Biden on the war in Gaza: “It’s time for the war to end”. But then… The comment

Biden on the war in Gaza: “It’s time for the war to end”. But then… The comment

Last night Biden, speaking from the White House dining room, during a statement released on the sidelines of the verdict condemning Trump for the Stormy Daniels case, surprisingly announced a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Without giving details, Biden has outlined a three-phase plan aimed at breaking Hamas and Israel out of a “months-long stalemate” in which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. Speaking of Hamas’ now reduced offensive capabilities, he added that “at this point it is no longer able to organize another 7 October”. The “road map advanced by Israel”, as Biden specified, arrived through Qatari intermediaries and, looking closely, it is no different from the one conceived by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators which Hamas had accepted on May 6 and Netanyahu rejected. “This is truly a defining moment,” Biden said. “Israel has made its proposal. Hamas says it wants a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to demonstrate what they really mean to do.” Not even a very veiled criticism of the Israeli prime minister who American officials reveal is not exactly eager to put an end to the bloody counter-offensive on the Strip which since October 7 has brutally exterminated more than 36,000 Palestinian civilians and injured over 82,000.

One of the objectives of this latest proposal is put pressure on both Hamas and Israel, although the latter, and especially Netanyahu, does not show a great rush to move towards a real ceasefire. The main purpose, however, is another and is less noble, as often happens in politics as in war: Biden finds himself in a crucial, not to say disastrous, moment of his re-election campaign; at home, despite the fact that a part of Americans are aligned belly to earth with Israel, he has suffered and increasingly suffers the pressure exerted by a growing segment of public opinion, increasingly horrified and disgusted by the endless horror and death that are being broadcast in Gaza for eight months. Pressures triggered by explosions of dissent originating on university campuses and in the streets of American cities, which have alienated many of his own supporters. Without forgetting that his “announcement for peace in Gaza” comes the day after his rival, former President Donald J. Trump, was convicted of 34 crimes.

Biden described Israel’s three-phase plan as a historic “comprehensive proposal” that amounts to a roadmap to a “lasting ceasefire.” Yet, if you rewind the tape, it emerges that Netanyahu has often directly contradicted Biden in recent months. Furthermore, Hamas has never accepted a “global proposal”, asking as the first binding clause “the cessation of all fighting”, without which guarantee the hostages will never be released, much less any agreement signed with Israel.

In detail, the proposal would be divided into three phases. The first would consist of a 6-week ceasefire; the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of the Strip; the release of some still alive hostages held by Hamas, primarily women and elderly people, in exchange for the release of a few hundred Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; the possibility of Palestinians in the Strip to return to their homes; the massive entry of humanitarian aid. In the second phase, which can only be implemented provided that some knots currently still stuck in the comb are untied – such as the number of Palestinians locked up in Israeli prisons to be released in exchange for Israeli hostages or, even more crucially, who will govern the Strip if and when should the Israeli occupation army ever withdraw – a permanent cessation of all hostilities would be established; the exchange of the remaining living Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of a yet-to-be-determined number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; the complete retreat of the Israeli army from the entire Gaza Strip. The third and final phase includes an “important reconstruction plan for Gaza”, whose implementation is estimated to take place in 3/5 years, and the release of the bodies of all deceased hostages.

As in the best Hollywood screenplays, the gloss chosen by Biden in his speech last night lived up to the evocative crescendo with which he appealed for Peace: “”It’s time for the war to end and “the next day” to begin.”. So far reconstructions and news, necessary to clarify the terms of the latest episode of hypocritical American conduct. Now, in a nutshell, let’s try to translate last night’s dramatic scene: Biden is at the gas pipe, he is burnt out as president, as a man, as a politician. The stubborn and blind alliance with Israel has dragged him and the United States into the same whirlpool in which the Jewish state is spiraling and falling more and more every day, as the damned did in Dante’s hell. The hell of Rafah and the total destruction of Gaza, if it is not yet clear to anyone, are the plastic and deadly representation of the failure of Biden and the United States and Western countries, as well as that of Netanyahu, of his ethnocentric and messianic government of murderous racist extremists and of the Jewish State itself which in recent months has shown itself to be closely aligned with the government’s positions. Only a very small part, which also includes the poor and desperate relatives of the hostages, who have been fruitlessly engaged for months in the search for an agreement for their release, is critical of the Government in office, which in February had openly declared that the hostages they were not “their priority”.

Like it or not, the truth in the Strip is that the food catastrophe has now engulfed Gaza. Famine is a reality that 2 million human beings have to deal with every day and which is killing the most fragile, the little ones as well as the elderly. The truth is that all cultivated land has been 100% destroyed by the army and their bulldozers. Everything that could be used for the survival of Gaza has been methodically and knowingly transformed into sterile desert. And when in Phase 1 of the peace plan proposed by Biden we read that “the Palestinians can return to their homes”, those like me who know that there are no longer homes to return to are assailed by an uncontrollable surge of anger and regurgitation of disgust. How can you be so hypocritical and false? Lie to the bitter end always and in any case, to save yourself and a man for whom the chief prosecutor of the Criminal Court has requested an arrest warrant? Because it is equally clear that yesterday’s move has the third crucial objective of avoiding handcuffs for the obstinate exterminator of the Palestinians.

Biden, in his abysmal hypocrisy and indecency, continues to maintain that Israel has not crossed the thin red line, when in truth it has crossed it a long time ago. After the ignominious burning of children, the abominable carnage in Rafah and the Strip continues to become ever more intense. The Indian American Nikki Haley, a woman who deserves to be tried for incitement to hatred, signs bombs in which she praises the total extermination of the Palestinians. The American Senator who harangues armed with a Bible and a crucifix even proposed resolving the issue with a nice atomic bomb.

Like it or not, the truth about Israel, as Israeli journalist Yoana Gonen described emphatically in Hareetz, is that while “little children go up in flames, Israeli citizens celebrate, erase, chat or yawn: this is what our hell looks like ”. An ancient proverb says: “When you embark on a campaign of revenge, dig two graves.” Gonen also writes, “Israel has such a strong desire for revenge that it is slowly sinking into a dark abyss, hand in hand with the ruins of Gaza.”