The Gaza News Is Biden News

And if it it's real, it's pretty good

All of a sudden this morning the Gaza ceasefire seemed to be back in the air. I was determined not to let them sucker me again

but right now an awful lot of things really seem to be happening, starting with yesterday morning's Biden-Netanyahu call, which went on for half an hour, according to NPR, and during which, according to the White House readout,

President Biden and the Prime Minister discussed ongoing efforts to finalize a ceasefire deal together with the release of hostages, as outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council, the G7, and countries around the world.

The leaders discussed the recent response received from Hamas. The President welcomed the Prime Minister’s decision to authorize his negotiators to engage with U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators in an effort to close out the deal. 

or going back beyond that to Tuesday's reports in The New York Times and Jerusalem Post that the Israeli military leadership is starting to get seriously fed up with Netanyahu's apparent insistence that they should have to fight two wars simultaneously, against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and demanding that the government start prioritizing getting the hostages back, even if it means accepting Hamas's terms and withdrawing from Gaza entirely, and apparently saying so sort of openly, to The Times:

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The generals think that a truce would be the best way of freeing the roughly 120 Israelis still held, both dead and alive, in Gaza, according to interviews with six current and former security officials.

Underequipped for further fighting after Israel’s longest war in decades, the generals also think their forces need time to recuperate in case a land war breaks out against Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has been locked in a low-level fight with Israel since October, multiple officials said.

A truce with Hamas could also make it easier to reach a deal with Hezbollah, according to the officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. Hezbollah has said it will continue to strike northern Israel until Israel stops fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Now it's being said that Hamas has made a new proposal, dropping their demand that Israel must sign a permanent ceasefire before the start of the six-week period when its terms are supposed to be negotiated—instead, if the agreement is not completed in six weeks, they will keep negotiating until it is, but the fighting will not resume.

Hamas delegations have met with the Hezbollah leadership, and President Erdoğan of Turkey has weighed in positively, and the Israeli delegation has been sent back to rejoin the talks in Doha.

It would be fantastically good news if it were really to happen this time, for such of the Gaza hostages as are still alive, for the people of Gaza whose suffering seems so endless and unspeakable (the last major hospital plus a field hospital operated by the Kuwaiti government are on the point of shutting down because of the lack of fuel and the shortage of water is driving people to wash their clothes and their bodies in seawater, even in some cases to drink seawater), for the Israeli soldiers losing their lives in an incomprehensible and pointless war, and maybe even for Joe Biden's reputation as somebody who knows what he's doing: The Guardian reports,

A senior US official said the Biden administration received the latest Hamas offer “a couple of days ago” and had been studying it ahead of a 30-minute telephone call between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

“The conversation was detailed, going through the text of the agreement, constructive and encouraging, while also clear-eyed about the work ahead [and] the steps that must be put in place to finalise this deal and then begin the implementation,” the US official said of the call.

If this peace deal finally works out, it will be hard to say Biden's become unable to do the job. He will just have accomplished the most difficult diplomatic task in history.

Meanwhile, Former President Trump has been Truthing:

I must say, I'm willing to believe that. I'm willing to believe Trump doesn't know anything about anything. In any event he won't be in charge of another Trump administration; the minions will, just like last time, while he watches TV and gobbles hamberders, and tools around the course in his golf cart, while his entourage of sycophants and Secret Service agents follow in the carts he's renting to them.

Only much more so than last time, because they've learned a lot about how running the government is done.

"I know nothing about it. But I do know I disagree with some parts of it, while some parts are ridiculous and abysmal, both at the same time, which is not to say those are the parts I disagree with. I don’t know who they are, but I wish them luck in all their endeavors. I am very coherent, not like that gaga geezer Biden."

Right, Donald.