Biden says US close to presenting final ceasefire offer, PM not doing enough for deal
Netanyahu says he doesn’t believe Biden would ask for Israeli concessions after Hamas murdered 6 hostages; Hamas official claims US president’s comments prove Israel stymying talks
US President Joe Biden on Monday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a deal for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, while revealing that his administration was “very close” to presenting a final hostage deal offer later this week.
Asked by reporters at the White House — where he was arriving for a meeting with US negotiators — if he thought Netanyahu was doing enough on the issue, the president responded: “No.”
The meeting on a potential hostage release-ceasefire deal was scheduled after the Israel Defense Forces on Saturday recovered the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza last week, one of them an American citizen.
Asked whether he was planning to present a final hostage deal proposal by the end of the week, Biden told reporters outside the White House on Monday, “We are very close to that.”
Responding to Biden’s comments, senior Israeli sources assailed the US president for pressuring Netanyahu in efforts to reach a hostage deal, rather than Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 invasion and slaughter in southern Israel.
“It is strange that the US president is putting pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu who agreed to the American proposal as early as May 31 and the American mediation proposal on August 16, and not on Sinwar, who continues to vehemently refuse any deal,” the sources said.
“NO.”
Ahead of national security meeting with U.S. negotiators, President Biden says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a hostage deal. pic.twitter.com/fkRiD9yaqG
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 2, 2024
At a press conference later Monday, Netanyahu denounced calls for Israel to make concessions after Hamas “murderers executed six of our hostages.”
“They shot them in the back of the head…and now, after this, we’re asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says kill more hostages, murder more hostages, you’ll get more concessions,” Netanyahu stated, speaking in English in response to a question.
“The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes, they say no all the time. But they also murdered these people. And now we need maximal pressure on Hamas.
“I don’t believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving their release would seriously ask Israel, Israel, to make these concessions,” the prime minister argued. “We’ve already made them. Hamas has to make the concessions.”
The May 31 US proposal mentioned by Netanyahu’s office was actually a speech Biden gave that exposed details of what was an Israeli hostage deal that Netanyahu had authorized.
That proposal did not include a demand by Israel to maintain control over the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent Hamas from smuggling in arms — a demand that Netanyahu began making in July and that has led to an extended impasse in the negotiations that the US and other mediators have since been working to overcome.
The demand has also put Netanyahu at odds with his own security establishment, which has pushed for compromise on the issue, arguing that the IDF can return to the corridor if need be, but that dragging out the talks over the demand risks the lives of the hostages.
An Israeli official involved in the hostage negotiations lamented to The Times of Israel over the weekend that Netanyahu has over-relied on military pressure, while neglecting the need for parallel diplomatic initiatives, such as the hostage deal, which has cost captives their lives.
The Israeli sources said Monday that Biden’s statement that Netanyahu was not doing enough to reach a deal was also dangerous because it came days after Hamas executed Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27, who were all kidnapped on October 7.
In the wake of the Israeli backlash to the president’s comments, the White House later added criticism of Hamas for killing hostages.
“The president has been clear that Hamas is responsible for killing Hersh and the others and Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes,” a US official said. Explaining Biden’s response to the reporter’s question, the official added that the president “is also calling for urgency from the Israeli government in securing the release of the missing remaining hostages.”
Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi, Lobanov, Sarusi and Danino (an off-duty noncommissioned officer) were abducted from the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, while Gat was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, meanwhile, told Reuters on Monday that Biden’s comments constituted a US acknowledgment that Netanyahu was undermining efforts to secure a deal and added that any proposal for a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal would be received positively.
Asked why he thought this final proposal would be successful when previous offers had failed, Biden told reporters on Monday, “Hope springs eternal.”
“I’ve spoken to the American hostage, I spoke to his mom and dad, and we’re not giving up. We’re going to continue to push as hard as we can,” he said, referring to Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents Jon and Rachel.
Biden’s schedule was revised to make time for a White House meeting with the American negotiating team, also to be attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running to succeed Biden in November’s presidential election.
A White House statement said he and Harris would meet “with the US hostage deal negotiating team following the murder of American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday, and discuss efforts to drive towards a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”
The US president also noted that he was expecting to be updated on recent mass protests across Israel decrying the government’s failure to secure the hostages’ release before they were executed.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Lazar Berman and agencies contributed to this report.
