Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the “imperative” necessity of continuing negotiations to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas amid reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has abandoned the talks.
“We believe it must be and must remain a priority to do everything we can to bring the hostages home, to get them back with their loved ones, and that’s where our focus is,” Blinken said in Tirana, Albania. “And at least from the perspective of the United States, we think it’s imperative that we continue to pursue that urgently.”
Blinken declined to characterize “what [Netanyahu’s] views may or may not be on these questions.” In any case, the Israeli leader faces internal pressure to redouble his efforts to strike a deal, despite his stated position that increased military pressure on Hamas — which has taken refuge in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip city that has functioned as a safe haven for Palestinian civilians — is a necessary path forward.
“Sometimes I feel, as an American citizen, that the U.S. wants to bring a deal more than the government of Israel does,” Ruby Chen, whose Israeli-American son Itay was seized by Hamas during the Oct. 7 rampage that ignited the war, told Israeli media. “We know that Hamas’s demands are over the top, but this is just a start, and you can’t conduct negotiations via telepathy — the only consideration that needs to be weighed is saving the lives of the hostages.”
Netanyahu stunned the families of the hostages on Wednesday as reports emerged that he had issued a unilateral veto of Israeli participation in negotiations hosted by Egyptian authorities in Cairo.
“This is also the key to freeing more of our hostages: strong military pressure and very tough negotiations,” he said Wednesday. “Indeed, I insist that Hamas drop its delusional demands. When they do so, we will be able to move forward.”
Those negotiations, which reportedly have been aimed at freeing the hostages as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel as well as a protracted ceasefire, appear to have broken down just as Israeli forces are preparing for an attack on Rafah.
“We will not be party to forced displacement of people,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters this week. “As it is, there is no place that is currently safe in Gaza. … You can’t send people back to areas that are littered with unexploded ordnance, not to mention a lack of shelter.”
That prospective campaign, as well as Netanyahu’s aversion to discussions of a two-state solution or any postwar settlement in Gaza, has the potential to put a severe strain on Israel’s relationship with the United States and international power brokers.
“Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts to the Palestinian people, at a time when the Palestinian Authority themselves have yet to even condemn the Oct. 7 massacre,” Netanyahu spokesman Avi Hyman said Thursday. “Now is the time for victory, total victory over Hamas. … All discussions of the day after Hamas will be had the day after Hamas.”
Netanyahu’s team issued that statement in response to reports that U.S. and Arab officials are developing a “detailed, comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and Palestinians,” as the Washington Post put it, in connection to “a proposed pause in the fighting and release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas that is being negotiated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.”
Netanyahu’s condemnation of such discussions and interest in an attack on Hamas in Rafah, in conjunction with the refusal to continue the hostage negotiations, indicates the nature of the disagreements that will dominate a flurry of conversations between Israeli and Western officials.
“Israel has its legitimate right to defend itself, but on the other hand, the [destruction] and the loss of life on the Palestinian side are far too much to accept the escalation, the further escalation,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told reporters at a press conference with Blinken. “This further escalation is not an action that, at the end, by itself will wipe out Hamas or whatever form of Hamas may grow from the bottom of the rubbles. So for sure the two-state solution is the only way.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined Blinken in reminding Netanyahu of the need “to bring hostages safely home,” as well as to develop a two-state solution. “In the longer term, the U.K. continued to believe a viable two-state solution was the best means to achieve lasting peace and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians,” Sunak’s government said Thursday after a phone call with his Israeli counterpart. “They agreed that Hamas can have no role in the future governance of Gaza.”
The nettlesome question that faces all policymakers is how to reconcile those priorities in light of Hamas’s entrenchment in the Gaza Strip.
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“There is a fundamental disconnect between the policy fantasy land in Washington and the reality of life in Israel after Oct. 7,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior adviser Richard Goldberg said Thursday. “There is no path to peace without Israel destroying all remaining Hamas command and control in Gaza, massive reforms to the Palestinian Authority, dismantling UNRWA, and excluding Hamas patrons like Qatar from any involvement.”
Rama, the Albanian leader, acknowledged that dilemma. “And of course all this without the liberation of hostages sounds very improbable,” he said. “For sure I don’t envy the secretary of state.”
