Pretty much everyone is calling the latest deal that Hamas proposed to Israel a “cease-fire offer,” but it’s no such thing.
Sure, it included a cease-fire as an initial step, but that was to be followed by a rapid Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a complete end to the IDF’s drive to eliminate Hamas — a truce to be enforced by outside parties.
In other words, Israel would get the final hostages (living and dead) back, at the price of leaving Hamas’ leadership intact and ready to resume control of the Strip — and so to strike again, taking more innocent lives and more hostages.
Exactly as those leaders have vowed they’d do.
That’d be fine for President Biden, whose only urgent need is to escape this entire crisis before the November election, Israel’s longterm security be damned.
But Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu had it right: “If Hamas will survive in Gaza, it’s only a question of time until the next massacre.”
Everyone wants to stop the killing of innocents, but that is purely in the hands of Hamas. If the leadership surrendered, the suffering would end.
That is what Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken should be calling for.
The only cease-fire Israel can agree to is a temporary one, with no significant retreat: It’d be insane to end the war just as it has Hamas’ final leadership cadre cornered. It’s excruciating to pass on any deal that leaves innocents in the terrorists’ hands, but the price of holding all of Israel hostage to Hamas’ continued existence is far too high.