Israel is backing off from Qatari and Egyptian-mediated hostage talks with Hamas after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the Palestinian group’s latest proposal, The Times of Israel reported on Thursday.
An Israeli official told the Times that instead of offering a counter-proposal, Israel will try to get the US to apply pressure on Qatar, although Doha has insisted it’s only a mediator and cannot control Hamas.
“The main target now is to create pressure from the Americans and other countries on Qatar, and from there on Hamas, in addition to the military pressure, to bring them down from their delusional demands,” the Israeli official said.
Hamas’s proposal involved a 135-day ceasefire in three phases. Throughout the three phases, Hamas would release all remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel freeing thousands of Palestinian prisoners. The goal would be to establish a permanent ceasefire by the end of the 135 days.
Netanyahu immediately rejected the proposal and said there was “no solution besides total victory.” He made the comments after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in the region to work toward a hostage deal, but he left with nothing to show for his visit.
Now, Netanyahu is threatening that Israeli troops will attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah next, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Israeli forces bombed areas of Rafah on Thursday as US officials cautioned against an assault on the city.
The State Department said for Israel to conduct an operation in Rafah without a plan to protect civilians would be a “disaster.” But there’s no sign the Biden administration is really pressuring Israel to change its plans since the US continues to provide unconditional military and political support.
The Israeli slaughter has killed nearly 28,000 Palestinians, including over 11,500 children. As the Israeli military operations drag on, many more could die of starvation and disease caused by the siege.
Chris Hedges has a powerful essay out today on the Likud’s plan to starve to death 2,000,000 innocents
….The final stage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, an orchestrated mass starvation, has begun. The international community does not intend to stop it…….
https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/08/chris-hedges-let-them-eat-dirt/
Jeffery Dammer, Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper did little compared to what killer Nutandyahoo, Genocide Joe, and their posse of world leaders are doing now. It was said, “kill a little they give you the chair, kill a lot they make you king.” All that Ghandi style non-violence resistance stuff playing on empathy does not work on psychopaths. And what is international law if one does not have the gun to enforce it? Nutanyahoo, and Genocide Joe got the guns. They know they can get away with it. Maybe one day they might hang in the Haque, but I doubt it. Given the circumstances maybe it would be better for the Palastinians to leave Palastine to regroup on safer turf. At least that way they won’t all get murdered.
It is the Israelies that should have to leave.
No one should have to leave,save for Hamas and other terrorists.Palestinians should have a home there,as well as Israelis.
I partially agree with you no matter how unlikely that is. The settlers on the West Bank must yield all of the buildings since 1967 and move back to the original boundries.Palestine would be from the river to the sea.
You contradict yourself-would two states living side by side be a fair idea?
Excellent article by Hedges. The solution, of course, is for the USA to bomb Gaza with food. We will never do that because we are in league with the Zionists to commit genocide. The rest of the world is aghast at our complicity and it will not end well for the hegemon.
From that essay:
More than half a million Palestinians – one in four – are starving in Gaza, according to the U.N. Starvation will soon be ubiquitous. Palestinians in Gaza, at least 1.9 million of whom have been internally displaced, lack not only sufficient food, but clean water, shelter and medicine. There are few fruits or vegetables. There is little flour to make bread. Pasta, along with meat, cheese and eggs, have disappeared. Black market prices for dry goods such as lentils and beans have increased 25 times from pre-war prices. A bag of flour on the black market has risen from $8.00 to $200 dollars. The healthcare system in Gaza, with only three of Gaza’s 36 hospitals left partially functioning, has largely collapsed. Some 1.3 million displaced Palestinians live on the streets of the southern city of Rafah, which Israel designated a “safe zone,” but has begun to bomb. Families shiver in the winter rains under flimsy tarps amid pools of raw sewage. An estimated 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.
The modern day NAZI, Netanyahu, believes that what he seeks will make him a grand historic figure. The breakout by the young Hamas fighters triggered the Zionists to expose what they really are. It is sad that the rest of the world pays lip service (or worse, funding it) without doing anything about it.
What is the difference that many of the fighters were “young’-only that they did not realize that they were being sent out on a suicide mission. After the cold blooded point blank massacre of peaceful families hiding in their homes,raping of women and taking them away into sexual degradation, mutilations and burning-Hamas knew a severe and just response would ensue.They did not care that Gazan civilians would pay the price, as the Hamas sheltering in their midst would be hunted down,as many of them fled to Qatar and elsewhere.
