PM: Biden wouldn't seek concessions after hostages killed

Netanyahu: If we leave Philadelphi, Hamas will be able to rearm, revive, repeat Oct. 7

PM rejects even 42-day IDF withdrawal from Gaza-Egypt border for sake of hostage deal, claims Israel’s entire future at stake; Lapid: He wants war forever, will never make a deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Defending himself against charges of blocking a hostage deal on Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued forcefully for what he said was the “strategic imperative” to keep Israeli troops stationed along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Speaking with reporters during a rare press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu insisted that the 14-kilometer (8.7 miles) strip of land is essential for Israel to achieve its war aims and that retaining control there is “central” and determines Israel’s very future. “We will not go out. The importance of the Philadelphi Corridor is cardinal — to bring out the hostages, to ensure that Hamas is destroyed, and that Gaza will not again be a threat to us,” he said.

Were the IDF to withdraw even for the 42-day first phase of a deal, in an effort to secure the release of numerous living hostages, it would never be able to return, he claimed, and thus Hamas would be able to rearm, revive, and carry out many more October 7 massacres.

He rejected the assertion that the six hostages murdered by Hamas in Gaza last week were killed because his terms had prevented a deal. “We didn’t manage to extricate them. We were very close. It’s terrible,” he said. “But it didn’t happen because of that decision [on the Philadelphi Corridor.] It happened, first, because they (Hamas) don’t want a deal,” he said. “I look for every means… to get them home,” he said of the hostages.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid castigated his comments as baseless political spin designed to keep his coalition together. Lapid noted that Netanyahu had years to retake Philadelphi and didn’t bother, and only sent the IDF to do so eight months into the current war.

The terrible truth about Netanyahu’s stated position, said Lapid, was that “he will not make a deal. He won’t bring our children home.” He wants war “forever.” Lapid called on the “more responsible” people in Netanyahu’s coalition to give him an ultimatum: “You can tell him, if there is no deal, there’s no government.”

The Hostages’ Families Forum, decrying a speech “full of lies and spins,” vowed to step up the “struggle to return the hostages” and accused the prime minister of “criminal negligence.”

Hamas’s ‘oxygen’ supply

Early in his prepared remarks, Netanyahu declared that Israel’s war goals are “to destroy Hamas, to bring back all of our hostages, to ensure that Gaza will no longer present a threat to Israel, and to safely return the residents of the northern border,” and asserted that “three of those war goals go through one place: the Philadelphi Corridor. That is Hamas’s pipeline for oxygen and rearmament.”

Projecting a map of Israel and Gaza on the wall behind him, Netanyahu noted that following the 2005 Disengagement, Israel controlled all of Gaza’s borders except the one with Egypt, and it was through that border  that weapons reached the Strip.

“The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi Axis,” he declared, referring to Iran and its proxies, making the argument that this was the precise reason Israel “must control it” and “make permanent the fact that we are there.”

The “significance and importance” of Israeli control of Philadelphi, he said, was “to ensure that we don’t have another October 7 and another October 7 and another October 7, as Hamas has promised to carry out.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets troops along the Philadelphi Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area, August 21, 2024. (Ariel Heremoni/Defense Ministry)

Criticizing Egypt for failing to secure the border, Netanyahu insisted he had called on then-prime minister Ariel Sharon to retain control of the corridor two decades ago ahead of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza.

He added that he had later fought against Hamas’ military build-up over the course of several governments but was stymied by a lack of international and domestic legitimacy to retake Gaza.

Netanyahu has come under immense criticism domestically for allegedly blocking a deal with his insistence since July on continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor and central Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, which divides the north of the Strip from its south.

In July, Netanyahu added several “nonnegotiable” demands to Israel’s May 27 hostage deal proposal, including for Israeli control over both corridors.

The Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors were not specified as locations where Israeli troops would be allowed to remain, according to the text of the Israeli proposal from May, which has been published in full by The Times of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

According to Channel 12, Netanyahu last week indicated to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a security cabinet meeting that he was prioritizing keeping Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor over saving the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

On Monday night, the prime minister dismissed the argument that the IDF would be able to return to Philadelphi after the first phase of the proposed ceasefire deal, comparing it to past promises that Israel could and would return to Lebanon and Gaza if there were any attacks from those newly evacuated territories.

