Muhammad Amin
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of valuing his own neck over the whole of Israel, prosecuting the Gaza genocide in order to delay indefinitely his fraud trail. Now, it seems, the Israelis are hoping Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar shares the same values.
They’re offering him free passage out of Gaza in exchange for the remaining hostages in the ghetto, Israeli officials have said.
The “offer” was first voiced last week by Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostages, who said it was made to Hamas in the strained cease-fire negotiations.
“I’m ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him,” he told Bloomberg.
Israeli media are Thursday repeating the offer, but Hamas is not biting. It’s still holding to its position that the Israeli offer made on June 2, which was accepted by Hamas, is the only offer they’re prepared to discuss.
Israel then walked away from that deal, with the US standing by, and started making new demands. Hamas refuses to negotiate further, saying Israel will just walk away from any future deal in the same way, deliberately drawing out its genocide in order to inflict as much damage as possible on the Palestinians.
So, they haven’t entertained any other bait that US-led “mediators” from Qatar and Egypt have dangled over the negotiating table.
But that doesn’t stop the Israelis from trying.
“We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza,” Hirsch said last week.
Hirsch made similar remarks in a CNN interview on Sunday, saying the Jewish state will “build [a] safe passage to the chief terrorist, the new Hitler, Sinwar.”
And he’s repeated them again Thursday, with some more bait. Now, they’re throwing in an undefined “cessation of fighting”, the release of Palestinian prisoners and “a new governance system for Gaza”.
Israeli Army Radio said Thursday that, “if fully drafted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be presenting the proposal before the United Nations General Assembly in the next meeting”.
Of course, Israel has shown itself even more willing to thumb its nose at the UN that gave it birth than it does to the US Congress.
Al Bawaba reports Thursday Hamas has given no sign of receiving any draft proposal and officials have said they know nothing about it. One said there was “no reasonable explanation as to why would a new proposal be drafted, while they had agreed to the US president’s proposal earlier in July”.
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