Still regurgitating Israeli BS, I see.
If you dont like the truth,then tooooo baddd. Refute what I say Item by item,0r begone.
“Hamas knew a severe and just response would ensue”
Genocide Jake speaks again.
child.
Deny it asshole.
It depends upon the outcome of this war. They will blame Netanyahu because he is loser, not because he is Nazi.
Read it. Gave me a stomach ache. The cruelty………………….
Talks and negotiations have always gotten in the way of genocide.
Not with Netanyahu & Co. (Smoltrich, Ben-Gvir). Netanyahu has always been this way. Years ago, Geraldo had a late night show. One night, he had as his main guest, Bibi. Geraldo asked him about the King David bombing by Irgun, which killed many guests, the target being British officers. His response? “They shouldn’t have been there”. Netanyahu’s coldness was on display that night. (by the way, Rahn Emanuel’s father was a member of Irgun at the time)
And given an opportunity to move away from terrorism to nation building,they did so.
This opportunity was just a figment of your imagination.
When European Christians decided to practice genocide,there were no talks that got in the way.When most of Islam decided to evict its Jewish populations,there were no talks.;no one got in the way.
Perhaps Germany should’ve partitioned part of Germany for the cause of the genocide instead of dumping survivors into British occupied Palestinian territory.
The pressure from Biden is going the other way, according to tonight’s NYT story on Biden, “calling military operations in Gaza “over the top” and saying that the suffering of innocent people has “got to stop.”
The pressure needed is not only generally on Israel, but more specifically for Israel to get rid of Netanyahu, regime change as a condition of any more American help.
What Israel will get is someone who may be worse. Gen-Gvir and Smoltrich will still be around.
Joe Biden is a disgrace not only to this country, but to the human race. He deserves no less than the dock at the Hague.
He will not be elected, not with a approval rating of 39%. And falling. Trump will be on the ballots, and, unless we are rescued by someone, we will have to deal with him for four years. If that happens, I predict that he will not stop the wars, and he will crank up another trade war. Then he will go after anyone and everyone who disagrees with him.
At least,given a free hand ,he will seal the borders. He may just call Putin to end this mess,as he tried to do in Syria.
No offense, you and I agree on most everything, but the “going after people who disagree” is already in full swing.
Antiwar is silent about Tucker Carlson’s interview. Does it mean that Antiwar is siding with neocons and neo-Nazis?
“Antiwar is silent about Tucker Carlson’s interview, other than running both an article about the interview and the entire video of the interview.”
Fixed, no charge.
Sorry, I looked only at news as usual.
And if antiwar.com were silent about Carlson’s interview, that would provide exactly no evidence that “Antiwar is siding with neocons and neo-Nazis,” which is a bizarre suggestion.
Well, true … but a Putin interview with an American journalist, including discussion of the Ukraine war, would be in this site’s wheelhouse and it would be at least … odd … for us to ignore it.
Russia has a smarter leader than we do.
I definitely have to agree with you on that!
That smarter leader has got over 100,000 of his troops killed.
He tried to avoid this war,and does not give squat for his troops.
It would be truly bizarre, but not as bizarre as Mihailovich’s suggestion.
It is great that Antiwar made available the whole interview, and it would be really bizarre if Antiwar ignored this interview.
Antiwar by definition should be on the same side as Tucker Carlson who organized this interview in his effort to stop the further deterioration of relations between two major nuclear powers: Russia and USA.
That’s why neocons are so furious and that’s why Ukrainian neo-Nazis got Tucker Carlson on their Mirotvorets kill list.
Antiwar is pro Putin so of course they’ll air a PR interview.
I wonder if they go with the talk point that no MSM media will interview Putin except for one courageous trust fund baby.
Right. And your idea of a free press is to only interview those who your government allows you to interview. And what makes antiwar.com pro Putin in your viewpoint? There hasn’t been an article here that has condoned Putin’s invasion. Saying Russia was provoked isn’t being pro Putin. It’s being cognizant of history from the end of the cold war to present time.
As a technical matter, how many articles does it take to reach a wide audience?
I’m guessing this is something that has been studied in journalism. X number of articles does it, but just one stand alone article will pass under the radar for a large part of the audience that might be interested in it. A sliding scale?
I’m not suggesting any criticism of Antiwar’s coverage, since this just happened, but I see that first article on this new event apparently did not reach the whole target audience.
I think it’s less a function of how many articles than of particular readers’ ways of viewing the site.
