Biden said increasingly gloomy on Gaza ceasefire as his time in office winds down
Aides reportedly say US president no longer thinks a deal to free hostages and end fighting is likely before he leaves office, as talks falter and anger with Netanyahu grows
US President Joe Biden has reportedly taken an increasingly bleak view of chances for a deal ending the war in Gaza and bringing hostages home, with mediation efforts seemingly on hold as violence in the region threatens to spiral into a wider regional conflict.
In public, the Biden administration has continued to insist that a long-elusive ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group is possible. But as the clock winds down on his term in office, Biden is no longer optimistic that an agreement can be clinched in time, The New York Times reported Monday, citing aides to the president.
According to the report, which detailed growing frustration in the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hopes for a deal have sunk to their lowest level since Biden revealed the outlines of a proposal in late May.
A promised framework aimed at bridging gaps between Israel and Hamas remains off the table due to pessimism that Netanyahu or Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will accept the proposal, the newspaper reported.
“At the moment, we don’t feel like we are in a position, if we put something down today, to get both sides to say yes to it,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was quoted saying.
Officials have indicated in recent days that negotiators are now pursuing a second track, in which a proposed deal would eschew the phased hostage release and troop withdrawal envisioned in the plan laid out by Biden. Instead, the proffer envisions an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages and captive remains in one fell swoop, along with Gaza being disarmed and Sinwar and other Hamas members going into exile.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Monday that the Biden administration had recently sent a draft text of the proposal to Jerusalem for approval, confirming a Channel 12 news report.
The official said Israel had yet to respond to the proposal.
According to Channel 12 news, citing an Israeli and an American official, the proposal was also sent to Hamas via Qatari and Egyptian mediators, but was flatly rejected.
In recent days, Biden and other administration officials have focused public statements on efforts to reduce mounting violence on the Israel-Lebanon border, with Gaza seemingly falling by the wayside.
On Monday, Biden ignored a question from a reporter about a Gaza ceasefire and gave the issue only scant mention in remarks alongside United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“We also will discuss our efforts to end the war in Gaza and a number of regional issues,” Biden said, quickly transitioning to American attempts to keep tensions between Israel and Hezbollah from boiling over.
While White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby blamed Sinwar on Sunday for talks being stalled, aides cited by the New York Times said that frustration with Netanyahu within the administration was increasingly being expressed in the open, noting the paucity of phone calls between Netanyahu and Biden as fighting has ramped up in Israel’s north.
Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have for months tried to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, although the sides remain far apart on key issues, including the presence of Israeli troops on the Gaza-Egypt border and the exact contours of a hostages-for-prisoners exchange.
Families of hostages have publicly sought for the US to pressure Netanyahu to agree to a deal, blaming the prime minister for inserting new conditions and torpedoing chances, a complaint echoed by US officials at times.
But Biden, who is expected to speak about Middle East tensions when he addresses the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, has also insisted recently that he has not given up hope for a Gaza ceasefire.
“If I ever say it’s not realistic then I might as well leave,” Biden said last week when asked if the chances for a deal were quickly fading under his watch. “A lot of things don’t look realistic until we get them done.”
With violence between Israel and Hezbollah mounting, efforts to deescalate tensions between the US ally and the Iran-backed terror group are expected to be the focus of talks between administration officials and their counterparts on the sidelines of the UN, according to two senior administration officials.
“We’ve got some concrete ideas we’re going to be discussing with allies and partners this week to try to figure out the way forward on this,” a senior US official said on condition of anonymity.
The official added that the United States wanted to find an “off-ramp that will first and foremost prevent further escalation in the fighting,” without providing details.
Hezbollah, which has fired rockets at Israel since October 8 in support of Hamas, says it will only halt its fire once a ceasefire in Gaza is reached. Israeli officials say they are still interested in a diplomatic solution, but have expressed doubts about the chances for one.
In another sign of dimming hopes, the Pentagon said on Monday it will send a small number of additional troops to the Middle East out of an abundance of caution.
The UN speech by Biden will be his last before he is slated to leave the White House on January 20, 2025, handing the keys to either Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump, barring any major surprises.
Harris’s approach to foreign policy is much like Biden’s, although she has struck a tougher tone on the tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Trump was a firm backer of Netanyahu during his first term, though he has since spoken of the Israeli premier with disdain at times. He has also professed more isolationist tendencies than Democrats.
Agencies contributed to this report.
