Jamal Kanj
CounterPunch / August 21, 2024
Israel escaped a certain military retaliation last week when Joe Biden hastily called to start a new round of ceasefire negotiations —a ploy likely succeeded in delaying a planned reprisals against Israel for its aggression in Tehran, Yemen, and Beirut.
Previously, the Palestinians have agreed to multiple revised American ceasefire proposals. Each time, however, Benjamin Netanyahu added new conditions forcing the resumption of negotiations back from the starting point.
On May 31st, the U.S. President announced what he called a comprehensive Israeli proposal, promising a “roadmap to a lasting cease-fire and the release of all hostages.” Yet, in less than 24 hours, Netanyahu dismissed Biden’s proposal as a “nonstarter,” insisting that his terms for ending the war remain unchanged.
Throughout its history, Israel have used the never-ending negotiation tactics as a Sisyphean amaranthine. In 1992, Yitzhak Shamir told the Israeli newspaper Maariv that his strategy during the Madrid talks was to negotiate “for 10 years and in the meantime, we would have reached half a million people (illegal Jewish settlers) in the West Bank.”
Three decades later, Israel has increased the population in the Jewish-only colonies in the West Bank far more than the half a million-mark, and still haggling with no end in sight, over the 1993 Oslo Framework. Today, there could be another 40,000 murdered Palestinian children while Israel negotiates Biden’s Framework on the ceasefire in Gaza.
This is not the perspective of a critic of Israel but rather the opinion of Netanyahu’s own Defense Minister. Yoav Gallant has reportedly told Israeli lawmakers in a private briefing that Netanyahu’s assertions of “absolute victory” in Gaza are “gibberish.” Former member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, Benny Gantz, criticized the Prime Minister’s indecision regarding the ceasefire and exchange of captives, urging him to “be brave, for once.” The head of his Shin Bet (Israeli equivalent to American FBI) questioned Netanyahu’s commitment to the ceasefire negotiation.
Netanyahu’s own negotiating team has accused him of undermining the ceasefire talks. According to Israel’s Channel 12, a recent meeting between Netanyahu and his team escalated into a shouting match, with Netanyahu accusing them of being “weaklings” serving the interests of the Palestinian resistance.
The Biden Administration, therefore, should focus on mediating between Israelis to establish a definitive Israeli position, rather than allowing Netanyahu to continually waste time introducing new conditions after the Palestinians have agreed to a proposal. According to a report in Axios, an Israeli official complained that “Netanyahu wants a deal that is impossible to get.”
Zionist leader Nahum Goldman once remarked, “Diplomacy in the Middle East is the art of delaying the inevitable as long as possible.” The outcome of last week’s meetings in Doha has demonstrated, once again, how Israel has mastered this art. For Israel, negotiation is an end in itself—each meeting becomes a new opportunity to dawdle and haggle to delay an agreement.
Following the (failure) conclusion of the Doha talks, the White House announced that another meeting will take place in Cairo before the end of the week. Biden’s office claimed that “the path is now set … (for) de-escalating regional tensions.” In a move likely engineered by Washington, the Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs called Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister to discuss “the need for calm and de-escalation in the region.”
Since early this year, Qatar has been involved in over eight rounds of ceasefire discussions in Doha, Rome, Paris, and Cairo. However, this was the first time the Qatari official found it necessary to brief Iran’s acting foreign minister on the talks, raising questions about the timing.
So why now?
Possibly because Washington wants to convey a message—albeit a misleading—to Iran about supposed progress in the talks, dangling the proposed round of ceasefire negotiations to delay the Iranian retaliation, one more week.
As for the retaliation, the mere threat could serve as a cudgel to improve the Palestinian negotiating position. In reality, however, attempting to apply logic in this situation only emboldens an irrational person, like Netanyahu. He is probably boasting to his government partners about how he outsmarted the U.S. and others, while flaunting his ability to “Move America Very Easily” for the service of Israel.
Frankly, the Biden Administration’s position on the ceasefire seems even more submissive to Netanyahu than that of Israeli government officials. A case in point, the statement by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, following his meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, claiming that Israel accepted a “bridging proposal,” is false, misleading and unbecoming of an “honest” mediator. The truth, it was more like the U.S. acceded to Netanyahu’s conditions on the ceasefire proposal.
Netanyahu has been able to drag the ceasefire negotiations because Biden appears to suffer from a form of abused victim syndrome, consistently prepared to adopt Netanyahu’s position even when displeased with it. Despite reportedly being unhappy with Israeli actions in Tehran and Beirut fearing that could lead to a larger conflict, yet, he rewarded Netanyahu’s government with a $20 billion military package, and rushed U.S. warships, fighter jets, air defense systems and submarines in position to defend Israel against possible Iranian retaliation. This came on top of the $14 billion in aid earlier this year to bolster Israel’s defense in a “multi-front war.”
Biden’s assertions after the Doha talks, that the ceasefire is “closer than we’ve ever been,” is red herring intended only to undercut potential reprisals against Israel. Biden’s primary concern is avoiding a broader war to protect Israel, not a Gaza ceasefire.
The ceasefire negotiations have stalled for eleven months because Biden’s approach is fundamentally biased for emphasizing the well-being of the roughly 100 Israeli captives (including U.S. citizens who became Israelis), over that of millions of Palestinians. It is biased and racist when America wages a proxy war against Yemen for blockading shipping to one Israeli port on the Red Sea, but allows Israel to starve 2.3 million Palestinians imposing a barricade cutting off all sea, land, and air access to Gaza.
As long as the 100 (Jewish) Israeli individuals are more equal than the over 10,000 Palestinian captives in Israeli dungeons, and the 2.3 million (Muslim and Christian) Palestinians in Gaza, Netanyahu will continue to use the ceasefire negotiations as a facade to perpetuate his genocide agenda. Meanwhile, Biden’s diplomacy serves as Netanyahu’s useful idiot constructing, alongside Arab vassal states, a mirage of hope to deter the past due retaliation against Israel.
Jamal Kanj is the author of Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America
