Bibi Under Pressure to Commit to Complete Hostage Deal
Feb. 20—Hamas this morning returned coffins containing the bodies of four Israelis killed while in captivity. These included three members of the Bibas family, the two young red headed sons, Ariel and Kfir, and their mother Shiri, whose faces had adorned many posters urging the Israeli government, headed by the butcher of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, to complete the deal to obtain the freedom of all the hostages. The coffins were whisked away to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv to confirm their identities, as Bibi tried to keep the images from searing into the public consciousness, which has grown angry and impatient with Bibi’s unwillingness to commit to the terms of the hostage/ceasefire deal, brokered by the Trump administration.
(Tonight,, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Shiri Bibas body had not been returned, that the remains in what Hamas labeled as her coffin were not hers. This was "a gross violation" of the terms of the agreement, demanding the immediate return of her body. Hamas has not yet commented on the report.)
When Hamas turns over six living hostages Feb. 22, and then the bodies of 4 additional deceased hostages next week, they will have completed Phase 1 of the deal ahead of schedule. While Netanyahu has tried to claim that this was the result of the pressure put on Hamas by his demand, backed by President Donald Trump, that all the hostages be returned immediately, or “the gates of hell” will open on Hamas, informed sources say that something else was in play. Hamas believes that by completing Phase 1 of the deal early, it will turn up the pressure on Bibi to allow his team to finally begin negotiations in earnest. These sources say that the forensic investigation of the bodies of the returned dead hostages is likely to show that they were not killed by Hamas, but by the relentless Israeli bombardment, which if true, will only further inflame opinion against Netanyahu.
Also, Trump’s straight-talking Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel this week to deliver a blunt message to Netanyahu: The President wants the terms of Phase 2 of the deal negotiated and that Trump knows that Bibi is stalling and even opposes this. The President will only back a resumption of the war if Hamas violates the ceasefire—and this had better not be caused by Bibi staging a provocation. He told Netanyahu that he wants negotiations to get under way by the end of the week.
Bibi might be confused by such statements, in light of the President demanding the release of all hostages by Feb. 15, a deadline that came and went with Hamas merely complying with the terms of Phase 1 of the deal by releasing three hostages. Bibi had immediately stated that he too wanted to see all the hostages released. “Witkoff and Trump are playing Bibi for the desperate sucker he is,” a source close to the White House stated. “First they get him to state that the release of all the hostages is his priority, then Witkoff goes on national television and says that the only way to achieve this is through implementing the full deal to its full term.”
The source was referring to a Fox News interview Feb. 16 with Witkoff. First, he made it clear that there is going to be a Phase 2, because he and President Trump want there to be one. “Phase 2 is a little more complicated than Phase 1,” he said. “But Phase 2 is absolutely going to begin.”
Writing in Haaretz Feb. 17, analyst Chiam Lewinson explained how Witkoff, with Trump’s full backing, is putting the screws to Bibi: “[Witkoff] added that he had spoken by phone that morning with Netanyahu, the Qatari Prime Minister and the Director of Egyptian intelligence, and ‘we had very, very productive and constructive calls this morning about the sequencing of [Stage] 2, setting forth positions on both sides, so we can understand … where we are today, and then continuing talks this week at a location to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of [Stage] 2 successfully.’
“He noted that Stage 2 would include the release of living hostages like Edan Alexander as well as bodies, so that their families could mourn properly. ‘It includes all of those people. It is just a little bit more intricate and complicated in terms of how we bring the two sides together on this because Phase 2 contemplates an end of the war, but it also contemplates Hamas not being involved in the government and being gone from Gaza. So, we’ve got to square those two things.’”
There is work being done that appears to have made progress on this problem. Sources report that U.S. intelligence believes that Hamas can be split into a more accommodating political wing; and a military arm, which could be induced with some payments of money, to leave Gaza. Egypt and the Saudis have been discussing such a possibility and have leaked that Hamas might agree to renounce its control of Gaza at the end of the Phase 1 of the deal, as a condition to start Phase 2. Meanwhile, Hamas has come with a plan for Phase 2 that would release all the hostages at once in exchange for a permanent end to all fighting and a commitment to begin the reconstruction of Gaza, with the population remaining on site. That latter statement about reconstruction coheres with the terms of a soon-to-be-released Arab-Egyptian proposal.
In that same interview on Fox News, Witkoff said in so many words what most serious thinkers and analysts have known from the beginning: there never really was and there is not any now a “Trump Plan” for removal of Palestinians from Gaza, their relocation to some yet-to-be-determined location, and the U.S. redevelopment of Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Mediterranean.’ It was all a ruse, designed to provoke the Arabs in particular to come up with a better plan, and take ownership of the problem.
“As usual,” Witkoff said, Trump “comes out saying something new and unique, and gets attacked for it.… But it also encourages a lot of conversation. So now we have the Egyptians saying they have a plan. The Jordanians are saying they have a plan. And people are actually engaging in really important, cogent discussion about what ought to happen there.”
Noting that Trump, like Witkoff himself, comes from the world of real estate, he said the President’s position is “Why are we going to necessarily default to a policy prescription … where the same policy prescription has been implemented for the last four or five decades, and hasn’t worked? Maybe we need to explore new policy prescriptions that ultimately provide a better life for Gazans and Palestinians.”
Reporting on the interview, Lewinson writes: “And that effort to jump-start the conversation has worked, Witkoff argued. ‘Look at the discourse that’s now happening today. We’re actually engaging in a productive conversation around what is best for Gaza and how do we make people’s lives better.’”
Lewinson reports that Bibi was totally “blindsided” by Witkoff’s statements, causing him to flail about, but finally announce that he would send negotiators to Doha, Qatar to discuss Phase 2. At a State Security Cabinet meeting Feb. 18 on the matter, sources report that Bibi was peppered by his lunatic racist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich about what he should make of the U.S. position. “Are they really going to take over Gaza and kick out the Palestinians? Will they really support us to go in and exterminate Hamas?” “Ask Witkoff,” he was told. The cabinet offered no direction for the negotiators.
Writing in Haaretz today analyst Amir Tobon states: "Since October 7, Netanyahu and his lackeys have blamed a long list of people and institutions for the failures of that day, as well as for the prolonged suffering of the hostages. They blamed the hostages' families for holding protests in favor of their release; they blamed the media in Israel and abroad for focusing on the hostages; they blamed then-U.S. President Biden, and later U.S. President Trump and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff; and now their latest targets are the Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs. Only one man, it seems, has nothing at all to do with October 7, and bears no responsibility for anything at all – the man who has been the prime minister of Israel more than 90 percent of the time since the year 2009."
“Bibi finds himself between a rock and hard place,” said a source. “If he does not restart the war, he loses Smotrich, and his government may be finished, even as the trials for his corruption close in on him. If he sends the Israel Defense Forces back into Gaza, especially with Hamas appearing to make concessions, he will cause the death of the hostages, lose further support from the Israeli people, and lose the support of his so-called “good friend” Trump. He has been going around justifying radical action of implementing the phantasm that was the Trump Plan. Now, he sees that this was a hoax and Trump and Witkoff have played him for a sucker. The master of manipulation has been out manipulated. I love it!”