Seth Mandel
Commentary Magazine, Sept. 5, 2024
“What’s the problem, exactly? Well, Hamas is, you know, executing the hostages it is supposed to be preparing to hand over to Israel as part of the deal.”
The Biden administration is really pushing the limits of “better late than never.” The president and his team have finally begun acknowledging what has been all too obvious: Hamas is the reason there has been no second ceasefire deal.
After falsely blaming Israel for months, the president’s team has pivoted to the truth. It’s not clear why. Maybe the backlash to Biden effectively blamed Benjamin Netanyahu instead of the actual barbarians who shot the hostages this past weekend convinced the White House to switch gears. That would be nice. Who knows.
Late last night, Axios—the Biden White House’s chosen vehicle for mouthpiecing its Israel-related positions and policy shifts—reported the following: “One of the main questions raised during a meeting President Biden and Vice President Harris had with their national security team on Monday was whether there is a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal Hamas would ever agree to, U.S. officials said.”
To be clear: the administration has been (mostly) blaming Israel for the failure of a deal that they now acknowledge never fully materialized. Further, while Biden & Co. know there are versions of the deal that Israel would accept, they have yet to be convinced Hamas has any interest in any version.
It’s important to remember that these conclusions reached by Biden’s team are the result of months-long negotiations, and therefore Hamas’s obstructionism is by definition not a new problem. The administration didn’t just figure this out; it has known that Hamas’s intransigence has been the status quo for months. And officials from the president on down have chosen, in that time period, repeatedly to castigate Netanyahu. … [To read the full article, click here]
