President Joe Biden’s proposal to end the war in Gaza is just fine with Hamas, but members of Israel’s governing coalition are not so sure.
Biden has called for a three-phase plan to end the war, according to NBC.
The first step is a six-week cease-fire, an Israeli pullout from populated areas and the release of women and children held hostage. Phase two would exchange the rest of the living hostages for imprisoned Palestinians. The final phase would rebuild Gaza and send the remains of the dead hostages to Israel.
Hamas has reacted to the proposal “positively,” according to the U.K.’s Telegraph.
However, two members of the Israel governing coalition are dead set against it.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, said his party would “dissolve the government” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepts the deal, calling Biden’s plan “a victory for terrorism and a security risk to the State of Israel”.
“Agreeing to such a deal is not total victory – but total defeat,” he said.
Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, said he would “not be part of a government that will agree to the proposed outline”.
“We demand the continuation of the war until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages return,” he said, referring to the proposed prisoner exchange for hostages as the “wholesale release of terrorists.”
Should Israel accept a ceasefire?
Opposition leader Yair Lapid rebuked Ben Gvir and Smotrich, and said the opposition would keep the government in power if it goes for Biden’s deal, according to The Washington Post.
“The threats from Ben Gvir and Smotrich are [an act of] abandoning national security, the hostages and residents of the north and the south,” Lapid said.
“This is the worst, most reckless government in the history of the country. From their perspective, let there be war here forever,” he said.
Biden’s plan is also supported by the faction of the Israeli population that wants such hostages as may be alive returned.
“I hope that Biden’s speech will pressure whoever needs to be pressured in order for there to be a deal,” Mor Kornigold, whose brother Tal Shoham is among the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, said, per the Post.
In an Op-Ed in the Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob sums up the plan’s impact.
“Originally, Israel was going to get around 40 hostages in ‘Phase One’ of the ceasefire, before it withdrew from all of Gaza. Under the latest deal, it may only get 15-20 hostages in ‘Phase One,’ leaving much more leverage (remaining hostages) for Hamas to use to play games in later stages of negotiation and potentially leaving the terror group immune to some future attacks,” Bob wrote.
“So Israel has reduced the Hamas military threat in the short and medium term, but its legitimacy has been the most badly damaged in around 50 years. Also, it is giving up its leverage or leaving open questions on issues which collectively make it more likely than not that Hamas will eventually make a comeback,” Bob continued.
“However, as problematic as the deal appears, given the government’s inability to decide about replacing Hamas with some other party even when it held all of the strongest cards for several months, it is unclear what other options Israel has beyond an endless war and more permanent harm to the Jewish state’s legitimacy,” he said.
