Biden suggests Netanyahu is delaying end of Gaza war for political survival

US President Joe Biden sees it as reasonable to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is delaying the end of the war in Gaza for political reasons. He stated this in an interview with the magazine time last week — three days before announcing the details of a three-phase fire proposal — and published this Tuesday. Although Biden avoids saying that message in his own words, when asked if he believes that Netanyahu “is prolonging the war for his own political survival,” the president responds: “There are all kinds of reasons to draw that conclusion.”

These statements come as the Biden Administration, which faces criticism from young voters and the progressive wing of its party for its position supporting Israel in the Gaza war, intensifies its pressure for the fundamentalist Palestinian militia Hamas and the Netanyahu’s government approves the ceasefire proposal outlined by the US president last Friday. Washington has described that offer as Israeli-made. Israel’s prime minister, who faces deep divisions within the country and his own governing coalition, has not yet made clear whether or not he embraces that plan.

Biden’s statements are among the harshest he has publicly made against the Israeli prime minister. The relationship between the two, which has never been particularly fluid, reached its peak after the October 7 attacks, when Biden traveled to Tel Aviv and embraced Netanyahu to express his solidarity. Since then, the bond has become increasingly strained as the Israeli leader has ignored calls to moderate his position in Gaza, where the offensive has left more than 36,000 dead, more than twice as many wounded and destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure.

In addition to suggesting a political motivation in Netanyahu’s attitude, Biden criticizes that Israel entered Gaza after the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israeli territory, in which some 1,200 people were murdered, in the same vengeful and destructive way with which The United States invaded Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Attacking in this way, the president considered, “leads to endless wars.” “We must not repeat the mistakes we made. And they are repeating the same mistake,” he adds in the interview.

The US president, at the same time, maintains that it is “uncertain” whether Israeli forces in Gaza have committed war crimes. The Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court in The Hague has requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders.

The announcement of the plan for a truce made public by Biden keeps the forces that hold the Executive led by Netanyahu in a complicated balance divided. On the one hand, the two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties have offered their support to the prime minister: they are Shas, which is the main coalition partner, and United Torah Judaism. But on the other hand, the religious nationalists, essentially integrated into Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, have threatened – as they do almost daily – to blow up the Government if the ceasefire proposal goes ahead.

This Tuesday, Shas showed “all its support” for a possible agreement that would allow the release of the hostages who remain in the hands of Hamas. The ultra-Orthodox formation, with 11 of the 120 seats in the Israeli Parliament, announced in a statement that it “supports the prime minister and the war cabinet to face all pressures, to reach an agreement and to save the lives of many of our brothers and sisters who are in danger and captivity.” A similar announcement was made Monday by United Torah Judaism, with seven seats in the House.

Within his usual belligerence, the Minister of National Security and leader of Jewish Power, the ultra Itamar Ben Gvir, had already charged that same day against the truce project and warned Netanyahu, whom he accuses of hiding the road map from him, of the breakup if it goes ahead. “The details of the agreement, as presented by President Biden, show that this is an agreement that means the surrender of Israel and the end of the war without achieving its main objective of destroying Hamas,” he wrote on his X profile (formerly Twitter). Jewish Power and Religious Zionism, led by the Minister of Finance, also ultra Bezalel Smotrich, control 13 of the seats.

Qatar announced this Tuesday through the Foreign Ministry spokesperson that the plan, which it considers closer to a meeting point than on previous occasions, has been delivered to Hamas. “We are waiting for a clear Israeli position,” added Majed al Ansari during a media appearance in which he acknowledged that “no one can obtain a total victory in this war.” The Achilles heel is the end of the conflict, which the Palestinian fundamentalists demand as a condition for releasing the hostages against the criteria of Netanyahu, who intends to reserve the right to continue with the attacks once these releases are achieved. “We have asked the mediators to achieve a clear Israeli position to commit to a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Gaza,” Hamas insisted at a press conference in Beirut.

As an element that adds pressure to these possible truce negotiations, Israel disclosed this Tuesday its suspicion that 43 of the hostages remaining in the Palestinian enclave, more than a third of the total of 120, are dead, according to the latest government count. . Nearly 250 people were kidnapped by Hamas—and taken to Gaza—during the October 7 attack that sparked the conflict in the Strip.

Heavy electoral burden

The proposal that Biden presented last Friday is a new attempt by the White House to end a war that already represents a heavy political burden for Biden five months before the presidential elections, in which polls give the advantage to his rival , Donald Trump. Washington assures that it is convinced that Israel will approve the proposal if Hamas accepts it. According to the US Government, the offer coincides almost exactly with what the Palestinian militia had demanded in the various rounds of talks.

The American president spoke on Monday with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hada Al Thani, to whom he assured Israel’s “willingness to move forward with the terms now proposed to Hamas,” according to the White House. Biden also “emphasized that this is the best possible opportunity for an agreement,” the official statement said, calling on the Qatari leader to employ “all appropriate measures to ensure that the Palestinian militia accepts the proposal.”

In its first phase, lasting six weeks, the potential agreement would include a provisional ceasefire and an exchange of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners – how many, exactly, is already included in the text, but has not been made public, according to the spokesperson for White House national security affairs, John Kirby, on Monday – by the Israeli hostages in Gaza held captive since October 7: the elderly, women, sick and wounded. In addition, humanitarian aid would increase to 600 trucks a day and Palestinian refugees would be able to return to what remains of their homes. Israeli troops would withdraw from populated areas.

In the second phase, a permanent ceasefire would be established and the prisoner exchange completed. Israeli forces would completely withdraw from the strip. The third phase would be reconstruction.

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