6 More Hostages Killed, Israelis Blame Netanyahu for "Abandoning them"
The Israeli Prime Minister's closest allies openly condemn Netanyahu for rejecting a hostage deal — but will he finally listen to reason?
Six more Israeli hostages have been killed, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention. This tragedy is another painful reminder that neither Israel nor Palestine will enjoy peace and security through war. Indeed, during the temporary ceasefire in November Hamas released more than 100 hostages through negotiation and diplomacy. Sadly, it appears clear that the one man who can secure the release of all hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to do so. What needs to happen to secure a lasting peace for Israel and for Palestine? Let’s Address This.
The status of hostage negotiations
Just recently on August 31, veteran Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin published the following daunting message on Twitter. While his full post is a must read, in significant part Baskin wrote:
About two weeks ago, the hostage families' forum asked me to try to conduct a direct negotiation with Hamas on their behalf. That's what I did, and within two weeks I obtained agreement to a three-week deal - the release of all 107 Israeli hostages, the end of the war, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and an agreed release of the names and number of Palestinian prisoners. The entire Hamas leadership agrees to this outline, but our Netanyahu does not want to end the war. This is the situation today - Saturday, August 31, 2024.
The very next day, on September 1, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin received the horrible news that their son had been killed, along with five other hostages. In response to these tragic and preventable killings, the The Hostage Families Forum headquarters issued this stark warning:
Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. This is now a fact. Starting tomorrow the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. We will bring the country to a halt. The abandonment is over.
Netanyahu’s allies condemn him
And they are not alone or fringe in their outrage. In fact, Netanyahu’s own Defense Yoav Minister Gallant, Mossad Director David Barnea, and senior Israeli officials are all placing blame for failure to secure release of the hostages squarely on Netanyahu. Axios reports:
Gallant, IDF chief of staff Gen. Herzi Halevi and Mossad director David Barnea claimed Netanyahu's proposal to vote on a resolution to maintain full Israeli control along the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border would undermine a possible deal. "We have to choose between Philadelphi and the hostages. We can't have both. If we vote, we might find out that either the hostages will die or we will have to backtrack to release them," Gallant told Netanyahu and the other cabinet ministers.
As I’ve written before, the binding UN Security Council hostage resolution has been on the table for 2 months, at least since early June. This was not a resolution crafted by Hamas, but by Israel, and approved by President Biden. Hamas accepted that binding resolution which included a release of all Israeli hostages. Since that binding resolution passed, Netanyahu has vehemently rejected it. It is no wonder the families of the hostages and Netanyahu’s closest allies in the Israeli government all openly blame him for, in their words, “abandoning the hostages.” Indeed, this isn’t the first time they’ve condemned Netanyahu’s failures.
In a Times of Israel interview, former spokesperson for the families of hostages Haim Rubinstein lamented that the Israeli government “absolutely ignored” them and there’s “no doubt” Netanyahu is preventing a deal. And that after an October 26 meeting with Netanyahu he felt particularly disappointed because the return of hostages were not the Israeli government’s priority:
We left the meeting very disappointed because Netanyahu talked about dismantling Hamas as the goal of the war. He didn’t promise anything regarding the demand to return the hostages. He merely said a military operation in Gaza was needed to serve as leverage for the hostages’ release. We later found out that Hamas had offered on October 9 or 10 to release all the civilian hostages in exchange for the IDF not entering the Strip, but the government rejected the offer.
An agreed to hostage deal is on the table
Nearly four months ago, on May 6, Hamas said it accepted a ceasefire proposal that included release of all hostages. Israel rejected it. Again on June 11 Hamas accepted the binding UN Security Council resolution on ceasefire and release of all hostages, as AP reports:
Hamas accepts a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution and is ready to negotiate over the details, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that it was up to Washington to ensure that Israel abides by it. Hamas accepts the UN security council resolution in regard to the ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli troops and swap of hostages for detainees held by Israel, he said.
And despite the United States insisting that Israel has accepted this resolution (that Israel itself proposed), Israel has continued to loudly reject the binding UN Security Council resolution. The Times of Israel reports:
Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan informed his US counterpart Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Thursday that Jerusalem opposes the Security Council resolution being advanced by Washington that expresses support for the hostage-ceasefire proposal Israel made last week.
In fact, Netanyahu has furthermore defiantly and shamelessly released a public video condemning President Biden for not sending even more missiles and arms to “finish the job” of bombing Gaza. President Biden must instead listen to the will of the American people. As reported, 61% of all Americans, 63% of moderates, and 77% of Democrats demand Biden stop arming Netanyahu, and force an end to this siege on Gaza. If Ronald Reagan could force Israel to stop bombing civilians with a single phone call, why is Joe Biden afraid to stop arming Israel to commit war crimes?
Biden must act for lasting peace
During this last week while 6 Israeli hostages were killed, the Israeli military killed at least 47 Palestinian civilians. According to The Lancet, the Israeli military has killed at least 186,000 Palestinians to date. Here’s the horrifying and bizarre reality of where we are nearly 11 months into the siege on Gaza. On one side, the Israeli people, the American people, the United Nations, Israeli Defense Minister Gallant, Mossad Director Barnea, and Hamas all agree to a ceasefire, release of all Israeli hostages, a withdrawal of Israel from Gaza, and a release of Palestinian hostages. On the other side is one man who does not—Benjamin Netanyahu—and one man who keeps arming Netanyahu—Joe Biden. This is untenable.
The bottom line is this. As the families of the hostages tell us, “Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. This is now a fact.” If the families of Israeli hostages do not trust or rely on Netanyahu to do what is right, why should anyone? The responsibility to do what is right is on Joe Biden exclusively. If international rules based order has any meaning, Joe Biden must act immediately to stop arming Netanyahu, end this siege, and enable a true and lasting peace. Otherwise, innocent people will continue to die.
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Qasim, Netanyahu is not interested in peace, and he doesn't care about the hostages. As you pointed out, a ceasefire at the end of November got half the hostages returned. If Netanyahu was interested in hostages, he would have extended the ceasefire.
He just wants all the Palestinians dead, so he can take their land, "from the River to the Sea." And he wants to distract Israelis, to keep his ass out of the slammer.
Brilliantly cohesive. Thank you for pulling together this explanation with such clarity.