Dialogue of the deaf: are the Israel and Hamas truce talks destined to fail? • FRANCE 24 English

are we on the verge of a truce in the
Middle East the violence since October
the 7th has claimed over 34,000
Palestinian lives in what is very much a
one-sided bombardment of the Gaza Strip
by Israel it All Began of course with
the horrific attack launched by Hamas on
Southern Israel that killed around 1,200
mostly civilians and at least 250
Israelis were taken hostage around a 100
remain in the hands of Hamas somewhere
in Gaza this Tuesday anti arrived in
Israel having been in Riyad Saudi Arabia
yesterday and Aman Jordan earlier this
Tuesday the US Secretary State is adding
his diplomatic waight to the push for
peace his angle Hamas should accept a
40-day truce and release the hostages
Israel says blinkin has done nothing but
defend itself but behind closed doors
the us including President Joe Biden is
uncomfortable with how Israel has
attacked hospitals and civilians in Gaza
in the name of eradicating herass before
we get the take of our special guest
France 24’s James vassen has more on the
context with a deal on the table one of
Israel and hamas’s highest priorities
Remains the recovery of hostages and
prisoners held by either
side according to the Wall Street
Journal Israel’s military would be
prepared to put down its weapons for 10
weeks if Hamas agrees to free 20 Israeli
hostages The Times of Israel puts this
number at
33 in exchange Israeli television
channel 12 States it would release 900
Palestinian prisoners which would amount
to 27 to 45 prisoners per Israeli
hostage officials are reportedly
expecting a response from Hamas by
Wednesday night an US Secretary of State
Anthony blinkin has been meeting with
regional leaders to press Hamas to
accept the
proposal but the group has so far made
it clear it would only accept a deal
based on a permanent ceasefire as well
as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from
Gaza
Hamas also wants all displaced people to
be able to return to their homes across
the strip including the 1 million people
currently Sheltering in
Rafa but Benjamin Netanyahu has made one
matter clear ceasefire or not the
Israeli Prime Minister plans to destroy
hamas’s battalions in the southern
city James vaser giving us some more
context before we bring in now Hussein
iish senior resident scholar the Arab
Gulf States Institute in Washington DC H
saying thanks for joining us here on
France 24 we always appreciate your time
sir thanks for being with us of course
um are you optimistic about the chances
of a truce this week no I think we’re
closer than we’ve ever been in terms of
uh bridging between Hamas and all
parties except Israel the problem is
that prime minister Netanyahu has been
reacting to the prospect of a uh a
ceasefire hostage agreement something
like that with the most bellicose
rhetoric that he’s come up with in a
long time you other words if he wanted
to discourage Hamas from making such an
agreement he would make exactly the
comments he’s making not that he’s going
to go ahead no matter what and that it
doesn’t matter whatever is agreed to uh
in Cairo or through C brok brokering or
anything like that uh the Israelis are
going to go ahead into Rafa now that
that’s probably true and I don’t think
he needed to say it I think everybody
knows that but when you put it that way
you give everybody especially Hamas and
all the other people involved in the
negotiations the sense that you’re not
serious and you’re being very
belligerent and that you’re not
interested in uh an agreement it sounds
like then that Netanyahu is the main
obstacle why has this become the case
what is driving him well I think part
partially uh Netanyahu believes that the
best way to stay out of prison is to
stay in power and the best way to stay
in power is to keep the war going
moreover he is wedded to the idea that
there can be no uh reasonable solution
in Gaza other than uh uh really
essentially an Israeli reoccupation of
the strip and then extending that into
the West Bank canceling the oo
agreements and imposing direct Israeli
Security Control in the entire uh entire
of the West Bank cancelling area a where
the pa is and all of that that’s
basically his position so he’s being as
aggressive as possible short of
demanding annexation in the West Bank
which is the official position of the
government and it’s his official
position he’s just not saying he’s going
to do it in the near future it’s
aspirational um Hamas though also is an
obstacle in the sense that they continue
to demand the release of uh prisoners
and uh who are not accept to Israel and
also to demand a full ceasefire that
they know they’re not going to get so
unless both Israel and Hamas pull back a
little bit and are willing to give
ground in order to in the Israeli side
get back hostages they won’t get them
all but they could get a lot of them um
you know who are being still held and
who are still alive and uh for Hamas to
win some breathing space for itself and
for the long-suffering people of Gaza
that they plunged into this nightmare
back on on October 7 um we’re going to
see the continuation of the war and and
so these two parties are the main
obstacles and it’s it’s a great tragedy
that the two groups of people who could
bring an end to the conflict or at least
a long pause in the conflict to let
everybody breathe and not die are nany
and the people around him on one side
and Yahya Sinar the Hamas leader in Gaza
and the people around him and they are
also the only two PE groups of people
who matter so it’s terrible situation no
matter what the US says no matter what
Qatar says no matter what Egypt says as
you point out sim those around him are
the ones that matter on the Hamas side
and his it’s the most far-right
Coalition in Israeli history isn’t it
what we’re seeing right now in isra
absolutely oh that’s the RO of the
matter on that side isn’t it that’s
right no well without doubt I think you
you phrased it very well um you have the
most extreme faction in Hamas ever in
terms of sinir and Muhammad da the head
of the kasan brigades on the one hand
and the most right-wing and transigent
and bloody-minded Israeli government
bent on annexation in the West Bank on
the other hand and these are the two
groups of people who are running the war
and they are the only two groups of
people in the world who don’t want the
war to pause or end and that’s the
irony what about the other actors in
This I use the phrase theater of war but
it’s it’s not theater it’s actually
reality isn’t it of course the other in
this Iran Lebanon Yemen’s who these give
us a sense of what what this means from
their perspective well I think it’s a
very big big big crisis for Lebanon and
for hisbah because I think from the
beginning there were people in Israel
mainly defense minister Galant who
thought that Hamas was small potatoes
and the real threat to Israel is his
balah and it’s 15,000 rockets and
missiles right on the Israeli border and
and they’re right that is the biggest
threat but it’s been clear from the
beginning of this conflict on October 7
that Hamas backed by Iran wanted nothing
to do within new war with Israel under
current circumstances but there have
been people in Israel led by the defense
minister and others who have wanted to
proactively take the war to Hamas to
hisbah in Lebanon and maybe even drag in
the United States and now the Biden
Administration is convinced that maybe
Netanyahu wants to drag in the Americans
and end up with a confrontation with
Iran and get the long hoped for us
strikes against Irani nuclear facilities
as a as a kind of um distant goal and at
a minimum to uh degrade destroy and
humiliate uh the military of Iran’s most
potent um you know proxy in the region
and Israel’s most powerful enemy uh in
the immediate term which is hisbah the
thing is that this is the biggest
nightmare of the Biden Administration
the the whole US policy since October 7
has been conflict containment that
whatever happens in Gaza the US can deal
with it and uh it’s it’s all sort of
manageable but if the conflict spreads
especially into Lebanon it’s not
manageable and Biden’s right about that
but there is the possibility that Israel
agrees with Iran that the that the
Iranian side is winning here because
they don’t care about Gaza and they
don’t even really care about Hamas which
is an unreliable Ally and what what they
would really care about is an Israeli
attack that degrades and destroys hisbah
and that that would then uh rejigger the
regional scenario to make this a real
loss for the Iranian side and uh that
Israel has a real interest in doing that
if that’s true that puts the Biden
administration at loggerheads with its
biggest Partners more even than its
adversaries and it means the biggest
threat to US policy comes not from its
adversaries but from its allies
who say abish we could go on but sadly
time against us thank you sir for
sharing your analysis with us
fascinating as it is and you say you’re
not optimistic let’s hope perhaps there
is some development that gives us a
reason to be so but I completely
understand where you’re coming from Sir
Hussein ibish senior resident scholar at
the Arab Gulf States Institute in
Washington DC thank you sir for joining
us here on France we always appreciate
your time that’s it for this apropo we
of course will watch for all
developments on the situation in the
Middle East we take a very short break
after that it’s