Both of the articles we ran are featured in the upper right area of the front page, and my impression is that most people visit the front page when coming to Antiwar.com, then branch out from there.
But some readers go directly to the news, original, or blog sections — and both of these articles were featured in the blog section (there’s also a previous mention in the blog section and one in the front page “links to news at other sites” area).
Why are there no pro-Israel writers or even more even handed writers among your ” highlights” writers?
They are all covered by the MSM.
Not at all-difference of opinion are enriching.
Since we don’t have a “Headlines” section, there are no writers at all, of any opinion, there.
So why are there any pro-Israel writers on the “headline”s section.
They’re not pro genocide. It’s hard to cheerlead a slaughter. Maybe not for you but for people that have a shred of decency, it is.
I was not addressing you,so go away.
I don’t give a fuck who you were addressing. You disgust me and I will follow you around like stink on shit. Pig shit that is.
A truly mature response,especially for someone who claims to be pro peace.
How does me calling you pig shit make me less pro peace?
Antiwar’s audience is wide enough ti include the FBI who’ve been lurking here since the 90’s likely looking for some pretext for shutting it down. So far they haven’t been able to but they do persist.
I for one hope they continue to monitor this site and its commentariat for no other reason than it provides a direct line from me to the Insecurity State expressing my contempt for them and their folly.
Indeed. I want them to knock on my door so I can give them the double bird in person.
NO surprise that Netanyahu is going to continue his Reign of Terror on the Palestinians. We all knew he didn’t care about the hostages, he and the Israeli Military killed hundreds of Israelis on Oct 7. Asking Netanyahu to respect Human Life, is like asking the Devil to stop his evil ways. The World is responsible and must SAVE the Palestinians from Netanyahu, the Human Butcher. If nothing is done, this Genocide will only be the beginning of more Genocides to come and every Human will be at risk. So now we wait to see WHO will be brave enough, moral enough to STOP Netanyahu and his Army of Savages.
The world is focused on the Super Bowl, Taylor Swift antics in the luxury box. I have a family member who believes J6 was a fraud, that Hamas is a terror organization, that Israel needs to kill all Palestinians and the West Bank and Gaza, that Trump was/is our savior.
The world is Not focus on Super Bowl and Taylor Swift…! Only West, US and most likely Europe…!
This Israeli GENOCIDE will go down in history along side the NAZI HOLOCAUST of WW2 with America being complicit in the ISRAELI GENOCIDE .
You definitely have this correct.
The history is written by politicians. Hardly one should expect American or Israeli historians do as you say. It would be rather other way around. They will write in their history books about evil Arabs who killed innocent Israelis.
Worse.
No it will not. Once this war is over, no one will care about the small loses that Gaza suffered as the results of their attack on Israel.
Does anyone think it would be a good idea to start a GoFundMe to send Tim on an all-expense-paid visit to Dearborn?
You couldn’t have possibly typed that without knowing what complete fucking asshole you were being. Well done. Man, I’m a nonviolent person, but I’d punch you right in the throat if you were in front of me right now.
Only there is no genocide. No Jews or Poles ever entered Germany to massacre Germans.
A genocide is a genocide whether it’s a response to an attack or not. Tool.
kiss kiss kiss
I suppose that when you beat your wife, it is her fault because she provoked you.
He’s a chickenshit little weasel. I would imagine no self-respecting woman would lower her standards to mate with that little turd. Plus, I would imagine most women could kick his ass.
Forget Israel, Russia is leading that effort in Ukraine.
i am not shocked by the inhumanity and viciousness of Israel. However fool that I amnI expected better from that beacon of Democracy and freedom we call America. Our corrupt politicians are calling the shots with help from AIPAC.
No, neither US politicians nor AIPAC is calling Israel’s shots. It calls its own shots and AIPAC is one of the key elements of the lobby that ensures unconditional support from US officials and politicians.
The US could, in many cases, substantially control Israel’s behavior, but the lobby is remarkably successful at preventing the US from even trying.
AIPAC and its predecessor, the AZC (American Zionist Council), needed to be registered as foreign agents. The brainiacs in SCOTUS concocted their decision in the case, Citizens United, to grant hegemony to the organizations like AIPAC.
When the oil companies controlled foreign policy-was that fine?
Money for corrupt politicians always works.
Gideon Levy actually thought AIPAC was a negative influence on Israel
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P-QNP4Zw-KQ
Absolutely. America’s unconditional support for essentially anything Israel does, no matter how horrendous, is permitting Israel to undertake a course of action that is creating a world of enemies and disgusted observers and very, very few friends. That’s not promising for the long-term security and success of the Israeli state.