“If we do leave [the Philadelphi Corridor], we may not return for 42 years, because we did leave and we didn’t return for 20 years,” he said, calling an Israeli presence on the border “a diplomatic, strategic imperative.”

“It’s a question of massive diplomatic pressure that will be applied to us by the entire world: If we leave, we will not return,” he said. “This corridor is different from all other corridors and places. It is central and determines our entire future.”

Despite massive pressure to withdraw from the corridor and end the war, such a withdrawal would “not bring back the hostages” but would have the “opposite” effect, he argued, also claiming that leaving the Philadelphi Corridor could enable Hamas to spirit the hostages overground across the border into Sinai and from there to Iran or Yemen during that 42-day first phase.

An apology and a call for unity

While he fiercely defended his positions, dismissing both domestic and international criticism that he was responsible for blocking a hostage deal, Netanyahu did apologize to the families of the six Israeli captives recently found dead in a Hamas tunnel.

This combination of six undated photos shows hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. (The Hostages Families Forum via AP)

“I told the families, and I am repeating it here tonight — I ask for your forgiveness that we did not succeed in bringing them back alive. We were close, but we didn’t succeed,” he said — naming the victims and vowing that Hamas would “pay a very heavy price” for their deaths.

As protesters gathered outside his homes in Jerusalem and Caesarea, capping off a day of demonstrations and a national strike organized by the Histadrut Labor Federation, Netanyahu insisted that in order to prevail in the existential war against Iran and its axis, “we must stand united as one person against a cruel enemy that wants to destroy all of us, all of us without any exceptions.”

“We agreed to the formula that President Biden presented on May 31,” he continued. “We agreed to what they called the ‘final bridging proposal’ on August 16. Hamas rejected the first. Hamas is rejecting the second.”

The day after

Answering questions from reporters, Netanyahu insisted that Israel must maintain security control of the border crossings on the “day after” Hamas and for the foreseeable future.

“When the day comes” and another body or organization can deal with this “under a permanent arrangement,” he said, that would be fine with him. But “right now,” Israel needs to be there to prevent more massacres, abductions and existential threats. Even though “we are very close to dismantling Hamas,” he claimed, Israel still had to tackle and find an alternative to the terror group’s civilian control.

Turning to the terms of the ceasefire deal, Netanyahu said nobody is more committed to freeing the hostages than he is.

In Tel Aviv, protesters demanding a hostage release deal block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, September 2, 2024. (courtesy)

“Nobody should preach to me about this,” he said. “The formula I agreed to talks about a first stage of 42 days — after which we can go back to fighting, of course, if a solution is not found in negotiations. It’s our decision, I insisted on it. And if a decision is made for the long-term, and a permanent arrangement is found in the Strip where someone else can take care of the security mission and protect the borders, go ahead. I currently don’t see it on the horizon.”

Asked why, if the Philadelphi Corridor is so important, he agreed to a withdrawal from Gaza in May, when the IDF had still not even taken full control of the border, he replied indirectly that he is willing to reduce forces on the Egypt-Gaza border because there is no need for troops “every meter.”

“We need to be at several locations, connected, at a certain distance from one another, with the ability to patrol along the entire road,” he said, arguing that Israel cannot rely on sensors or others to guard the border.

Political infighting

Netanyahu also lamented what he described as “voices in the cabinet, ministers in the government” who urged leaving the Philadelphi Corridor “even though we had already decided not to leave” — a thinly veiled allusion to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Such dissent was the reason why a cabinet vote backing his position on the matter was necessary, Netanyahu claimed, insisting that he is “flexible in the places where I can be flexible” but that on the issue of the Gaza-Egypt border, “we all must insist.”