Diplomatic efforts are afoot to push for a truce between Israel and Hamas and bring to a halt the destruction in Gaza. Mark Owen speaks to Hussein Ibish is the senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC about the chances of reaching a ceasefire deal this week.
#Israel #Hamas #Gaza

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21 comments

  2. No deafness here, Israel has cried out loud that they simply won’t stop the attacks no matter what and Hamas has heard it clearly. The only ones playing deaf is the US

  3. Totally disagree that Netanyahu's statement is an obstacle, quite the contrary. The only reason Hamas is finally at the table, after rejecting ceasefire after ceasefire, all of which Israel has agreed to, is the imminent Rafah invasion. Hamas will only respond to military pressure, they're only interested in saving themselves. To say that on the Israeli side it's only Netanyahu and his far right government who don't want to end the war is also nonsense. Every poll has shown a strong majority want to invade Rafah if the hostages aren't released. But he's right that Biden's biggest domestic political threat is an expansion of the war in Lebanon. What he seems to forget is that Hezbollah attacked Israel on Oct 8, and refuses to pull back from the border as per the UN resolution. How very sad that Biden is putting his own political interests in front of his staunchest allies security emanating from an enemy who vows to wipe them out.

  5. the war crim already announced they will blitz Gaza regardless or Bent Grifter will collapse the govt and he will (deservedly) go to jail
    and how many million times do we have to say this this started in either 1917 with the prize idiot Balfour or 1947/48 with Ben Gurion and his wipe out Squads or 1967 when they simply took the land or 2005 2006 2008 2012 2014 2020 2021 20022 when they killed lots of people

  6. NO agreement will stop Netanyahu doing what he always wanted to do and doing it. They might as well not bother about agreements. What the US should do is put a stop to this madness so that both Hamas and Israel stop their conflict, give hostages back, release those prisoners they can and get to a table agreement to have two states and get it all over with once and for all. Biden is going to lose his presidency if he does not now wake up.

  7. Israel has consistently said it will not stop the war and Bibi has said the invasion of Rafah will go ahead come what may – even if all the hostages are released.

  14. In the sense that this war was inevitable since the 1970’s, Ibish is 100% correct. Netanyahu will trade his get out of jail free card for nothing less than flattening Rafah, because demolition via collateral damage is easy meat.

  21. how dare your anchor call it a 'one-sided bombardment'?? Hamas and their mates werre firing unguided explosive rockets into Israel for months before thos launchers were destroyed, and Hezbollah still are.

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