Report: Ben Gvir urging hostage deal to be held up to avoid helping Biden vs Trump
Far-right minister reportedly tells cabinet approving a deal now would be a ‘slap for Trump, victory for Biden,’ is panned by several ministers over remark
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has suggested to security cabinet ministers that a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas should be delayed because implementing it now would be advantageous for US President Joe Biden and detrimental to his Republican rival Donald Trump in the November election, a report said Wednesday.
Channel 13 news reported that the Otzma Yehudit party leader suggested that a deal wait until after the results of the November US presidential election, since an agreement now would be “a slap for Trump, which would be a victory for Biden.”
Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who both oppose any deal that ends the fighting before Hamas is destroyed, have threatened to topple the government if such a deal is approved.
According to Channel 13, a number of ministers attacked Ben Gvir for the comments, in particular Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Science Minister Gila Gamliel, both of the ruling Likud party.
“We must act for immediate release. The abductees have been there for nine months. Women can give birth during this period of time,” Gamliel was quoted as saying, in reference to concerns over the sexual abuse of female hostages in captivity.
Biden has been vocally supportive of Israel since October 7, visited Israel early in the war, and has met family members of some of those being held hostage in Gaza, vowing to continue arming Israel in its war to topple the Gaza terror group. But as casualties in Gaza have increased, he has pressured Jerusalem to reach a ceasefire deal to end the war and boost humanitarian aid into the Strip.
The US president also withheld a delivery of high-payload weapons in early May, as Israel launched its offensive in densely populated Rafah. The US and other allies had long warned against the operation in the Strip’s southernmost city, where over a million Palestinians sought shelter after being displaced from the Strip’s north and center. Israel said the offensive was necessary to dismantle Hamas’s last remaining battalions.
Washington recently released some of that shipment, but not the 2,000-lb (900-kg) bombs.
Trump is adored by many in Israel’s far-right for his policies as president, namely his move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, his recognition of the city as Israel’s capital, and his recognition of the annexation of the Golan Heights. But the former president has spent time at rallies mocking the intelligence failure that led to the devastating attack and criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the days following the Hamas assault, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 were abducted by thousands of Hamas-led terrorists who breached the country’s border with Gaza, Trump found himself in hot water with Israel, Biden and even Republican rivals over comments he made at a campaign rally criticizing Jerusalem over the intelligence failure that led to the Hamas assault, in which he called Defense Minister Yoav Gallant a “jerk” and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group “very smart.”
Several days later, he was reported to have been privately calling for Netanyahu to be “impeached” for failing to anticipate the massive Hamas rampage.
His running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, said this week that Israel should win and end the war in Gaza “as quickly as possible,” to enable the “Israelis and the Sunni Arab states” to form a united front against Iran.
Ben Gvir made his reported comments during a Tuesday security cabinet meeting in which Mossad chief David Barnea told officials that young female hostages held by Hamas don’t have time to wait for a new hostage deal framework, according to unsourced leaks from the gathering that were widely reported by Hebrew media outlets.
“It could take long weeks. The girls in captivity don’t have time to wait for changes in the proposal under discussion,” Barnea was quoted as saying in the closed-door meeting.
It was not clear why Barnea focused specifically on the female captives.
The deal currently on the table would see the release of hostages held by Hamas in return for some form of ceasefire in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip as well as the release of hundreds of Palestinian security convicts held in Israeli prisons.
Netanyahu has reportedly hardened Israel’s position in internationally mediated talks for a deal, spurred on by intelligence assessments that Hamas is weary, weakened, and keen to end the fighting. Two key demands that the prime minister has seized on are Israel’s ability to directly prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas through tunnels under the Egypt-Hamas border, and preventing Hamas from moving its fighters from southern Gaza to the north by embedding them among Palestinians displaced by the war when they are permitted to return to the north.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
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.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
