Crescent International
While American officials, using various intermediaries, push Hamas to accept the truce deal, statements emanating from Tel Aviv paint a different picture.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on June 3 “Israel is prepared” to sign onto the truce deal.
“We’ve seen again over the weekend from Israel a willingness to step forward and do a deal,” Sullivan told the Global Impact Forum in Washington.
“All of those people who have been calling for a ceasefire for all of this time, they need to train their eyes on Hamas this week and say, ‘It’s time come to the table, do this deal’.”
US President Joe Biden also pressed on with efforts to get Hamas to accept the deal he outlined on May 31.
On June 3, Biden called on the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim to urge Hamas to accept it.
He told the Qatari Emir he can confirm “Israel’s readiness to move forward with the terms that have now been offered to Hamas”.
But as the DemocracyNow headline put it: ‘Will Israel agree to the “Israeli ceasefire proposal”?
Here is what is publicly known so far.
The day after Biden presented the “new Israeli proposal”, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office insisted that Israel will push on with the war until Hamas is “destroyed”.
Skeptics can be forgiven if they do not see any Israeli “willingness to step forward and do a deal.”
So, what precisely is Hamas being asked to accept?
That it should release Israeli prisoners for a temporary truce lasting at most 42 days but Israel will continue to wage war killing women and children?
That does not sound like a reasonable proposal despite the G-7 group of countries and five Arab regimes pushing for its acceptance by Hamas.
Unconfirmed reports say that the Israeli cabinet has agreed to the first phase of the three-phase proposal outlined by Biden.
What does the proposal that Biden put forth on May 31 consist of?
The three-phases are as follows.
First phase
1: Complete ceasefire for six weeks;
2: Israeli withdrawal from “all populated areas of Gaza”;
3: Hamas and other resistance groups to release some Israeli prisoners, including women, the elderly and wounded;
4: Israel to release Palestinian prisoners it has kidnapped from their homes in the West Bank and Gaza;
5: Return of Palestinian civilians to their homes anywhere in Gaza; and,
6: At least 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza every day to deal with the famine that has afflicted much of Gaza’s population.
Second phase
1: Agreement on a permanent end to hostilities in the six-week truce period;
If agreement on a permanent ceasefire is not reached, the truce would continue until a permanent end to hostilities is reached;
2: Release of all Israeli prisoners, who are alive; and,
3: Full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Third phase
1: The remains of all the dead Israeli prisoners, (killed during Israeli bombings of Gaza) to be returned; and,
2: Reconstruction to begin in Gaza to be paid for by what has been referred to as “the international community” but in essence by wealthy Arab states, as in the past.
There are many details that are unclear and need to be worked out.
Let us look at what is being proposed in the first phase and whether Israel will adhere to it.
If the past is any indication, the zionists are thoroughly dishonest and have never fulfilled their pledges unless forced to do so.
The same goes for the Americans.
Who will guarantee that Israel will observe complete ceasefire for six weeks?
What happens if Israel violates the ceasefire terms, as it habitually does?
Who will force it to comply?
The second item, Israeli withdrawal from “all populated areas of Gaza” is ambiguous.
Who will determine what constitutes “populated areas”?
Israel has destroyed more than 88% of Palestinian residential areas.
Even if Israeli occupation troops withdraw from “populated areas”, will they surround these areas and control who and what goes in and out?
Further, Israeli bulldozers have completely levelled a large swath of land in the middle of Gaza cutting north from the south.
Israel will claim it is “unpopulated area”, so Israeli troops will be deployed there.
Thus, Gaza’s north and south will remain cut off from each other.
What Israel and the US are looking for is to get the Israeli prisoners released and then continue the genocidal war on Gaza.
The strongest card in the Islamic resistance groups’ hands are the Israeli prisoners.
If they release all of them without getting something substantial in return, the zionists will resume killing innocent Palestinian men, women and children.
Biden is trying to revive his support base in the US that he has lost as a result of his unquestioning backing of Israeli genocide.
His eagerness for the deal has much to do with presidential elections due in five months, not with ending the agony of the Palestinian people.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, wants to secure the prisoners’ release and present it as victory and then resume the genocidal war.
The Islamic resistance has to be very careful not to fall for American or Israeli promises.
These people are simply incapable of fulfilling their promises.
They have to be forced into a situation from which there is no wriggle room.
The manner in which the Taliban drove the arrogant Americans out of Afghanistan can offer some lessons.
