Hostage deal won’t happen unless Biden squeezes Netanyahu harder, Arab officials say
Frustration among Qatari and Egyptian mediators now extending from Israel to US, after Hamas caved on key demand and PM added new conditions, ToI told
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
DOHA, Qatar — A ceasefire and hostage-release agreement between Israel and Hamas won’t be possible unless US President Joe Biden exerts more pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, two Arab officials from mediating countries told The Times of Israel.
The officials charged that Netanyahu is the main obstacle to an agreement at this stage of the talks, which hit an impasse last month after Hamas caved on its main demand and the premier responded by issuing a series of new conditions.
The admission from the Arab officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that frustration among Qatari and Egyptian mediators has extended beyond Israel to the United States.
One of the Arab officials lamented that Washington is the only party with enough leverage over Jerusalem to sway Netanyahu, but that is has thus far refrained from fully exploiting its role as Israel’s main security benefactor.
One way to apply pressure on Netanyahu would be for the US to publicly blame the Israeli premier for the lack of an agreement, the Arab official said.
For over a month, the US called out Hamas as the sole obstacle to a ceasefire, asserting that Netanyahu was standing by the Israeli proposal that he authorized in late May.
Biden administration officials largely stopped using the talking point in July after Hamas agreed to forgo its main demand for an up-front Israeli commitment for a permanent ceasefire.
While mediators initially believed that the shift would allow for a deal to be reached, Netanyahu subsequently directed the Israeli negotiating team to formally submit a series of new demands late last month. These included the IDF maintaining its presence along the Egypt-Gaza border; the establishment of a new mechanism to prevent armed Palestinians from accessing northern Gaza; and additional Israeli vetoes over the Palestinian prisoners Hamas is seeking to free in exchange for the remaining 115 hostages in Gaza, three officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
Netanyahu insists that he has not moved from the ceasefire proposal he authorized on May 27, though the text of the offer obtained by The Times of Israel indicates otherwise.
Nonetheless, the US has refrained from publicly singling out Netanyahu the way it has done with Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar.
Earlier Wednesday, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the Hamas leader “needs to decide now to take this deal.” Kirby did not issue a similar personal call to Netanyahu, though, he did say that both sides should accept the proposal on the table.
The second Arab official acknowledged that Biden has leaned on Netanyahu privately, but expressed skepticism that the president would be willing to go public with that pressure less than three months before the presidential election.
“Absent real US pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu, we’ll remain stuck,” the first Arab official said.
The comments appeared to be somewhat of a retort to months of assertions from Israel and the US that Qatar needs to lean on Hamas in order to bring about a deal.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
