Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly rejected a Biden administration-backed plan Sunday to end the war in Gaza, with Hamas still holding onto its weapons and power, in exchange for the staged release of the remaining 136 Israeli hostages.
As Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration, Qatar, and Egypt have proposed a three-stage deal in which Israel would release Palestinian terror convicts and withdraw completely from Gaza in exchange for the gradual release of Israeli captives.
Effectively, that would amount to defeat for Israel, whose stated goals for the war are the complete destruction of Hamas’s military capabilities, the return of the hostages, and the restoration of security to Israel’s border communities (north and south).
Netanyahu issued a statement on Sunday in response to the public reports (via Government Press Office translation):
[L]et it be clear: I utterly reject the Hamas monsters’ capitulation terms.
Hamas is demanding, in exchange for the release of our hostages, the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of the murders and rapists of the Nukhba and leaving Hamas in place.
Were we to agree to this – our soldiers would have fallen in vain. Were we to agree to this – we would not be able to ensure the security of our citizens. We would be unable to safely restore the evacuees to their homes and the next October 7 would be only a question of time. I am not prepared to accept such a mortal blow to the security of Israel; therefore, we will not agree to this.
The conditions being proposed by Hamas underscore a simple point – there is no substitute for victory. Only total victory will ensure the elimination of Hamas and the return of all our hostages.
I told President Biden this in our conversation over the weekend. I greatly appreciate the US support for Israel and I also expressed this to the President. However, I will strongly insist on our vital interests. I emphasized to President Biden our determination to achieve all of the goals of the war, and to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.
Therefore, I insist that after we achieve total victory, after we eliminate Hamas, there will no entity in Gaza that finances terrorism, educates for terrorism or sends terrorists.
Gaza must be demilitarized, under Israel’s full security control.
I will not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River.
As Prime Minister of Israel, I have strongly upheld this position in the face of great international and domestic pressure.
My insistence is what has prevented – over the years – the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel. As long as I am Prime Minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this. If someone has a different position, they should show leadership and candidly state their position to the citizens of Israel.”
Hamas has not yet accepted the Biden administration’s plan; however, it is close to what Hamas would like to achieve. Were Israel to accept the terms of the agreement, Netanyahu’s government — under pressure from all sides — would likely fall.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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