Asked about the disunity between him and Gallant, Netanyahu said that the relationship can continue “so long as there is trust,” but stressed that all ministers must be bound by cabinet decisions. “That is what is being tested now.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on the ultra-Orthodox draft law at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on July 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Answering a question about leaks from security officials attacking cabinet decisions, Netanyahu said that “the one who makes decisions is the government, and the army and other security agencies are required to follow those decisions. I don’t see another option.”

An end to the war

Asked what would define the end of the war, he replied that this would be “when Hamas no longer rules Gaza.”

Just as was the case when the Allies defeated Nazi Germany, this would require a military and a political victory, he said, and “we’re well on the way to achieving both.”

Told about Biden indicating earlier Monday that Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a deal, the prime minister replied: “I don’t believe that President Biden really said that.”

Speaking for a few minutes in English, 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.

“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,” he argued. “We’ve already made them. Hamas has to make the concessions.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and US President Joe Biden (L) meet with families of American hostages at the White House, July 25, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

The opposition hits back

Reacting to Netanyahu’s remarks, members of the political opposition slammed the prime minister, accusing him of lying about his record and failing to protect Israelis.

“Netanyahu flatly lied today when he said that the return of the residents of the north is one of the goals of the war,” the National Unity party, led by former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, said in a statement — while former defense minister Avigdor Liberman, the leader of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu opposition party, tweeted that Netanyahu’s “legacy is the most serious security failure in Israel’s history.”

Opposition Leader Lapid dismissed Netanyahu’s press conference as “unfounded political spin,” arguing that what he said about the Philadelphi Corridor “has no relation to reality.”

“Not one professional buys this spin. Not the security personnel, not the international system, not the fighters who are actually in Gaza and know the reality there. I don’t have a presentation with pictures, but there are facts,” said Lapid. “Israel evacuated the Philadelphi Corridor 19 years ago, and Netanyahu voted in favor. Both in the government and in the Knesset. Netanyahu was prime minister for 15 years. It did not occur to him to recapture the Philadelphi Corridor.”

“The war began on October 7. Until May 20, eight months ago, he did not bother to send the IDF to the Philadelphi Corridor,” Lapid argued. “All he described today was his own failure.”

“The issue of the corridor is not Netanyahu’s concern, but, rather, the Ben Gvir-Smotrich Corridor,” Lapid continued, naming the far-right national security and finance ministers. “This is his new trick to prevent the disintegration of his coalition. It is about politics, and only politics. Netanyahu spoke today as if October 7 did not happen on his watch. As if he is not responsible and guilty of the most terrible disaster and massacre in the country’s history,” Lapid asserted, calling Netanyahu, “Mr. Failure and Mr. Disaster.”

“At least Netanyahu said one truth: that he does not want to end the war. He said it three times, that he doesn’t want to end the war — which means he doesn’t want to make a hostage deal; he wants war forever,” charged Lapid. “His words tonight had one terrible meaning: he will not make a deal. He won’t bring our children home.”

Lapid appealed to the “more responsible” people in Netanyahu’s coalition to give him an ultimatum that is the opposite of far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s: “You can tell him, if there is no deal, there’s no government.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid makes a video statement on September 2, 2024. (Screenshot: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Turning to Netanyahu’s call for unity, Lapid said that someone who truly wants unity should not demonize opponents, such as the “hundreds of thousands of patriots” who took to the streets in the past day and during Monday’s general strike.

By contrast, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have previously threatened to topple the coalition if it approves a deal ending the war, issued statements backing the prime minister.

“We must not agree to a reckless deal and leave the Philadelphi Corridor. And just as we must not abandon the Philadelphi Corridor, we must not surrender the other principles that will ensure our victory in the war,” Ben Gvir declared.

The Hostages Families Forum said Netanyahu’s remarks showed “that he does not intend to return the hostages.”

Decying a “speech full of lies and spins,” the forum said that “the people of Israel, most of whom support the return of the hostages, will no longer lend a hand to this criminal negligence.”

“The struggle to return the hostages will be heightened and amplified until the last of the hostages returns home — the living for rehabilitation and the dead for a proper burial,” it added.

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