JERUSALEM – For months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has refused to give a timeline for ending the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a reluctance his critics see as a political tactic. But he was caught off guard this weekend by President Joe Biden’s announcement outlining a proposed ceasefire.
Netanyahu, a conservative, has long juggled competing personal, political and national interests. He now appears to face a stark choice between continuing his hardline, aggressive government and bringing home hostages held in Gaza as he sets himself and Israel on a new course away from increasing international isolation.
Critics of the prime minister have portrayed him as indecisive and say there are two Netanyahus: one who functions pragmatically in the small war cabinet he has formed with some centrist rivals, increasing its public legitimacy; and another who is effectively held hostage by the far-right members of his governing coalition, who oppose any concession to Hamas and ensure its political survival.
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Biden on Friday outlined the terms and conditions he said were presented by Israel to the American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators who have pushed for a deal to pause the fighting and free hostages in Gaza. Israeli officials confirmed that the terms were in line with a ceasefire proposal that had been greenlit by Israel’s War Cabinet but had not yet been presented to the Israeli public.
Now, analysts say, is the time for Netanyahu, or Bibi, as he is popularly known.
Biden “kicked Netanyahu out of the closet of ambiguity and presented Netanyahu’s proposal himself,” Ben Caspit, a biographer and longtime critic of Netanyahu, wrote on Sunday in Maariv, a Hebrew daily. “Then he asked a simple question: does Bibi support Netanyahu’s proposal? Yes or no. No-nonsense and hot air.”
The leaders of two far-right parties in the coalition – Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security – have explicitly threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government if the prime minister agrees to the deal which is outlined by Biden before Hamas is completely destroyed. Some hardline members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party have said they will join them.
At the same time, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, two former military leaders who joined the emergency government during the war, have threatened to withdraw support from their centrist National Unity Party by June 8 if Netanyahu fails to come up with a proposal. clear way forward. And opposition parties have begun to organize in an attempt to overthrow the government.
The ceasefire proposal includes three phases. They would see portions of hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons; a temporary ceasefire would culminate in a permanent cessation of hostilities, with the third phase including an internationally supported effort to rehabilitate Gaza.
In November, more than a hundred hostages were released under a more limited agreement. An estimated 125 hostages, living and dead, are still being held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.
Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s top foreign policy adviser, said in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times that Biden’s proposal was “a deal that we agreed to.” Falk added that many details still needed to be worked out, saying: “It’s not a good deal, but we really want all the hostages to be released, all of them.”
The Israelis had to parse the two statements after Biden’s speech, which Netanyahu’s office unusually delivered during the Sabbath. The statements did not strongly endorse the proposal or deny that it had been submitted to the mediators. Instead, they were conditional and open to interpretation – seemingly designed to leave Netanyahu’s options open.
The first statement said Netanyahu had authorized the Israeli negotiating team to present a proposal that would secure the release of the hostages and also “allow Israel to continue the war until all its objectives are achieved, including destruction of Hamas’s military and administrative capabilities. ”
The second reiterated these conditions for ending the war, adding: “The idea that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are met is a non-starter.”
Conspicuously absent, however, was Netanyahu’s oft-stated goal of “total victory” over Hamas in Gaza — a slogan Biden dismissed on Friday as a vague objective that would mean indefinite war.
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