Biden Calls for End to Gaza War, Endorsing
Israeli Cease-Fire Proposal
The president outlined a plan to try to get Hamas and
Israel to break out of a monthslong deadlock that has resulted in the killing
of thousands of Palestinians.
President
Biden at the White House on Friday outlining a new three-phase proposal from
the Israeli government that ideally would lead to a permanent cease-fire in
Gaza.
Israel
has offered a comprehensive new proposal. It’s a road map to an enduring
cease-fire and the release of all hostages. This proposal has been transmitted
by Qatar to Hamas. This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their
proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to
prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal. For months,
people all over the world have called for cease-fire. Now it’s time to raise
your voices and demand that Hamas come to the table, agrees to this deal and
ends this war that they began. At this point, Hamas no longer is capable of
carrying out another Oct. 7. And the Palestinian people have endured sheer hell
in this war. Too many innocent people have been killed, including thousands of
children. It’s time to begin this new stage. The hostages come home, for Israel
to be secure, for the suffering to stop. It’s time for this war to end, and for
the day after to begin. Thank you very much.
Zolan
Kanno-Youngs David E. Sanger
By Zolan
Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger
Zolan
Kanno-Youngs reported from Rehoboth Beach, Del., where President Biden will be
spending the weekend. David E. Sanger reported from Washington.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/us/politics/biden-israel-remarks-speech.html
May 31,
2024
Declaring
Hamas no longer capable of carrying out a major terrorist attack on Israel,
President Biden said on Friday that it was time for a permanent cease-fire in
Gaza and endorsed a new plan he said Israel had offered to win the release of
hostages and end the fighting.
“It’s time
for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” Mr. Biden said, speaking from
the State Dining Room at the White House. He also gave a stark description of
Hamas’s diminished capabilities after more than seven months of Israeli
attacks, saying that “at this point, Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out
another Oct. 7.”
“This is
truly a decisive moment,” Mr. Biden said. “Israel has made their proposal.
Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether
they really mean it.”
With that
statement, Mr. Biden appeared to be revealing his true agenda: making public
elements of the proposal in an effort to pressure both Hamas and Israel to
break out of a monthslong deadlock that has resulted in the killing of
thousands of Palestinians.
American
officials have described Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, as interested only in
his own survival and that of his family and inner circle, as they presumably
operate from tunnels deep under southern Gaza. But officials have also said
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has little incentive to move to a
real cease-fire, because of the widespread belief in Israel that as soon as the
surviving hostages are returned, and a last cease-fire begins, he will most
likely lose his fragile hold on power.
Mr. Biden’s
remarks came at a pivotal moment in his re-election campaign, a day after his
rival, former President Donald J. Trump, was convicted of 34 felony charges. At
the same time, he has been facing growing pressure at home over the bloodshed
in Gaza, which has led to eruptions on college campuses and on the streets of
American cities, and alienated many of his own supporters.
Mr. Biden
described the three-phase Israeli plan as a “comprehensive new proposal” that
amounted to a road map to an “enduring cease-fire.” But at several moments in
the past few months, Mr. Netanyahu has directly contradicted Mr. Biden. And so
far Hamas has never accepted a comprehensive proposal, declaring in its public
statements that fighting must end before major hostage releases or any
agreement with Israel.
Hints of
differences came almost as soon as Mr. Biden finished speaking. Following his
speech, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said the Israeli government was
“united in the desire to bring home our hostages as soon as possible.”
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But it
added that Mr. Netanyahu had stipulated to Israeli negotiators that they could
not reach a deal that would end the war before all their goals were achieved,
including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capacities in Gaza.
“The exact
outline that Israel has offered — including the conditional progression from
stage to stage — enables Israel to maintain that principle,” Mr. Netanyahu’s
office said.
Hamas
reacted positively to Mr. Biden’s speech in a statement on social media, saying
that it was willing to deal “constructively” with any cease-fire proposal based
on a permanent truce, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the
return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and a “serious prisoner
exchange.”
Many of the
hard-liners in Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition did not immediately respond
to Mr. Biden’s address because of the Jewish Sabbath, which began before his
remarks. Mr. Netanyahu’s nationalist allies, like Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national
security minister, have said they could leave the government if an agreement
ended the war before Hamas’s complete destruction.
“I know
there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan and will call for
the war to continue indefinitely,” Mr. Biden said, adding that some in Mr.
