U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have pushed Israel into a position where it must accept defeat in its war against Hamas terrorists — in return for just a fraction of the remaining Israeli hostages.
Under the terms of the hostage deal currently on the table, Israel would withdraw from Gaza; stay out of the last Hamas stronghold in Rafah; and release thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists, among other concessions.
In return, Hamas would release 33 of the remaining 133 hostages, focusing on the old and infirm. It would retain a number of hostages to trade for a permanent ceasefire. But Israel could not restart the war even if it wanted to do so.
Israeli politicians, from left to right, understand exactly what the country is facing. Left-wing protesters chanted Thursday that Israel must choose between “Rafah” — i.e. winning the war — and releasing some of the hostages.
On the right, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition partners have threatened to leave the government if the deal goes through — which is entirely up to Hamas, since Israel has tacitly accepted it.
Netanyahu himself continues to insist that Israel will enter Rafah and achieve its goal of destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities. But on Thursday, an Israeli government spokesperson subtly shifted the goalposts.
Asked by Breitbart News whether Israel was aware that the proposed deal meant losing the war, Israeli spokesperson Raquel Karamson said Israel would not let Hamas “grow” or “replenish” its army — implying that army would survive.
Israel has been placed in this position because of a variety of factors. Hamas has successfully manipulated the Israeli public to support a weak hostage deal by releasing propaganda videos in which the hostages demand their release.
The Israeli military has also made mistakes in Gaza, such as the accidental death of seven humanitarian aid workers last month, that have drawn international condemnation and made it more difficult for Israel to continue fighting.
But the major factor is American pressure. In fact, over the past several months, the Biden administration has pulled back from supporting Israel — other than supplying arms — and has moved closer to Hamas’s negotiating positions.
The change began late last year, when Biden began accusing Israel of bombing Gaza indiscriminately. Then Blinken suggested to world leaders at Davos, Switzerland, that Israel was not ready for peace, in contrast to the Arab states.
The administration then broke with Israel at the United Nations, allowing a resolution to pass that abandoned the view that a ceasefire had to be tied to the release of the hostages. Later, Biden insisted on an “immediate” ceasefire.
Biden and his aides repeatedly opposed an Israeli attack on Rafah, citing humanitarian concerns. The more subtle motive: they wanted to preserve Hamas as leverage to force Israel to accept a two-state solution at the end of the war.
Moreover, the administration began accusing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of human rights abuses — citing actions before the war — and allowed the International Criminal Court to prepare war crimes indictments against Israel.
True, the White House backed aid for Israel. But it hardly pushed Congress to pass it. In fact, the White House stalled aid by insisting that it be linked to aid for Ukraine and other issues, slowing the passage of the aid through Congress.
Hamas indicated this week that it would still reject the weak hostage deal on the table, but would continue talking — presumably to extract more explicit commitments from Israel that it will not try to win the war in the distant future.
There is nothing that can stop an Israeli defeat — at least, measured against its own goal of destroying Hamas — short of Hamas somehow rejecting the deal, or the Netanyahu government suddenly deciding to risk losing U.S. support.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
