State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters Monday that the proposal President Joe Biden presented Friday was “virtually identical” to proposals that Hamas terrorists had presented in recent weeks.
Miller said that because the three-point plan was “virtually identical” and “almost identical” to Hamas’s own proposals, Hamas should accept the deal.
As Breitbart News reported last Friday, Biden proposed a three-part deal, claiming that it was an Israeli “roadmap.” Curiously, however, the deal barely mentioned Hamas, and did not require that the terror group disarm. It also said Israel would withdraw from Gaza before all of the hostages were freed.
Biden also said that there were parties in the Israeli government — which had supposedly proposed the deal — that would reject the deal. He warned them that “total victory” against Hamas was impossible.
Hamas leaders welcomed the deal, but have not yet formally accepted it.
The deal resembles Hamas proposals, though Hamas has rejected all plans that have not come with an explicit, written commitment, guaranteed by the United States, that Israel would end the war without destroying Hamas.
In the hours after Biden’s speech, it became clear that the proposal had not, in fact, come from the Israeli government. Right-wing parties threatened to quit the government and force new elections if it was accepted; left-wing protesters demanded it be accepted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while being careful not to accuse Biden explicitly of lying, said that the deal Biden had presented was “partial,” and that Israel would not accept a deal that prevented it from destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
It appeared clear, by Monday, that Biden had misled the world in an attempt to box Israel into a deal that attempted to appease Hamas. He may also have hoped to cause instability in Netanyahu’s coalition.
Still, Miller also continued to insist: “This is a proposal from the Israeli government.”
Asked by a reporter what would happen if Hamas rejected the deal, Miller seemed stumped. While saying that he did not want to deal in hypotheticals, Miller said that Hamas would have to “explain” such a decision to the world.
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.