Netanyahu’s government have made clear they want to “occupy Gaza.”
“They want
to keep fighting for years, and the hostages are not a priority to them,” Mr.
Biden said in what appeared to be a direct message to the far-right members of
Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet. “I’ve urged leadership of Israel to stand behind this
deal.”
Mr. Biden
has faced questions over how long he was willing to support Israel’s military
campaign in Gaza, and particularly its most recent attacks in the southern Gaza
city of Rafah. The bloodshed in Gaza has left more than 36,000 people dead.
Israel’s
national security adviser said this week that he expected the war to continue
through at least the end of the year.
Global
pressure to scale down the military operation increased after the International
Court of Justice, an arm of the United Nations, ruled last week that Israel
must halt its military offensive in Rafah. The court, however, has no means of
enforcing the order.
Friday’s
remarks were Mr. Biden’s first public comments about the war since an Israeli
strike and subsequent fire on Sunday killed at least 45 people, including
children, and wounded 249 in an encampment for the displaced, according to
Gazan health officials. A visual analysis by The New York Times found that
Israel used U.S.-made bombs in the strike, forcing the White House to face
difficult questions over American responsibility for rising death toll.
Mr. Biden
said on Friday that he saw the “terrible images” from the deadly fire.
“The
Palestinian people have endured sheer hell in this war,” Mr. Biden said after
describing the pain of those whose relatives were “slaughtered by Hamas
terrorists on Oct. 7” and the “anguish” of Israeli families waiting for
hostages to be released.
Mr. Biden
also said too many innocent people had been killed in Gaza, “including
thousands of children,” and addressed the many Americans who are infuriated
over the way his administration has handled the conflict.
“I know
this is a subject on which people in this country feel deep passionate
convictions,” Mr. Biden added. “So do I. This has been one of the hardest, most
complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about this.”
In
describing the four-and-a-half page Israeli proposal, Mr. Biden said it would
be broken into three phases. The first would begin with a roughly six-week
cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza and a
release of elderly and female hostages held by Hamas, in exchange for the
release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Mr. Biden said there were still
details that still needed to be negotiated to move on to the next phase —
apparently including how many Palestinians would be released in return for each
freed Israeli hostage.
In the
second phase, as described by a senior administration official who briefed
reporters after Mr. Biden spoke, all the remaining Israeli hostages would be
released, including male soldiers. All hostilities would end, and, the official
said, all Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. In the past, Mr. Netanyahu
has publicly rejected a complete withdrawal, maintaining that would result in a
resurgent Hamas, once again in control of the territory.
It is
unclear, from the description given to reporters in the briefing, who would
govern the territory, though in the past the United States has said that would
most likely be the Palestinian Authority, which has struggled to run the West
Bank.
In the
third phase, the remains of hostages who have died would be exchanged, rubble
cleared and a three- to five-year reconstruction period would begin, backed by
the United States, Europe and international institutions. But that plan sounded
almost aspirational, given the level of destruction and the near-famine
conditions.
Mr. Biden,
however, portrayed this road map as reasonable — if the terrorist group goes
along. “As long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary cease-fire
will become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, a cessation of hostilities
permanently,” Mr. Biden said.
American
officials said they believed that following the meeting in Paris last weekend
between William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, and David Barnea, the head of
Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Israel made significant concessions on the hostage
talks. Those included reducing the number of live hostages they required to be
released in the early phase.
Still, a
person briefed on the matter said the negotiations were “on pause” while Israel
conducts its operation in Rafah.
Mr. Biden
has also been involved in the hostage talks, even though he has not traveled
for any of the negotiating sessions. Mr. Biden’s role, officials said, has been
most notable in the pressure he has put on Mr. Netanyahu to continue to
negotiate and reduce Israeli demands.
But on
Friday, Mr. Biden was clearly focusing his pressure on Hamas, arguing that
taking this offer was their best shot at ending the war and moving toward a
cease-fire.
“Everybody
who wants peace now must raise their voices,” Mr. Biden said, adding that the
public should let Hamas leaders “know they should take this deal. Work to make
it real, make it lasting and forge a better future out of the tragic terror
attack and war.”
Aaron
Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Julian E. Barnes from
Washington.
Zolan
Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his
administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs
David E.
Sanger covers the Biden administration and national security. He has been a
Times journalist for more than four decades and has written several books on
challenges to American national security. More about David
E. Sanger
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