Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that pressure — from the U.S. and from domestic opposition — for a hostage deal needs to be on Hamas, not the Israeli government, due to the terror group’s ongoing obstinacy.
Netanyahu at the beginning of a meeting with his governing coalition, after negotiations wrapped up in Doha, Qatar, on Friday without Hamas representatives present. Hamas, under its new leader Yahya Sinwar, boycotted the talks.
The Israeli government has been under pressure from the U.S. to agree to a deal — though it has already accepted the terms laid out by President Joe Biden in May. (Secretary of State Blinken will visit Israel this week, for the ninth time since the October 7 terror attacks.)
The domestic political opposition in Israel has also held weekly demonstrations for a deal, even though most Israelis also want to see Hamas defeated and reject a deal that would allow it to rearm.
There were reports that negotiations made progress, and that Israel had shown flexibility on the issue of withdrawing its forces from the Philadelphi corridor, the road that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel took the corridor when it attacked Rafah in May, and has uncovered dozens of cross-border smuggling tunnels.
Hamas, however, refused to attend the talks, accusing Israel of adding new demands, which Netanyahu has denied.
In a statement Sunday, Netanyahu said:
[W]e are engaged in negotiations for the release of our hostages. This is a national mission of the highest order. We are holding very complex negotiations in which the other side is a murderous terrorist organization that is unbridled and obstinate.
However, I would like to emphasize: We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give. There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish between the two very well.
…
Once again, I would like to emphasize: Up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure needs to directed at Hamas and Sinwar, not the Government of Israel.
Strong military and diplomatic pressure are the way to secure the release of our hostages.
Israel has refused to agree to a Hamas demand that it withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and agree never to attack Hamas again. Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas as a military threat and governing authority.
The Biden administration is pressing for a deal before the U.S. election, and have tried to tie it to a possible truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, which has been firing rockets into Israel.
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 Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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