Under pressure, Benjamin Netanyahu coldly welcomes the American proposal
The day after Joe Biden’s intervention demanding a ceasefire, the world was watching for the words of Benyamin Netanyahu. His office, “who does not generally not expressed on Shabbat”, signals El País, published two messages. “In the first (in Hebrew, more ambiguous and without mentioning Biden’s speech), he confirms having given his team of negotiators the power to present a plan that would allow the release of all the hostages but insisted on the fact that the war will not end until all these objectives are achieved”.
On Twitter, the Prime Minister declared – in English only – that “Israel’s conditions for ending the war had not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and political capabilities, the release of the hostages and the assurance that Gaza no longer represents a threat to Israel. Any plans for a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are met are therefore “doomed to fail”.
THE Guardian sees there a “swift and decisive reprimand”which only “demonstrate lack of influence” by Joe Biden. Already, the Prime Minister is making it clear that he “not the author of the plan but a reluctant participant”continues the British daily, for whom the remarks even seemed “made to humiliate Biden”. With his experience, Mr. Netanyahu necessarily knew that the expression “non-starter”, doomed to failure in French, was going to make the headlines. In any case, he received an invitation from the Republicans to come and speak to the American Congress.
But if these words “hammers Mr. Biden’s hopes for a quick resolution to the war”the Israeli leader faces “at his place a series of opposing pressures”, observe the New York Times. Policies first. Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the nationalist Otzma Yehudit party and minister of national security, warned that he “would dismantle” the government in the event of agreement on the basis of the American proposal. An agreement which, according to him, would come back “to renounce the destruction of Hamas (…) and would mean a victory for terrorism”.
The street is heard
Mr. Ben Gvir “is himself a settler in the West Bank. He has been convicted in the past for terrorism and hate speech against Arabs”, remind her Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Furthermore, he “rejects a Palestinian state and supports the expansion of Israeli territory in the occupied territories”. Unlike the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, head of the religious Zionist party and also opposed to the American plan, he “does not mention the return of the hostages among its war objectives”, noted Times of Israel.
“If both parties leave his coalition, it could mark the end of Mr Netanyahu’s government”underlines the Times. At the same time, Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, insisted on Twitter: “the government cannot ignore President Biden’s important speech”.
The street was also heard on Saturday. Thousands of demonstrators marched in Tel Aviv and several cities across the country against the policies of the current government. Among them, members of the hostages’ families, such as Einav Zangauker, who responded to Ha’Aretz : Biden spoke “because he knows that Netanyahu could very well sabotage this agreement (…) He wanted the public to know exactly what is on the table today”.
However, “diplomatic efforts continue”, note CNN. The mediating countries, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, are seeking to convince Hamas to accept the deal quickly. THE Washington Post notes for his part that Emmanuel Macron supported the American proposal in a message published in Hebrew on his Twitter account. Support also shown by David Cameron, Justin Trudeau and Annalena Baerbock, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs.
