Did Kamala Harris Play Politics with Gaza Ceasefire Deal?
Aug. 19—As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Israel carrying a proposed “take-it-or-leave-it” ceasefire/hostage release plan drafted in concert with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, sources with knowledge of what is going on in this process are dismayed by reports that Vice President Kamala Harris prevailed on her weak nominal boss President “Sleepy Joe” Biden to delay an actual settlement until after she speaks at the Democratic Convention Aug. 22, when she is to be crowned with the Party’s Presidential nomination. In so doing, the stupid White House has given the Butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and co-evil twin Hamas leader Yawah Sinwar time to sabotage the deal. Sinwar acceded to Chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau upon the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh July 31 in an Israeli-directed operation.
No sooner had Blinken arrived in Israel then a powerful bomb went off near a synagogue in downtown Tel Aviv, apparently detonated by a suicide bomber who was killed in the attack. Only one other person was injured, but “a major disaster was averted, and dozens could have been killed,” a police official told CNN today.
The explosives are believed to have detonated before the suspect “managed to reach a more heavily populated area,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said. Authorities are investigating the incident as a terrorist attack. Sources report that the attacker was believed to be a member of the Hamas military wing, which is directly under the control of Sinwar. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and said that more could expected. These sources say that the attack was intended to blow up the talks and to prevent the organization from accepting the ceasefire deal over Sinwar's objection, as it were likely that Sinwar's co-evil twin, Bibi. will then order a retaliatory response that could prevent any progress in the talks.
“This may go down as one of the stupidest moves in recent memory,” said a source of the Harris sought delay. “Harris was reportedly afraid that with mass protests against the war in Gaza set to take place in Chicago during the convention, should a deal have come out of talks early in the week and Bibi, ‘under duress,’ been forced to sign it, Harris and Biden would have looked like they were caving in to the Party’s anti-war faction and to the protestors, which the lying media has misrepresented as ‘dupes of terrorists,’ and ‘dupes and agents of Iran.’ The nasty bitch Harris did not want the deal or the issue of ‘Israel’ to dominate the convention, and further fracture an already hopelessly split Democrat Party.”
This and other sources say that the original plan was to consume two days of talks in Doha, Qatar to force a deal, and then on the third day, the U.S. was to submit a plan working off the outline of the original three-phased plan which called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of some hostages, with further negotiations during the 6-week ceasefire to make it permanent. The last stage would be the establishment of a new civilian government in Gaza and the permanent withdrawal of all Israeli forces. Netanyahu has been adamant that he would never accept this plan, and that he wouldn’t even withdraw Israeli forces from critical areas during the first phase, to allow Palestinians to return to what rubble remains of their former homes, villages, and cities. Bibi has also demanded the right to resume fighting should the ceasefire be violated or if no further arrangements are negotiated, which negotiations he clearly intends to sabotage.
Late Monday, Blinken reported that Netanyahu said that he would accept the U.S. plan. However, it is not clear what the U.S, proposal says about the control of the critical area of the Egyptian border with Gaza. Bibi wants it to remain under Israeli control, but Hamas can never accept that. Sources report that Egypt has told the U.S. to get the Israelis to withdraw from the border area as soon as possible, a move that they feel would bring the talks to a successful conclusion.
Writes Zvi Bar'el in Haaretz today: "For Egypt, an Egyptian pundit who writes for a government newspaper said, the issue of ending the war isn't separate from the issues of the Philadelphi route and the Rafah crossing. 'Everything is connected to everything else,' he explained. Consequently, a decision to withdraw from the Philadelphi route could provide Egypt with the guarantee of a cease-fire that it seeks, while also easing Hamas' fears."
“The key to the U.S. bridging plan is the work that [CIA Director William] Burns has done behind the scenes,” a source reported. “He has covertly worked behind Bibi’s back with leaders of the IDF and Israeli intelligence to draft the terms in this offer that they can accept, even if Bibi doesn’t. The IDF leaders and Israeli intelligence are not concerned with the details of maintaining order during the process or preventing the possibility of infiltration of Gaza by more fighters and terrorists. They believe that they can control this, without going back to a war condition. Most importantly, they accept the view of the CIA and others that it was never possible to totally annihilate Hamas anyway, as Bibi has claimed as the ‘victory’ he seeks. But that’s a lie. This war was never about Oct. 7 and revenge against Hamas for that bloody massacre. Oct. 7 was just an excuse for Bibi to launch his war to drown the possibility of a two-state solution in Palestinian blood. The top military and intel people know this, even if they won’t say it. They are tired of fighting a war that just kills mostly innocent civilians, and they definitely don’t want to extend this war into the West Bank and Lebanon against a much better armed and trained Hezbollah.
“So, the idea was to put something on the table that the Israeli intel people and the leadership of the IDF could accept and work with, and which the saner sections of Hamas could accept,” said the source. “Everyone would initial it and the Israelis would bring it back for Bibi to sign. The hammer from the U.S. would then come down on Bibi, with Biden, for what it is worth, threatening to denounce Netanyahu as an enemy of peace and asking the Israeli people to deal with this tyrant. Either way, Bibi will soon be gone. If he doesn’t sign, the families of the hostages will lead a political explosion. It will not be just some left-wing protests against the war. If Netanyahu signs, it is expected that Bezalel Smotrich [Minister of Finance] and Itamar Ben-Gvir [Minister of National Security] will leave Bibi’s cabinet and thus bring down the government, and Bibi will be out of office. At that point the courts will be free to deal with Bibi’s endemic criminality. All this is known to the saner people in Hamas.
“The problem is Bibi’s co-evil twin and best asset Sinwar, who wants to torpedo this deal in favor of a wider war, just like Bibi. Given enough space, these two will screw up the deal as the Tel Aviv bombing shows. The deal is very tenuous to begin with, given the weakness and stupidity of the American presidency.
“And there is much more at stake here,” the source reminded. “There has been a full court press to get Iran and Hezbollah to hold off on any retaliation for the Bibi-ordered assassinations of Faud Shakr [July 30 in Beirut Lebanon] and Ismail Haniyeh [July 31 in Tehran, Iran], the man who steered Hamas in from out of the cold. The pressure on Netanyahu has involved some heavy lifting by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and others. So far, it has held up. And maybe any retaliation could still be held below the threshold that would trigger a wider war. But the key to obtaining a durable security for the region begins with a ceasefire/hostage deal in Gaza. When that occurs, Hezbollah will de-escalate. So, there is a lot riding on this negotiation and this deal.
Meanwhile that stupid nasty bitch Harris is playing politics with it. The negotiators should try moving this ahead in Cairo, yesterday. Maybe saner heads will prevail. The only trouble is, there are so damn few of them in Washington these days.”