Last Chance for Ceasefire/Hostage Deal as Latest Talks Begin in Doha

Aug. 16—The days of the Butcher of Gaza may be numbered as there is a plan afoot to force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire/hostage deal that would end his slaughtering rampage in Gaza that has already killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom were women and children. If successfully carried out, the plan will prevent similar loss of life in a senseless war with Hezbollah in Israel’s militarily occupied West Bank, and likely with the nation of Lebanon, while also preventing a wider regional war, involving Iran—a war into which Bibi and his Global NATO backers wish to drag the United States.

Talks began Aug. 15 in Doha, the capital of Qatar, with negotiators for Hamas not formally participating, after their new leadership said that they will only come to the deal if a real deal is put forward without obfuscations coming from Israel. That new leadership of Hamas is headed by Bibi’s co-evil twin, Yahya Sinwar, who had either stupidly or in complicity with Netanyahu, set this entire cycle of death in motion by organizing a Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023 that slaughtered 1,200 innocents, mostly Israeli civilians, giving Bibi the excuse to launch his genocidal campaign in Gaza. Sinwar, who has assumed full control of Hamas after the Bibi-directed assassination in Tehran of Hamas political leader and chief negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, has said he would welcome “a million martyrs,” as he calls the victims of this senseless slaughter, if it would mean the defeat of Israel. But Sinwar seems unable to force other Hamas leaders to go along with his insanity, as there is pressure from even the military commanders to end the war which cannot be won militarily. Sources report that Hamas which is headquartered in Doha will come to the table perhaps today or tomorrow, when a deal will be pushed forward by the mediators, led by the United States.

Similarly, Bibi has tried to block the negotiations, saying they were useless because Hamas would never agree to the terms he had added in order to sabotage any deal. Sources report that he was told by the leaders of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the intelligence services that they would go to Doha, with or without his blessing. So, an Israeli delegation led by Mossad Director David Barnea and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar landed in Doha today, where talks over a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal are restarting. Alongside Barnea and Bar, Israel’s delegation includes Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, the IDF’s top hostage negotiator; and Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy adviser.

The sources report that an angry and fully awake President “Sleepy Joe” Biden has given his blessing to the U.S. delegation, under the direction of America’s most able diplomat, CIA Director William Burns to take whatever actions necessary to force a deal to be put on the table. Burns has consulted with mediators from Qatar and Egypt, and indirectly with Hamas and some within the Israeli delegation, and is prepared, if necessary, to offer terms on a take-it-or-leave-it deal based on the framework first proposed three months ago  by Biden for a three-phase program, in which Israel is to eventually give up all control over Gaza in a broader peace deal.

The U.S. offer demands an immediate ceasefire and a phased return of the hostages, to which Bibi tried to burden with unworkable demands. The U.S. offer does not take up any of Netanyahu’s bogus concerns. And there is a price to pay if Netanyahu refuses to sign, and, as expected, Hamas accepts. Amos Harel writing in Haaretz Aug. 15 spells this out::“If the negotiations fail again this time, the Americans will be faced with a dilemma over how to proceed when, on the one hand, the chances of closing a deal are slim and, on the other hand, the Democratic National Convention takes place next week. The Israeli defense establishment believes the Biden administration may offer Israel and Hamas a yes-or-no proposition without further bargaining. In such a case, Netanyahu is likely to say no, in which case Biden, for the first time, will publicly put the blame for the talk’s failure on the prime minister.”

Sources say that Burns has worked out a plan with his counterparts in Israeli intelligence where they would agree to the deal, despite whatever terms Bibi has them carrying, and then bring it back to Bibi to sign or reject. Should he sign the deal, the two lunatic ministers, Bezalel Smotrich (Finance) and Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security). who have so far been in his corner demanding the blood of all Palestinians will likely collapse his government. Should Netanyahu sign what they call a “betrayal of Israel,” both Smotrich and Gen-Gvir have said they will pull out of the government. Most Israelis will welcome their exit from government, as they would rather see them confined to a home for the criminally insane.

Should Netanyahu not sign the deal, sources report, that will trigger a political explosion in Israel, with mass demonstrations demanding his ouster, which will be encouraged by the expected finger of blame being pointed him as responsible by his erstwhile supporters in the United States.

Bibi may have been warned of this in a phone call Aug. 14 from GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump, who according to a report in Axios, urged the Israeli Prime Minister to take the deal being offered. The word from sources inside the Trump camp is that he told the White House in advance that he was going to make the call, so that he could not be accused of interfering in the conduct of foreign policy, which a private citizen is prohibited from doing by the Logan Act of 1799. Axios stuck by their report of the call despite a lack of comment from the Trump campaign and a denial by Netanyahu’s office that any such call with Trump took place.

“It took place,” said a source. “And Bibi did not like what he heard. He thought he had Trump handled and that he was on his side in opposing a Biden-dictated deal. But Trump surprises people all the time who think they have him figured.

"People inside the Trump campaign have found in their polling that American Jews, in the majority, have grown to hate Netanyahu, and that that majority is growing. These American Jews strongly support the state of Israel, but not the Nazi-like actions of his government against the Palestinians, and especially against other Jews and even against the families of the hostages. American Jews cannot reconcile the images coming out of Gaza, and their sense of Israel as a just nation. So, Trump has seen the sea change, and realizes that he has to support Israel, but not its current leader and his lunatic government.”

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said that the talks in Doha are “focused on the details of the implementation. We don’t anticipate coming out of today [Aug. 15] with a deal; we anticipate them continuing into tomorrow. It’s not that we’re having a debate over the framework of the deal. We’re at a point where it’s generally accepted. There remains a lot of work to do” to resolve gaps in the implementation of the framework agreement.

Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, and the remaining Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza can only be released through an agreement, The New York Times quoted senior U.S. officials as saying as much, adding that IDF bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished.

Under the heading “Bring Them Home Now,” dozens of American Jewish leaders, including some 100 rabbis, cantors, and other figures, have published an open letter written in English and Hebrew urging Prime Minister Netanyahu “to finalize the deal on the table and to bring much-needed relief to those suffering” in Israel and Gaza, adding that “it’s time to restore that hope to its full glory, and reunite the hostages with their families and the entire Jewish people by sealing this deal.”

Protesters, among them family members of Israelis held hostage in Gaza, gathered Aug. 15 outside the ruling Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv to call for a hostage deal. A statement from the protesters said that “for more than ten months, dozens of hostages we could have rescued were left by the prime minister to suffer and die. Only one message can come out of the talks in Qatar: ‘Hostage Deal Now!’”

Hundreds of Israelis also gathered today in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, the building where Israel’s Declaration of Independence was signed in 1948, ahead of a march to the city’s Hostage Square to demand Netanyahu’s government sign a ceasefire and hostage swap deal with Hamas, and that early elections be held.

During a visit to northern Israel, opposition lawmaker and former War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz called on Netanyahu: “Be brave for once.... For months you were scared to advance a proposal to release the hostages out of concern for your coalition. It’s time you stop fiddling with the future of the government, and deal with the future of the country.”