Gideon Levy is what every American MSM “journalist” should aspire to be.
We are having a necessary response to the Oct 7 massacre. Suggest an alternative to Israel’s response.
Leaving Gaza and the West Bank.
There were no Israelis in Gaza on Oct 7-facts,fact.If Israel left the West Bank-there would still be no peace.
You call less than 1,200 deaths a massacre and 27,000 dead (11,500 children), 67,000 wounded, 400,000 in famine and 90% of a population displaced a necessary response. You are a pig.
Pigs are really getting a bad name. I understand they have high intelligence too.
I know. As an animal lover, I shouldn’t associate an innocent creature like a pig with a piece of shit like genocide Jake. I should have said pig shit. Sorry bro.
Pig shit is getting a really bad name. 😉
ya motha
You are an immature moron.Reall calling out someone’s mother is the act of a 6 year old.
Don’t denigrate 6 year olds.
And you must be the other immature moron.
Any issues with the idiot that called him a Pig first?
Nah, you b!tches support each other in the name of anti US.
Like I told ED, I shouldn’t have called you a pig. Pigs are noble animals. What comes out of their anus is what you resemble.
That idiot that called you a pig, is on record here stating he supports Putin’s invasion and annexation of Ukraine.
He’s anti US and fits the profile of an enemy collaborator.
After killing over 27,000 Palestinians the Israelis have killed, what, maybe 1000 Hamas? That’s a heck of a lot of collateral damage. The true massacre was not on Oct. 7, but in the response since then.
So then, do you deny Oct 7 was a massacre?
You can blame those 27,000 on Hamas.
They would still be alive if Hamas didn’t decide to play Rambo inside Israel.
All Palestinian prisoners who do not have blood on their hands and are not common criminals should be released stat,as should every Israeli hostage in Palestinian hands-for a starter.
Will Hamas accept a 2-state solution?
Hard to say. Maybe not, but that’s not the real question. The real question, leaving the Zionists aside for the moment, is whether the Palestinians will accept a two-state solution. The answer to that question is almost certainly yes.
Of course, Israel has long been doing all it can to make a two-state solution impossible, including barely-covertly supporting Hamas, precisely because Hamas, also, has opposed that solution.
So, a 2-state solution with Palestinians is possible you think, without Hamas?
I absolutely think the Palestinians would agree to a two-state solution. The PA has made that clear. I expect that Israel’s current savagery will make negotiations harder than would otherwise have been necessary, but not impossible. I think even Hamas would at least not resist too strenuously if the terms provided for real sovereignty, East Jerusalem capital, Palestinian security and defense forces.
The real problem is Israel. No one in charge there is even close to willing to permit a Palestinian state.
I’m not so sure.
Asenior Hamas official has openly admitted that his terror group will never accept a two-state solution — and boasted that its Oct. 7 attack proved it is possible to expand the Palestinian territory and wipe out Israel.
Khaled Mashal — a key figure helping to run the terror organization from Qatar — claimed in a videotaped interview with Kuwaiti podcaster Amar Taki last week that Gazans and Israelis cannot co-exist, a sentiment he said was made all too clear after Oct. 7.
I’m not sure either. But at the moment I’m not convinced that Hamas proclamations should be taken at face value (unlike those by Israeli officials), And I’m definitely not convinced that Hamas could block a post-“war” settlement that satisfied the PA and Palestinians more generally.
Hamas has ruined the Palestinian cause.
But the other issue is, say whatever you want to say about Israel….
Now think about this, Hamas and Palestinians both have agreed to the 3 NOs.
1. NO peace with Israel
2. NO recognition of Israel
3. NO negotiations with Israel.
Well, if you are Israel, you only have two choices: YOU or THEM.
🤷🏽♂️
UNR 181 has Jeruslaem as an international city under UN administration, not as the capital of either of the defined states.
And from the outside, at least, it looks like each of the UNR 181 approved states are more upset about the other having it than about not having it themselves.
While I oppose UN “peacekeeping forces” in general, there are worse ideas than sending one in to implement UNR 181’s Jerusalem component with or without the consent or cooperation of the state of Israel or the state of Palestine.
I don’t think that, at this point, either the Palestinians or the Arab neighbors are going to accept a deal that doesn’t include East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. Maybe, but I doubt it. If they would accept it on the basis you suggest, I think that might be a reasonable compromise.
