FRIENDS LIKE THESE
Bibi Has Killed The Hostages (Americans Included)
Israel rejects US deal as Biden watches helplessly, much like his pier: broken and adrift
On Friday, 31 May 2024, when US President Joe Biden announced from the White House that, “Israel has now offered” — and paused to raise a forefinger for emphasis, then repeated, “Israel has offered” — a proposal to end the siege of Gaza, I was skeptical.
Within a couple of days, uncertainty set in: no one was sure that the Israelis were on board; no one was sure the Likud ruling coalition had even been informed ahead of time. There was much speculation, various close readings of announcements from Netanyahu, Biden, Gallant, Blinken, and others, as commentators looked for hints. The western media were fed the line that Israel and the USA were ready to proceed and that Hamas was the only party still unwilling to agree. It was pushed hard, but I didn’t get the sense that many people believed it.
According to the Israelis, the deal foresaw a return to hostilities following a series of prisoner exchanges. But the hostages are all that’s chastening the IDF. They are all that stands between Gaza and total annihilation. They provide insurance that the entire region won’t be razed completely.
It was obvious that Hamas would be signing a suicide pact if they gave up all of the hostages before a permanent ceasefire was established. They weren’t being unreasonable, as Blinken and Biden claimed; they had to reject the proposal without at least one amendment to make the ceasefire permanent before the last hostages would be returned. But was a diplomatic breakthrough possible? Was there any room for negotiation? There were leaks and various media comments encouraging us to imagine that there might be.
Five by Five
On Sunday, 23 June, [yesterday as I write] we got clarity. During an interview on Israel’s Channel 14, Bibi Netanyahu spoke publicly, saying, “I am not ready to stop the war and for Hamas to remain. I am ready to make a partial deal to return some of the people to us, but we are forced to continue this war after the truce to reach our goals, which is removing Hamas. I am not ready to compromise.”
It appears that Hamas remains willing to return all of the hostages, but only in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, which the Israelis have repeatedly rejected. It’s beyond question that Netanyahu just traded the hostages for his perverse idea of total victory over Hamas. He has proved — for the second time now — that he will not accept any deal for their safe return. In other words, Bibi won’t take “yes” for an answer; he is fully committed to an apocalyptic end game in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s announcement serves as another public slap in the face for Joe Biden, who appears to relish the abuse. Bibi is now demanding that Hamas give up some hostages in exchange for a pause, so that some humanitarian aid can flow, after which he will lock the door, turn off the lights, and exterminate Gaza once and for all. His own language, some of the people, presumes that there will be hostages still in Hamas custody when the final purge commences, which means that their lives are forfeit.
My question is, will the hostages for whom Bibi is willing to negotiate include the American ones, of which there are thought to be between five and ten? Or are they to be among those slated for sacrifice? And if they are to be sacrificed, will U.S. President Joe Biden continue to arm, fund, praise, and run interference for his Zionist master?
At this point, I’ll be surprised if any hostages are exchanged. Hamas would be foolish to let go of anyone except those who might need medical attention.
We’re now graduating from the Hannibal directive to — let’s call it the Medea directive. Israel’s goal is to undermine any negotiations and ensure that every last hostage dies from IDF bombing or shelling, or sniper’s bullets, or starvation, leaving Bibi free to enact some final paroxysm of triumphal violence. They can blame Hamas once the dust settles.
This means that U.S President Joe Biden has indeed washed his hands of the American hostages, trusting their fate to the genocidal Likud coalition whose interests he cheerfully serves as Netanyahu’s bottom cuck.
Biden and Blinken have got to pray that the “blame Hamas” dodge will satisfy grieving American families, too.
The madness here is hard to appreciate. So imagine for a moment the constant, inescapable pain and panic and frustration that family members must experience knowing that their loved ones are being hunted by the Israeli government, and are actually safer in the hands of Hamas fighters, who need them as insurance.
Angry, powerless, and frightened, the families can only hope that IDF snipers never find their loved ones; that air force bombs don’t mutilate them, that enforced starvation doesn’t waste them. Thus the hostage families have been granted a sense of what it’s like to be a Palestinian with relatives in Gaza. Perhaps they might give that some thought during the many sleepless nights to come.
DĂ©jĂ vu all over again
In early May of 2024, a similar ceasefire proposal was circulated in hopes of avoiding the Rafah Holocaust. Hamas announced at the time that they were open to negotiation, but Netanyahu was unwilling to postpone the carnage and launched his attack. I believed then that he had decided to sacrifice the hostages.
We’ve now seen a second proposal, the one Biden announced at the end of May, which also received provisional support from Hamas. Netanyahu has finally rejected it, too.
Indeed, Netanyahu’s immediate reply to Biden’s announcement of “Israel’s proposal” was to order the American field hospital in Rafah evacuated so the IDF could destroy it.
Let that sink in: Israel openly, flagrantly committed a war crime against an American asset, and U.S. President Joe Biden cooperated.
America can no longer fix this demented situation because Israel has gone too far. There’s nothing further that they can threaten: Gaza already is Hell. A final, Cromwellian siege is underway and it can’t be stopped except by armed intervention from outside, which seems very unlikely. The Gazans can’t become more deeply despised: Israelis loathe every one of them to the very core.
Therefore, Hamas has nothing to lose by holding the hostages indefinitely. On the other hand, they will receive nothing of lasting value for releasing them, because Israel will renege on any promise they might make if Hamas were to return everyone without an enforceable guarantee of a permanent ceasefire. America has proved that it’s incapable of enforcing anything in connection with Israel, and there is no other guarantor with the clout to make their word stick, so the hostages will simply have to remain in Hamas’s custody. It’s ironic, but this is what’s best for everyone, especially the hostages themselves and their families.
The only good news is that Hamas appears to have the hostages reasonably well hidden and protected from Israeli violence. Giving up more than a token few before the hostilities are well and truly finished would be a fatal mistake. Clearly, Hamas leaders understand that and are playing their hand skillfully.
So long as they keep the prisoners safe from Israeli violence, a few minor restrictions will remain attached to Bibi’s license to exterminate. But let’s not be naive; he’s determined to remove that cap, so he will ruthlessly kill every last hostage, Israeli and American alike, if he can, while an impotent American president wrings his hands and wishes there was something someone could do.
The American “humanitarian aid” pier, now in bits and adrift in the sea, useful only briefly — in the commission of a war crime — and now discarded, is the perfect metaphor for Joe Biden and his tragic tenure in office. He is doing real and lasting damage to America’s reputation and status in the world, on behalf of a foreign state. I find him so utterly loathsome, words fail me.
