Hamas Leader Turns Down Biden Plan That Would Have Given the Terror Group Almost Everything

Israel’s most famous foreign minister, the quick-witted Abba Eban, once said that the “Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” They did it in 1947 when they turned down the UN Partition Plan. They did it after the Six-Day War, when, instead of negotiating with Israel which was prepared to give up much of the territory it had conquered, they instead issued the “Three No’s” of Khartoum, where the Arab League met and unanimously decided that there would be “No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel.” They did it again in 2000, when Yasir Arafat turned down a generous territorial offer from Ehud Barak, and again in 2008, when Mahmoud Abbas turned down an even more generous territorial offer made to him by Ehud Olmert.

And now, despite the fact that Biden’s plan — the one he claims is really “Israel’s initiative” — would save Hamas from certain destruction, and enable it, rather, to emerge with its four battalions in Rafah still intact, the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has chosen to reject it, by insisting Hamas would only accede to it if Israel agreed to a permanent ceasefire and the IDF pulled completely out of Gaza at once, before completing its destruction of Hamas. That, of course, Israel will never do.

More on how Haniyeh has saved Israel from having to commit to the Biden plan can be found here: “Hamas Leader Demands Full End to Gaza War in Blow to Biden Plan,” Algemeiner, June 5, 2024:

The leader of Hamas said on Wednesday the Palestinian terrorist group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal as part of a ceasefire plan, dealing an apparent blow to a truce proposal touted last week by US President Joe Biden….

The remarks by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh appeared to deliver the terrorist group’s reply to the proposal that Biden unveiled last week. Washington had said it was waiting to hear an answer from Hamas to what Biden described as an Israeli initiative.

“The movement and factions of the resistance will deal seriously and positively with any agreement that is based on a comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoners swap,” Haniyeh said.

Asked whether Haniyeh’s remarks amounted to the group’s reply to Biden, a senior Hamas official replied to a text message from Reuters with a “thumbs up” emoji….

When Biden publicly aired a Gaza ceasefire proposal developed by Israel and the US and sent to Hamas, he made the announcement without seeking agreement from Netanyahu…

The decision to announce unilaterally — an unusual step for the United States to take with a close ally — was deliberate, officials said, and narrowed the room for Israel or Hamas to back away from the deal.

“We didn’t ask permission to announce the proposal,” said a senior US official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the negotiations. “We informed the Israelis we were going to give a speech on the situation in Gaza. We did not go into great detail about what it was.”

Although Biden described the ceasefire proposal as an Israeli offer, Israel‘s government has been lukewarm in public. A top Netanyahu aide confirmed on Sunday Israel had made the proposal even though it was “not a good deal.”…

The decision of the Americans to go public with that deal, without informing Israel first, was an attempt by the Bidenites to force Jerusalem to accept a not-very-good deal. And it worked. Israel agreed, reluctantly, to the deal, but with one caveat: it would not agree to observe a ceasefire as long as negotiations were going on, knowing full well that Hamas would simply drag those negotiations out so as to take advantage of a very long ceasefire to regroup.

Then Israel waited, hoping that Hamas would not accept the deal and so would bear the onus for the failure. And that is what happened. Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based leader of Hamas’ political wing, set out impossible conditions for the terror group’s acceptance of the Biden plan: Hamas would agree to the deal only if Israel declared a permanent ceasefire, and what’s more, made a full withdrawal of its troops from Gaza. Even the Bidenites could see that Israel could not possibly be expected to accept those conditions. Clearly, Hamas was not serious about making a deal.

Netanyahu agreed to the deal, most reluctantly, but Hamas fortunately has now made such outrageous demands — for a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza — that the whole Biden plan has come undone.

So “Biden’s deal,” the one he claims was “Israel’s initiative,” has now been blown up. Not by Netanyahu, though no doubt Israel-haters will claim it was all his fault, but by Ismail Haniyeh and his fellow Hamas leaders in Doha. Meanwhile, the IDF keeps fighting, and pushing into the center of Rafah, and is close to completing its fighting in those places in the north to which Hamas forces, expelled months ago, had returned.

Hamas has rescued Israel from Biden’s folly. And the Arabs, in this case those who lead Hamas from afar, have confirmed the lapidary observation of Abba Eban — the one with which I began this piece, and that deserves to be repeated at the end — that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”