Netanyahu’s latest strategy to avoid a ceasefire, explained
A mourner reacts next to the body of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, 20 August 2024
Qassam Muaddi writes in Mondoweiss on 21 August 2024:
Since the start of the week, two news items about the latest ceasefire negotiations have surfaced that seem to contradict one another. One has gained widespread attention in the international press, claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the U.S. ceasefire deal, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating that the ball is now in Hamas’s court.
The second only gained traction in Israeli media: Netanyahu told a group of families of Israeli captives held in Gaza that he isn’t sure a ceasefire deal is going to happen because Israel would not withdraw from the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors in Gaza “under any conditions.”
While the first is being used to blame Hamas for the lack of a ceasefire, the second proves that in fact, it is Israel that is insisting on continuing its genocidal assault on Gaza.
Netanyahu’s insistence on holding onto Netzarim and Philadelphi — which even a U.S. administration official said was a “maximalist” demand that isn’t helpful to “getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line” — is tantamount to saying Israel isn’t interested in a ceasefire after all.
The background: how Netanyahu repeatedly sabotages negotiations
The latest round of talks started last week following a call by the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar for the resumption of negotiations. The three governments rushed to revive the ceasefire efforts after Iran and Hezbollah pledged to attack Israel in retaliation to its assassination of Hezbollah’s top military commander Fouad Shukr, in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district, as well as Hamas’s politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Both assassinations ramped up tensions, bringing the possibility of a regional war to the brink.
Then Blinken said that Netanyahu had accepted the deal proposed by the U.S. In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas said that U.S. claims that the group was refusing the deal were “misleading,” accusing the U.S. of complying with Netanyahu’s desire to prolong the war. The group also said that “the mediators know that Hamas has reacted responsibly with all rounds of negotiations,” and that it had accepted Biden’s proposal in May, based on the UN Security Council resolution to end the war