‘A misunderstanding’: Senior Israeli official insists PM didn’t zigzag on US-led Hezbollah truce

Calling the whole incident “a misunderstanding,” a senior Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not backtrack on his commitment to support a US-France ceasefire proposal in Lebanon yesterday.

The episode started earlier this week, says the official, when US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to discuss the initiative.

Dermer and US Ambassador Michael Herzog were the only two interlocutors this week, says the official.

Israel said it was interested in seeing what the two allies would present, and understood that the presentation of the proposal was meant to be “the start of a process” as Israel continues fighting, says the official.

Israel did not even see the final text of the US-France proposal until Netanyahu and his staff were in the air, according to the official. They were surprised by the US text that presented a ceasefire as impending, and tied the war in Gaza in more closely than Israel expected. The official surmises that the US made those changes to get Lebanon and Hezbollah on board.

The expectation from the US, in Israel’s understanding, was that Netanyahu would say that “we welcome this initiative” when he landed. However, says the official, the press began to report that there would be a ceasefire within hours, and therefore the prime minister stressed that the war would keep going when he landed.

Dermer met with White House Middle East pointman Brett McGurk, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and special envoy Amos Hochstein Thursday to clear matters up, says the official, which Israel believes he did. Israel and US coordinated the English-language statement that Netanyahu’s office put out last night saying that “Israel shares the aims of the US-led initiative.”

For their part, top Biden administration officials have gone on the record saying that they wouldn’t have announced the 21-day ceasefire initiative had they not received assurances from Netanyahu that he was on board.

Washington has fumed over what it feels as an about-face by Netanyahu regarding its effort.