Neither Hamas nor Israel decided to accept his peace plan

Was a strange gesture. for the public and the powerful. It is not common for the president of a country to decide to speak on behalf of another state. Moreover, the risk taken is enormous and possibly unnecessary. Biden knows better than anyone – except, perhaps, Blinken, Sullivan or Lloyd, the others in charge of US foreign policy – ​​that in this conflict, agreements last very little and nuances abound. Netanyahu He promised “total victory” and guaranteed his government allies that there would be no middle ground: Either the total destruction of Hamas or nothing,

In fact, this was the Israeli prime minister’s almost immediate response: ruling out the possibility of a deal that did not include the military end of Hamas as the basis for any upcoming talks. It would not be about supporting a government made up of Arab leaders outside the terrorist group to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, but about eliminating the terrorists first, and then we’ll talk about who rules the Strip. Israelare convinced that any agreement, with Hamas still active, will lead to a result Attempted coup and civil war like in 2007When Fatah and the Palestinian Authority had to leave Gaza.

However, the situation seemed to soften over the weekend and even Secretary of State Antony BlinkenCongratulated Defense Minister Yoav Galant and former IDF chief, Benny GantzFor all the effort put into the proposal, the truth is that everything returned to the path of pessimism on Monday. When presenting the proposal to their colleagues in parliament – the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and the Minister of Economy, Bezalel Smotrich – have been the most forceful in criticizing the agreement, Threat of collapse of government coalition-Netanyahu has hit back once again and described it as Biden’s version of the proposal is “incomplete.”

Numbness in the White House

In the White House they do not understand the attitude of their great ally in the Middle East. They do not understand it because, as a journalist and analyst for Axios CNNBarak Ravid, The document Biden talked about on Friday comes to you straight from Tel Aviv Under the heading “Israel’s response”. Ravid assured that the Israeli government also sent printed copies of the resolution to Egypt and Qatar, so that they could send it to Hamas and its leaders could study it.

Asked about Netanyahu’s use of the word “unfinished”, a US National Security Council spokesman said, John Kirby He claimed he did not know what he was referring to. “What the president said was exactly what he told us. “I don’t know what the shortage might be.” However, Israel believes some nuances have been lost What else is in Biden’s speech Transition from stage one to stage two. After those sixteen-day ceasefires and the release of the hostages, Israel will demand that Hamas admit defeat and withdraw from the Strip. Otherwise, the war will continue under the same existing parameters.

It is not clear where the misunderstanding actually lies. Biden presented the alleged Israeli plan as a peace plan and now Israel is insisting that it was a plan in line with its demand for a “complete victory”. In Netanyahu’s words, “Israeli forces are not going to withdraw from Gaza until the objectives with which we began this operation are accomplished.” In short, the same old speech, without any change.

Results for Biden

If the proposal that has been put on paper is the same one that Biden announced in the past few days, it seems clear that Netanyahu is going to reject it. If Israel’s subsequent clarifications are accepted, it will be Hamas that will reject it. Meanwhile, some One hundred hostages remain prisoners of the terrorists -IDF spokesman Daniel Hagar announced the deaths of four more Israelis during the capture this Monday – and thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza lost their lives and their most basic possessions. Nobody wins. Certainly not President Biden himself.

Because the reality is that if this latest effort doesn’t succeed, Biden’s position will be severely damaged. He took the plan personally and wanted to be the spokesperson Same. If this doesn’t go well, there will be consequences. Innocence in politics can easily be confused with weakness and naivety. Biden can shrug it off by saying he was duped, but the President of the United States cannot be exposed like that under any circumstances. Even less so in an election year.

His involvement in the proposal and its staging sums up the entire diplomacy of the world’s greatest power. The United States has been fighting for a deal for months without anyone noticing. He threatened a change of policy if Israel invaded Rafah and Israel is invading Rafah, even as dozens of people are killed in indiscriminate attacks without response. Anything Biden says at this point is not credible. Neither for Israel nor against it.

Definitely, This insecurity will cost them dearly in the next election. Republicans are good at grabbing a bone and pulling it. If they want to sell the image of an elderly, almost senile leader for years, this type of hesitation in foreign policy will cost them dearly. It happened to Jimmy Carter, who was not yet sixty and was leading all the polls until the hostage crisis at the Iranian embassy, ​​it will probably happen to Biden too… unless Netanyahu helps him. Except that Netanyahu is also playing for power. And you are interested in putting this above any other circumstance. The doubt that everything will be better with Trump does not help either.