always have at its disposal.
But what if Israel fails to live up to its side of the deal? Biden seems to have simply assumed that Israel will abide by the deal if it agrees to it. The lessons of Oslo are completely lost on the President, and the reality that only external pressure—which must include the United States, though it need not be the only state applying that pressure—can ensure Israeli compliance is missing again. That is a story with a very bad ending that we have seen played out many times over the years.
The politics of the offer
The timing of this offer hints at why it came about today. With Donald Trump having been convicted on 34 felony counts in New York just the day before, Biden wants very much to capitalize on Trump’s bad day, especially because, at least initially, Trump’s conviction seems not to have given him much of a boost.
Of course, given how his support of genocide in Gaza has cost Biden, any time is a good time to strike a deal. The real question is why Israel suddenly agreed to it.
First, it’s important to understand Israel’s process here. Its negotiating team worked with Egypt, Qatar, and the US on this agreement, but it is unlikely that this is an offer Israel is making, as Biden characterized it. Netanyahu would have had to approve the U.S. making the offer in Israel’s name, but that doesn’t mean Israel has officially accepted the proposal. Netanyahu has the final word, but if the far-right parties threaten to quit the government, he may back off.
Moreover, Netanyahu hasn’t needed much arm-twisting to reject ceasefires that would lead to the release of the hostages held in Gaza, as he has done so repeatedly almost from the start. Even if his government doesn’t immediately collapse, he is still at serious risk, given his ongoing corruption trials. Keeping the killing in Gaza going forestalls that case.
The invitation from Congress is likely part of a package that Biden has offered Netanyahu to let this proposal go at least tentatively forward. There may be other incentives that have yet to materialize for Netanyahu to raise his profile in Israel or for other parties, such as Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, to agree to save his government if the far-right parties bolt. But Biden desperately needs to salvage something positive out of the debacle of Gaza, and if he sees a way to save Netanyahu in order to make that happen, he will certainly do it.
Biden opened the door for Netanyahu in his speech, saying that so many of Hamas’ fighters had been killed over the past eight months that they could not possibly mount a significant assault like the one on October 7 again. He was clearly building a road Netanyahu could take to claim victory by accepting this deal, by implying that Netanyahu’s condition of utterly defeating Hamas had been fulfilled as much as realistically possible.
The responses
Yet both Netanyahu and Hamas were cagily positive in their responses. Hamas released a statement saying, “Hamas confirms its readiness to deal positively and in a constructive manner with any proposal that is based on the permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal [of Israeli forces] from the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction [of Gaza], and the return of the displaced to their places, along with the fulfillment of a genuine prisoner swap deal if the occupation clearly announces commitment to such deal.”
It’s a smart response. It reflects that they are still parsing out the details, some of which have not yet been made public, and will not publicly commit to the deal until Israel affirms its support for it. The fact is, this proposal mostly satisfies the demands Hamas has repeated over the past months: complete ceasefire, end of hostilities, complete Israeli withdrawal, and complete Palestinian freedom to return to wherever they were chased from in Gaza.
All of those things don’t necessarily happen on day one, but Hamas is unlikely to find a better deal than this one, and it is certainly one that allows them to claim, realistically, that they withstood everything Israel had to assault them with, and they and the people of Gaza remained standing. Israel will have its own narrative, and each side’s supporters will embrace the various versions, but this is a realistic case for Hamas to make.
Biden alluded to the idea that this proposal somehow puts the idea of a two-state solution back on track, which is utter nonsense. It will have no effect on that illusion; it will simply end the slaughter.
Biden also hinted that this could lead to the normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. This, too, is unlikely. It’s not impossible, but it will require a number of other things to fall into place, including Senate approval of that deal and Israel committing to a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu is highly unlikely to do.
Indeed, if that deal is in any way a part of this one, it is a recipe for disaster. Not only because the normalization idea is terrible policy for the U.S., the Palestinians, and the entire region; but also because it threatens to spur the same desperation that was a significant factor in Hamas’ decision to launch the October 7 attack in the first place.
Biden would be unwise to pursue that course, although he will be tempted, given his obsession with the idea of Saudi-Israel normalization and his yearning for a major win on foreign policy. This proposal, even if it is accepted, is unlikely to be that kind of win.
That’s so mostly because the entire proposal makes it clear that Israel and the United States lost. The truce that might take hold has been on the table since last year in one form or another. A lot of Palestinian lives, as well as some Israeli ones, could have been saved.
Israel insisted that only force of arms could free the hostages, despite the fact that they had failed to do so, while an earlier ceasefire did include the freeing of nearly half the hostages taken. Hamas continues to exist, and it will do so whether this proposal is accepted or not. The people of Gaza have remained in Gaza, despite the massive loss of life.
All Israel accomplished was slaughter and destruction, while severely and permanently damaging their standing in the world, not only with millions upon millions of people, but with many governments as well.
All of this could have been avoided, and it doesn’t take complicated plans to do it. Simply allow Palestinians the rights and freedoms we all expect. In that world, there’s no need for October 7, no need for hate, fear, and insecurity. Biden’s speech, and this proposal, offers no hint that he understands that any better now than he did on October 6.
From Mondoweiss