Reuters (“Biden’s Gaza plan ‘not a good deal’ but Israel accepts it, Netanyahu aide says“):
An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by U.S. President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them”.
“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organisation” have not changed.
[…]
Biden has hailed several ceasefire proposals over the past several months, each with similar frameworks to the one he outlined on Friday, all of which collapsed. In February he said Israel had agreed to halt fighting by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began on March 10. No such truce materialised.
The primary sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only temporary pauses to fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, which shows no sign of stepping aside, says it will free hostages only under a path to a permanent end to the war.[…]
Falk reiterated Netanyahu’s position that “there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met”.
Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered.
Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative.
“Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialise within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
Hamas wants a guaranteed end to the Gaza offensive, withdrawal of all invading forces, free movement for Palestinians and reconstruction aid.
Israeli officials have rejected that as an effective return to the situation in place before Oct. 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction, ruled Gaza.
Times of Israel (“Senior Netanyahu adviser: Israel okayed Biden-touted hostage deal, but work needed“)
A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that while there is still work that needs to be done on a hostage release deal presented by US President Joe Biden, Israel has agreed to the framework.
[…]
According to the report, Falk stressed that Israel was not rejecting the deal, which he characterized as “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.”
But, echoing an earlier statement by Netanyahu, Falk added that Israel’s conditions to end the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, “have not changed — the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization.”
He was also quoted as saying Biden’s address was “a political speech for whatever reasons.”
[…]
On Sunday President Isaac Herzog said he would back Netanyahu to move ahead with the plan.
Speaking at a conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Herzog said he had told Netanyahu that he would give him “full support” for a hostage-release deal.
Herzog also thanked Biden for his speech and for “his ongoing efforts to bring about the release of all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.”
“We must not forget that according to Jewish tradition, there is no greater commandment than redeeming captives and hostages — especially when it comes to Israeli citizens who the State of Israel was not able to defend,” Herzog said at the conference, named for his father, Chaim Herzog. “It is our inherent obligation to bring them home within the framework of a deal that preserves the security interests of the State of Israel.”
Herzog’s role is largely ceremonial and he would not have a say in approving a hostage deal, but as a state figurehead, his opinion carries sway among the public.
[…]
While [Biden] described the latest proposal as one crafted by Israel, and thus presumably approved by the narrow war cabinet, he evidently recognized that this was not the final say from Jerusalem and urged Netanyahu’s full government to stand behind the offer its negotiators had submitted via the mediators to Hamas.
The premier’s ultranationalist coalition partners quickly declared that anything other than the “destruction of Hamas” would not be acceptable to them. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionism party, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who heads the Otzma Yehudit party, both issued statements Saturday night saying they would bolt the government if that demand is not met.
The two parties won 14 seats when they ran jointly in the 2022 elections and are crucial to the governing majority of Netanyahu’s core, 64-strong coalition, in the Knesset’s 120-seat Knesset.
Neither Smotrich nor Ben Gvir are members of the three-member war cabinet that oversees the war and acts as the point on hostage negotiations. Its members are Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Minister Benny Gantz.
The Sunday Times report cited by Reuters is, alas, paywalled.
Leaving aside whether continuing the war personally benefits Netanyahu, the politics of this are fraught. He likely can’t agree to the deal as stands while keeping the coalition together.
This is clearly a different stance than was being taken in the immediate aftermath of Biden’s speech. So, either Biden has effectively communicated that further support from his administration is contingent on taking this deal or the speech was itself a way for Netanyahu to float a way out of this mess without doing so directly.
That said, I remain where I was on this yesterday: I don’t see how this deal accomplishes any Israeli objective other than the return of the remaining living hostages and the bodies of those who have died in captivity. Any termination of the conflict that leaves the Hamas leadership intact is a victory for Hamas.
