Agreeing to Gaza truce deal should be a ‘no-brainer’ for Hamas, Blinken says
US secretary of state says Israel has yet to present ‘credible plan’ for Rafah offensive, adds Netanyahu’s handling of war reflects views of ‘a large majority of Israelis’
Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a “no-brainer” for Hamas, but the motivations of the terrorists’ elusive Gaza-based leadership remain unclear, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said over the weekend.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, sent a delegation Saturday to Cairo to resume long-running talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar that would temporarily halt Israel’s offensive in return for freeing hostages.
“We wait to see whether, in effect, they can take yes for an answer on the ceasefire and release of hostages,” Blinken said late Friday. “The reality in this moment is the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas.”
Noting that the terrorists “purport to represent” the Palestinian people, Blinken said: “If it is true, then taking the ceasefire should be a no-brainer.”
“But maybe something else is going on, and we’ll have a better picture of that in the coming days,” he said.
Blinken pointed to difficulties negotiating with Hamas, which the US considers a terrorist group and does not engage with directly and which Israel has vowed to eliminate.
“The leaders of Hamas that we’re indirectly engaged with — through the Qataris, through the Egyptians — are, of course, living outside of Gaza,” Blinken said.
“The ultimate decision-makers are the folks who are actually in Gaza itself with whom none of us have direct contact.”
Blinken was addressing the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum in Arizona days after he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders on his latest visit to the Middle East.
Ahead of his talks with Blinken, Netanyahu vowed that an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Hamas’s last major bastion, would take place sooner or later, regardless of the outcome of truce negotiations.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly warned Israel against moving on Rafah, where an estimated 1.2 million Palestinians have taken shelter, without a plan to protect civilians.
Blinken said that Israel, which counts on the US for military and diplomatic support, has yet to present “a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm’s way.”
“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” Blinken said.
Global criticism of the war’s toll on civilians has mounted, as has pressure on the Biden administration.
The war broke out after Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 252 to Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 34,622 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The figure cannot be independently verified and includes some 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on and around October 7.
Handling of war reflects ‘large majority of Israelis’
Blinken was asked about Netanyahu’s domestic political standing.
“This is a complicated government. It’s a balancing act when you have a coalition. And if you’re just looking at the politics of it, that’s something that he has to factor in,” he said.
Blinken added that whatever one thinks of Netanyahu or the current government, “what’s important to understand is that much of what he’s doing is not simply a reflection of his politics or his policies; it’s actually a reflection of where a large majority of Israelis are in this moment.”
“And I think it’s important to understand that if we’re really going to be able to meet this challenge.”
Asked why Israeli public relations amid the war had been wanting, Blinken pointed to the changed media environment.
“We are on an intravenous feed of information with new impulses, inputs every millisecond. And of course, the way this has played out on social media has dominated the narrative. And you have a social media ecosystem environment in which context, history, facts get lost, and the emotion, the impact of images dominates,” he said.
He then suggested that while the Palestinians were previously the obstacle to a larger Mideast peace deal, Israel had become uninterested in one.
“To oversimplify, after the creation of the State of Israel, you had decades of basically Arab rejection. That went away with Egypt and Jordan making peace, and others following. Then you had some decades, in effect, of Palestinian rejection, because deals were put on the table — Camp David, Ehud Olmert, others — that would have given Palestinians 95, 96, 97 percent of what they sought, but they were not able to get to yes,” Blinken said.
“But I think the last decade or so has been one in which maybe Israelis became comfortable with that status quo. And as I say, I just don’t think it’s sustainable.”
Saudi ties in the balance
Blinken on Monday held his latest meeting with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to discuss potential normalization with Israel.
“He’s made it clear that he wants to do something on normalization, and he’d like to do it as soon as possible,” but only if conditions are met, Blinken said.
Before Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Netanyahu had seen growing Arab recognition of Israel as a key legacy, and Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites, would be the most coveted prize.
But Saudi Arabia has made clear it wants a pathway to a Palestinian state, a prospect long resisted by Netanyahu and adamantly opposed by his far-right allies.
“I believe that there can be a Palestinian state with necessary security guarantees for Israel,” Blinken said.
“And to some extent, I think you’d have Israelis who would like to get to real separation. Well, that is one way to do it.”
