The ongoing war against Hamas has reached a new chapter on the diplomatic front: Israel is done playing the ceasefire games with Hamas. The Jewish state has reached out multiple times and failed to agree with these terrorists concerning another pause in the fighting in exchange for hostages. Over 100 Israeli civilians remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces invaded in late October last year to destroy the terror group, which launched a devastating and barbaric attack that murdered at least 1,200 Israelis. The first pause lasted a few days, and some hostages were released, but Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel.
None of these developments are shocking. How many media clips do we need to unearth showing countless Hamas officials saying they don’t wish for a two-state solution? They want to destroy Israel and wipe Jews off the map. So, it’s hard to have constructive negotiations when one of the two parties intends to annihilate the other, and that overarching bloodlust clouds all other issues on the table. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is right—no more ceasefires or pauses until Hamas is destroyed. Many more months of war lie ahead—something Joe Biden doesn’t want (via WSJ):
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s terms for a cease-fire in Gaza, after the Palestinian militant group called for the release of thousands of prisoners along with other concessions in its first response to a U.S.-backed proposal to end the fighting.
The dismissal was a setback for a U.S. diplomatic push led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Israeli leaders on Wednesday during a fifth visit to the region aimed in part at defusing tensions before a possible Israeli military offensive on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza near Egypt’s border where over a million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, a day after Hamas submitted a detailed reply, Netanyahu didn’t specify which demands were unacceptable to Israel, but he vowed to continue Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
“Giving in to Hamas’s bizarre demands, that we heard right now, not only won’t bring the release of hostages. It will just invite another massacre,” Netanyahu said in a news conference. He also said that Israel thinks it can achieve its goal of toppling Hamas and ending security threats from Gaza within months.
Netanyahu’s comments showed that despite weeks of indirect negotiations, Israel and Hamas remain far apart in agreeing to a cease-fire framework negotiated by the U.S., Qatar, Israel, and Egypt. The proposal calls for a phased release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a truce that negotiators hope could lead to an end to the four-month-old war.
There’s another competing narrative here: Joe Biden wants the Gaza War to end because it’s hurting his re-election chances. Young voters are viciously pro-Hamas, especially on college campuses, and that’s troubling waters for a president who has no room for error, given his poor approval ratings, lackluster economy, and defections among core Democratic voter groups. Biden is not well-liked among young people, Muslim-Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, and union workers. If Arab American voters stay home, Michigan and Wisconsin could break for Trump. United Auto Workers front office gave Biden the 2024 endorsement, but its president admitted the rank-and-file won’t vote for Biden in November.
This Middle East issue has been an ongoing headache for generations. It’s not just a Biden administration problem, but it’s plopped on their doorstep, and they don’t have the brain trust to sort it out. The Israelis know that, too. The entire world knows the Biden White House is weak. It’s why Jerusalem can’t wait or dither anymore regarding their justified war of self-defense against Hamas.
