This decision isn’t hard, but for the Biden administration—it’s damn near impossible. Is there a humanitarian pause in Northern Gaza or not? It’s not rocket science: Biden speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the two mutually agree. You make the announcement public, and it’s done. So, why can’t the Biden White House get this simple stuff?
BREAKING: Kirby: Starting today Israel is going to implement a daily 4 hour pause in the fighting in northern Gaza strip
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) November 9, 2023
This morning, it was announced by this administration that Israel had agreed to four-hour humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to reach safe zones. The Israeli media hasn’t reported on this, but our establishment press carried the water for John Kirby. As it turns out, someone got ahead of their skis, and now the Biden administration looks ridiculous. As for the talks regarding a ceasefire, that won’t happen. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “There is no real proposal that is viable from Hamas’s side on this issue.”
What the Israeli press is reporting is that there have already been pauses happening for days, allowing civilians to pass Israeli lines out of war-torn regions of the strip. Ed has more over at Hot Air:
UPDATE: Netanyahu's office denies it. Either Kirby and Biden got out over their skis, or they tried to bully Israel into their preferred policies. Embarrassing. https://t.co/EvZXekGC6K
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) November 9, 2023
An interesting development, given that American media have reported this before Israeli media despite the obvious higher interest in that country. The White House has committed the IDF to operational ‘pauses’ in northern Gaza each day, with announcements to give terrorists plenty of warning to time attacks on moribund IDF units.
[…]
It turns out that Israel has already been implementing tactical pauses all along to allow civilians to evacuate. Yesterday alone, the Times of Israel reports, the IDF allowed 50,000 civilians to evacuate to the south while implementing a tactical pause. However, they do not plan to make that a commitment unless conditions on the ground necessitate it…
There is no ceasefire. There are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians. These tactical pauses are limited in time and area. We are also providing humanitarian corridors for civilians in Gaza to temporarily move south to safer areas where they can receive… pic.twitter.com/qwNoYYf0QV
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 9, 2023
If Biden was trying to bully Israel, as Ed suggests, it failed miserably. Also, Joe doesn’t have the stones or intelligence to pull that off. Know your lane, old man.