Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday evening that U.S. President Joe Biden’s description Friday of Israel’s proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal was “partial,” and not an accurate description of Israel’s position.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden presented a three-part deal that did not mention disarming Hamas and that would leave it in charge of Gaza. The deal would also require Israeli withdrawal from Gaza before all hostages were freed.
Biden claimed four times in his prepared remarks that Israel had proposed the plan — a claim that soon collapsed as former President Barack Obama noted that it had been Biden’s plan, and as Israel’s governing parties disputed it.
Two right-wing parties that form part of Netanyahu’s governing coalition threatened to leave and to force new elections if the plan was adopted. Meanwhile, massive left-wing protests demanded that Netanyahu adopt the plan.
Israel tentatively agreed to the outline in broad terms, including a potential pause in fighting to allow for the return of the hostages, but Netanyahu added: “There are other details which the U.S. president did not present to the public.”
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer clarified in a briefing on Monday: “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities; the freeing of all 124 hostages; and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. All of our objectives are within reach. Israel will not compromise on any of them.”
He added: “The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter. It’s a non-option.”
Mencer declined to say whether Israel believed Biden had misled the world in his description of the proposal. The White House has not yet explained why Biden described the plan, falsely, as Israel’s proposal. White House national security spokesman John Kirby reiterated on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos that “it is an Israeli proposal,” adding: “This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal, as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal, that Israel would say yes.”
The intention appears to have been to entice Hamas to agree to favorable terms, then to force Israel into accepting the deal or collapsing its government.
An Israeli official described Biden’s speech as “political” in nature, suggesting that Biden had his own reasons for giving it. (Biden used the statement as an opportunity to tout the conviction of former President Donald Trump.)
Mencer also addressed the escalating violence in the northern part of the country, where the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah has increased its rocket and drone fire from Lebanon. He said the situation was “not sustainable,” and implied that Israel would soon go to full-scale war against Hezbollah if it did not desist from attacking Israel.
On humanitarian aid efforts, Mencer noted that the United Nations continued to fail to distribute aid that Israel had allowed through. “650 aid trucks are currently waiting on the gazan side of Kerem Shalom for pickup,” he said.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.