As Bibi Takes Israel into Insanity, Trump, Witkoff Work Margins for Gaza Peace Deal
Aug. 9—With the Butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, getting approval—over strenuous objections from the leadership of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)—for a lunatic scheme to occupy all of Gaza, starting with Gaza City, President Donald Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are working on the margins with their Arab mediators and others to see if they can force Hamas to agree to a new plan to end the war and release the remaining living hostages.
Sources close to the White House report that Witkoff especially has been in touch with his Qatari and Egyptian mediators to push Hamas to accept a new ceasefire plan that would release all the remaining hostages in rapid exchanges for Palestinian prisoners held by Israelis. Key to this deal would be an agreement by Hamas to end all political control over Gaza and agree to lay down their arms in exchange for a pullback of Israeli forces and the unlimited flow of massive aid to Gaza's starving and dying people. That aid would be administered directly under the supervision of the United States by the UN, Red Cross, and established international relief agencies, who would also take control of the dubious Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution operations that have led to the death of thousands of Gazans seeking relief.
Witkoff’s Ultimatum to Hamas
Witkoff has told the mediators to communicate to Hamas that this is really their last chance for a deal that would avoid further and massive bloodshed in Gaza that Bibi's new invasion would bring. These sources report that Trump decided to let the insane Bibi "play out his stupid occupation fantasy" because he believes that it will make Hamas understand that they are out of choices.
"No one has any love for Hamas," said a source. "All their talk about caring for the interests of the Palestinian people is a bunch of bullshit. Their leaders have stolen their people blind. We are talking not of millions, but of hundreds of millions of dollars. They have been eating while their people have starved. [The late Hamas Gaza leader] Yahyah Sinwar bragged that he would create a million Palestinian martyrs, and then did that by launching the senseless and savage attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023. His scheme did not help Gazans but let his evil twin, Bibi, unleash a genocide against them. Hamas is not and cannot be part of Gaza's future, but Witkoff hopes that at least some of their leaders will enable Gaza to have a future. They need to make this deal now and stop the bullshit that they are protecting Palestinian interests by holding out."
"Look at the condition of the hostages," said the source. "Look how they are treating them. It is against the teachings of Islam. The Hamas in Doha try to claim that this is not their doing. But it is: they have prolonged this agony and horror."
This and other sources say that there is a good chance that Hamas will agree to a new deal, but its implementation may have to wait until after the Trump summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could take place this coming week. Trump and Witkoff are intensely involved in that.
IDF Pushback and Zamir’s Resistance
The sources stress that the IDF and its leader, Lt. General Eyal Zamir, who continues to voice strenuous objection to the occupation plans, has also put a long time-delay into its implementation. He told Bibi and the Security Cabinet that the IDF does not have the forces to go into Gaza right now for an occupation. Gen. Zamir had ordered several units out of Gaza, as their members were in breakdown mode, suffering from extended stressful duty. With many reservists refusing to report for duty, not wanting to serve in Gaza, there will have to be conscription to fill the IDF ranks—something that Bibi has sought to avoid, but which the IDF chief says he will not go forward without.
Sources report that Bibi had considered firing Gen. Zamir, but he could hardly get away with that after loudly praising him as his choice when he took over from another reluctant general, Herzi Halevi, who claimed that the war in Gaza had achieved all military goals and that Hamas no longer threatened Israel. Yet Netanyahu demanded to keep fighting at the end of the previous ceasefire. Halevi exited in March, taking personal responsibility for the IDF's failure to protect Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, stating that all those in command at that point should resign. The Commander in Chief of all Israeli forces was and is Netanyahu.
Media Reports Reveal Growing Tensions
"The [Zamir's] clash with Netanyahu escalated following a report by veteran journalist Nahum Barnea in the mass-circulation newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth Aug. 1," reports Haaretz analyst Amos Harel today. "Barnea wrote that Zamir was considering the possibility of resigning if the political decision-makers obligate him to conquer the entire Gaza Strip. The Prime Minister's Office, following its custom, tried to pressure the chief of staff to dissociate himself from the report, but Zamir refused, even if the unequivocal wording of the headline apparently somewhat surprised him."
The respected Harel describes the military situation as follows, and the hopelessness of Bibi's scheme:
"This week, diplomatic and military correspondents received detailed leaks—in a way that raises doubts about the seriousness of the discussion—about the plans Netanyahu is demanding: the conquest of Gaza City and the refugee camps in the center of the Strip. These are two of the three enclaves into which the IDF has forced the Palestinian population, and where the Israeli hostages are being held (the third is the Mawasi area, on the Strip's southern coast).
"High-ranking IDF officers warned that this would require a multi-month ground operation, and actions to comb the area and purge it of terrorists, which could take up to two years. The operation would require four to six divisions, meaning an astronomical number of additional days of reserve-duty days. And the intention is to continue pushing the population by force into the southern section of the Strip while trying to compel them to emigrate. Zamir, in contrast, proposed encircling the present enclaves, wielding military pressure on them from the outside and trying to wear down Hamas, without putting the hostages' lives in danger. This doesn't exactly look like a winning solution either."
Trump’s Frustration and Final Push for Peace
In other words, there is no military solution that actually does what Bibi claims he wants—take out Hamas, save the hostages, and use the IDF to police Gaza for an Arab civilian authority that is not Hamas. Israel's insane messiah, Bibi, has backed himself and Israel into a deadly corner.
"So, we have a couple weeks or less to get something done before Bibi satiates his bloodlust with more dead in Gaza, this time likely including all remaining hostages," said a source close to the White House, who says that the President remains absolutely committed to bringing them home alive. He also will no longer listen to lying denials from Netanyahu that there is no famine in Gaza and that the reports are all fake Hamas propaganda.
In a call initiated by Bibi last week, after Trump had disputed Netanyahu's denials, saying that "those children look pretty hungry to me," when Netanyahu repeated his denials, sources report Trump started yelling at him: "Don't fucking lie to me. My people have seen what is going on. You are starving people, and it is going to stop." Bibi backed off, but the sources say it has led Trump to believe that Israel cannot be involved in any food or aid distribution without it being in full American control. Trump reportedly asked, "How can we be sure that Israel isn't letting Hamas steal the aid, so it can fit their narrative?"