US envoy indicates Philadelphi route not the most intractable topic in hostage-ceasefire deal talks
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador Jack Lew says that “progress continues to be made” on attempts to reach a hostage deal, “including on the key issues.”
Lew seems to indicate that the most intractable topic is not the Philadelphi Corridor: “Negotiations have gotten into the most difficult issues, some of which are not the subject of most of the public discussion.”
“The public debate masks where the real difficult issues are,” says Lew at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Lew says that the US is trying to put together a proposal with Israel, Egypt, and Qatar “that when it’s presented to Hamas, it’s clear the pressure will be on Hamas to accept it.”
He implies that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent press conferences about the need to remain on the Gaza-Egypt border for the foreseeable future are not torpedoing talks: “Very strong public comments sometimes coexist with residual flexibility, almost always.”
Lew says that US President Joe Biden’s “No” response to a question on whether Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a deal is not an indication that Washington is blaming Israel. “I wouldn’t overread a one-word answer,” he says. “If you ask me, everyone needs to do more.”
Lew emphasizes that the current negotiations are not trying to nail down the final details of the 2nd phase of a deal.
“That happens when you’re well into phase 1,” he says. According to the proposal under discussion, a 2nd phase would see a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza, and the release of all hostages.
