With War in West Bank and Lebanon Looming, Israel Offers New Peace Deal for Gaza

Sept. 20—With Israel’s bloodthirsty Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu about to pull the trigger for an all-out Israeli offensive against Hezbollah that would extend his slaughter of Palestinians to the West Bank and Lebanon, Israel reportedly handed over to U.S. officials on Sept. 19 the outline of a new peace deal for Gaza.

According to a report in Haaretz, Gal Hirsch, a former brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces, a close ally of the prime minister, and who now serves as the government’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, has submitted a new proposal to the Biden administration for a deal with Hamas in which all hostages held in Gaza would be released in one phase in exchange for the release of Israeli-held prisoners and an end to the war. Under the terms of this new deal, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, his family, and thousands of operatives of his choice, would be allowed to leave Gaza for a third country.

As reportedly specified in the proposal, this move would not be defined as a “surrender” or “exile” but would allow Hamas leaders to leave under safe passage. Once the Hamas leaders have left Gaza, an agreed-upon mechanism for the rebuilding of Gaza would begin operating. Sources say that were Hamas to signal its willingness to move forward on this, Israel would formally adopt the plan.

This proposal comes as Israeli military leaders have announced that they are shifting their primary focus north to the West Bank and Lebanon, prioritizing the return of some 60,000 Israeli citizens who have been evacuated from their homes and communities in northern Israel. It also comes after Israeli operatives allegedly remotely detonated explosions in thousands of pagers and two-way radios in the possession of Hezbollah operatives Sept. 17-18, killing more than 50 and wounding nearly 4,000, including women and children.

This proposal also is announced as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its Chief of Staff Gen. Herzl Halevi has approved battle plans for war on and beyond Israel’s northern border against Hezbollah. The Israeli Air Force is already conducting airstrikes in southern Lebanon. Late reports from Reuters and AFP say that an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs today killed Ibrahim Aquil, also known as Tahsin, Hezbollah’s second-in-command, along with a number of other top members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit.

The IDF now says it has prioritized its front with Hezbollah, but is awaiting clear government policy about sustaining military action, for example, ground actions, to achieve other declared goals of the war, including the return of the hostages held in Gaza.

Sources report that the new Israeli peace plan was cleverly crafted by Bibi and his allies to look like a real proposal, but with certain key elements that would almost assuredly guarantee that Hamas could not accept it. “First it is important to know that there is real political pressure on Bibi to bring the hostages home before he embarks on a murderous, messianic crusade against Hezbollah,” said a source. “The military, the security services and [Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant are demanding a clear statement of policy and priorities which show how whatever is done will be effective in getting the hostages home and end the fighting in Gaza. They have openly opposed and countered Bibi’s arguments about the need to keep an IDF presence in the Philadelphi corridor of Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Bibi insisted on in order to blow up the last round of negotiations.

These saner elements in the Israeli command have been working with America’s chief negotiator in the ceasefire/hostage release talks, CIA Director William Burns, to back Bibi into a corner by having him sign on to a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ deal that Burns has been carrying around in his briefcase, waiting for the right moment to put it on the table. This new Israeli offer could be a way to avert that, and to let begin the projected slaughter in the North.

“While Sinwar might agree to leave Gaza, it is hard to believe that the other Hamas leaders would ever agree to the spectacle of having thousands of its unarmed people just march out of the place,” the source continued. “Sinwar is really Bibi’s co-evil twin, his ace in the hole. Many times, Sinwar has helped Netanyahu out by doing something stupid that has served as a pretext allowing Bibi to get his way. Bibi is counting on him to reject this offer.

“But the game is more complicated than that,” said the source. “In crafting this proposal, Bibi had to make some concessions that he will have a hard time going back to his old hard line stance that has crashed the negotiations in the past. The key new element in the plan is a mutual agreement to actually end the war—something Bibi has resisted, and something that Hamas has insisted was essential to any agreement. The new proposal also proposes to do everything in a single phase—again something that sources say the Hamas leadership has preferred all along, as they did not trust Bibi to carry out the multi-phase deal first proposed in May by President “Sleepy Joe” Biden, and which Hamas had accepted in outline form, but not in detail.

“Burns is a clever guy and an able diplomat. He still has his plan in his briefcase. He may wait for the Israeli proposal to get rejected, and then use some of its language to tweak his own plan, then offer it up. Both Israel and Hamas—and I mean Hamas, not Sinwar—should accept Burns’ deal. If America had a strong President, that is, someone other than the current White House caretaker, and if that strong President would swing the hammer on military aid for Israel, Burns’ deal could fly. If any peace deal must wait until after the Nov. 5 U.S. elections, as some are saying it must, then an awful lot of people are going to die in Bibi’s new war against Hezbollah.”

Haaretz’ lead editorial for today is, “Israel Has One Last Chance to Sign a Deal Before Everything Goes Up in Flames.” The new proposal is "a good one—on paper, but the likelihood that Hamas and Sinwar will accept it is extremely slim: They do not want to be exiled, even if the measure is not defined as ‘exile’ or ‘surrender.’

“It can be assumed that [Gal] Hirsch, the representative of a government that wants to make the war in the Gaza Strip a “forever war,” is well aware of this. It is even possible that this is the idea behind the initiative: to put on the table a seemingly reasonable proposal whose acceptance is highly unlikely, in order to reduce both the criticism of the government by the hostages’ families and the mass demonstrations.

“In actual reality, not the one that is imagined by Hirsch and his superiors, Israel is getting deeper in trouble. It is booby-trapping itself on several fronts and could find itself in a difficult, multi-front war that will incur high casualties. The collective admiration for the intelligence and operational abilities that led to the explosions of pagers and other communications devices of Hezbollah members, an operation that has been attributed to Israel, could soon give way to heart-rending cries of grief, the result of a punishing regional war. Such a war can still be averted through a genuine, courageous deal with Hamas that indeed exacts a heavy price, but ultimately yields a far greater benefit. It would enable not only the return of the hostages, but also the restoration of a measure of calm along the northern border.

“The Americans are laboring over the details of such a deal; however, they are encountering resistance not only from Sinwar but also from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A moment before the entire region erupts, Israel must fulfill its moral duty, advance the deal the Americans are offering, bring the hostages home and prevent a destructive war that costs the lives of many Israelis.”