But as I keep saying and most of us know, the real problem is that Israel has no intention of permitting the establishment of a Palestinian state. The crazies in charge are in the throes of lustful vengeance and a religious fervor to control and occupy Eretz Israel. And the vast majority of the Jewish population is on board.
Israel doesn’t get to permit or not permit the establishment of a Palestinian state.
For one thing, it agreed to that as a condition of UN membership.
For another, that state is already established, recognized by 135 other states, a UN observer state, and an Interpol and ICC member state. Whether the Israeli regime likes it or not.
So far, Israel, enabled by the US, has totally succeeded in preventing a Palestinian state from becoming more than notional. We shall whether it gets to continue not permitting the establishment of a real state.
And you continue to insist that recognition of the partition proposal was a condition of UN membership, despite the fact that there is no document to be found anywhere establishing such a condition. Neither was there ever real agreement. The 1949 post-Nakba/war of independence armistice lines increased the territory under Israeli control by 37% over the partition proposal and Israeli-controlled territory increased again in 1967 and subsequently via settlement establishment, etc.
Israel never entered into an agreement about either boundaries or a Palestinian state which it intended to honor. And as long as the US ensures/is able to ensure Israeli impunity, no one will be able to make Israel honor its agreements.
A Palestinian state committed to realistic on the ground peace would be a wonderful thing .Israel’s settling of the West Bank Arafat’s double dealing,and Oct 7 have killed the just hope of a Palestinian peace.
Get real- UNR 181 is long gone.
Then Israel no longer has any legal existence.
Why are you holding Israel to higher standards than any other country? Be fair.Who makes theUS,Canada, or Mongolia legal?
It’s not a matter of “higher standards.” It’s a matter of fact and reality.
The US, Canada, and Mongolia did not go to the United Nations, ask for permission to establish states, and agree to specific terms as a condition on establishing those states and getting those states admitted to the UN, for the simple reason that they were established before the UN even existed. The UN is their creation, not vice versa.
Israel did agree to such terms.
I also don’t hold Brazil to the US-Ukraine Treaty on Mutual Assistance in Investigations, or Germany to the bylaws of BRICS.
Would you demand that your adult children obey your whims?The baby grew up.
There was a deal.
Israel accepted the deal.
No deal, no Israel.
Hamas has formally accepted the 1967 ceasefire lines as the basis for peace.
Quite a generous offer, given the 1947 borders are the only internationally recognized borders.
On the other hand: The Likud‘s 1977 Charter defines Israel as being from the Jordan River to the Med . This excludes Palestinian self-determination as well being in gross violation of international law. Hmmm
Netanyahu’s public rejection of the Hamas proposal – “no solution besides total victory” coming after meeting with Blinken is curious given the US’s “moderation” role with Israel. After having shuffled over a million northern Palestinians, moving them “safe space” by “safe space,” to Rafah and announcing it’s coming assault on the city Netanyahu must have been some kinda ball-busting intemperate in that meeting for Blinken’s moderation to deliver the hostages-be-damned belligerence of “no solution besides total victory.” I suppose that’s Netanyahu, for weeks the media has been full of his “defiance,” “the fraught relationship.” Now Rafah.
Rafah, the southern most city in Gaza, on the border with Egypt, where airstrikes began today “despite pushback from officials in Washington who warned that such a move could lead to disaster and after unexpectedly stern criticism from President Joe Biden.”
Biden and Blinken have had a long association, it’s ironic that Biden, a shallow man at the best of times, claims to be a Zionist when it’s Blinken’s great-grandfather, an early Zionist, that was instrumental in establishing the state of Israel in Palestine. Zionism could be the subtitle of this war, Anti-Zionist Jews are on the streets opposing it and Zionist Jews overwhelmingly support it’s trajectory.
Tucker’s Putin interview was interesting, “two hemispheres,” “one brain.”
A senior Hamas terrorist told a Lebanese news outlet, which the allied jihadist group Hezbollah operates, on Thursday that his group would offer “no compromise” on the destruction of Israel, describing the Jewish state as having “no future in the region.”
Osama Hamdan, the top Hamas representative in Lebanon, threatened all who support the existence of Israel, telling Hezbollah’s al-Manar news, “Whoever counts on it or attaches their future to it will lose.”
Hum, kinda makes that 2-state solution tough.
At some point in the near future the idiots in DC have to wake up to the reality and determine whose interests’ they are going to sacrifice, theirs or the Israel’s…!