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Benjamin Netanyahu has shied away from a US-backed plan to end the war with Hamas, as Israel’s premier sought space to quell a revolt in his ruling coalition while keeping the White House onside.
Israel’s war cabinet convened for crunch talks on the potential deal late on Sunday, but officials close to Netanyahu made clear that any agreement to permanently halt the fighting in Gaza would be unacceptable.
With both pro and anti-deal coalition partners threatening to leave the government, Netanyahu’s office issued two carefully worded statements over the weekend emphasising that Israel would continue its military campaign until Hamas was destroyed, all of the Israeli hostages were released, and Gaza no longer posed a threat.
Netanyahu’s stance stood in stark contrast to US President Joe Biden, who in a speech on Friday took issue with all three war objectives, while personally endorsing terms for a staged ceasefire deal that he pointedly described as “an Israeli proposal”.
Biden said Netanyahu’s often-repeated goal of “total victory” was an “unidentified notion”, as he argued that Israel’s offensive had already left Hamas unable to launch another October 7 style attack. Pursuing “indefinite war” would not bring the hostages home, the president added, as he urged Israeli leaders — and Hamas — to seize the opportunity for a deal.
“The content of Biden’s speech came as a great surprise [to the Israeli government],” said one person familiar with the deliberations. Israel under Netanyahu would not agree to end the war and would continue fighting until all of its war aims were achieved, they added.
Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, acknowledged Israel had previously agreed to the proposal made public in Biden’s “political speech” but added that it was “not a good deal” as outlined.
“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he told the Sunday Times, as he stressed that Israel’s goals remained unchanged.
Both as a message to Washington and a warning to Netanyahu, two senior far-right ministers issued their own statements on Saturday night threatening to topple the Israeli government if the deal was enacted.
National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich both called the Biden proposal “reckless” and a “total surrender” to Hamas. They urged the prime minister to keep fighting, or face losing their crucial support.
Netanyahu’s political predicament is made worse by the expected loss of the moderate wing of his ruling coalition in the coming week.
Benny Gantz, a centrist minister in the war cabinet, had issued a June 8 ultimatum to Netanyahu demanding he change tack on the war, claiming political considerations were compromising strategic decision-making.
On Saturday Gantz, a former army chief, said the return of the hostages “is a supreme moral obligation” and a goal that should take “clear priority on the timeline” of the war aims.
Barring any real movement in the ceasefire talks with Hamas, most Israeli analysts expect Gantz and his party to leave the coalition in the next few days — a factor that would have been considered in the timing of Biden’s speech.
With his room for manoeuvre narrowing at home and abroad, Netanyahu is expected to play for time, hoping other developments — including Hamas’s response — could spare him a decision that will threaten his far-right government.
So far the militant group has said that it “positively views” Biden’s speech, but that it was still hewing to its demand that any agreement be based on a “permanent ceasefire” and — crucially — that Israel “clearly announces commitment to such a deal.”
The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, issued an unusual joint statement on Saturday calling on both Hamas and Israel to finalise the terms of the deal as Biden had outlined.
All three states have for months tried to broker an agreement that would stop the fighting in Gaza, but talks have consistently stalled over the fundamental issue of whether any ceasefire would be permanent.
The three countries said the proposal “will bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families. This deal offers a road map for a permanent ceasefire and ending the crisis.”
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