Killing of Hamas leader fuels more tension between Biden and Netanyahu

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Sunday August 4, 2024
By Peter Baker

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on July 25. | SIPA / VIA BLOOMBERG

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing back against President Joe Biden over U.S. concerns about the assassination of the political leader of Hamas and Israel’s approach to cease-fire talks in the latest rift between the two allies since the war in the Gaza Strip began 10 months ago.

In what a U.S. official described as a heated conversation Thursday, Netanyahu denied that Israel was an obstacle to a cease-fire agreement and rejected Biden’s contention that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil could sabotage efforts to reach a deal halting hostilities and freeing hostages.

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A senior Israeli government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive relations between the two countries, said in an interview that Netanyahu insisted he was not trying to block a cease-fire. While he acknowledged that the death of Haniyeh, the main negotiator in the cease-fire talks, would interrupt progress for a few days, Netanyahu argued that it would ultimately hasten the finalization of an agreement by putting more pressure on Hamas, according to the Israeli official.

Biden contended that the assassination of Haniyeh was poorly timed, coming at what the Americans hoped would be the endgame of the process, according to the U.S. official, who likewise did not want to be identified describing private talks. Moreover, Biden expressed concern that carrying out the operation in Tehran could trigger the wider regional war that he has been trying to avert.

According to both governments, the Israelis did not inform the Americans of the plan to kill Haniyeh even though Biden had hosted Netanyahu at the White House just days before. Netanyahu did not want to compromise the Americans by giving them a heads-up, the Israeli official said. For their part, U.S. officials have made no objections to being left in the dark.

Biden alluded to his worries about the combustible situation in the Middle East during a brief late-night conversation with reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday after welcoming home three Americans released by Russia in a prisoner swap.

"I’m very concerned about it,” the president said. "I had a very direct meeting with the prime minister today — very direct. We have the basis for a cease-fire. He should move on it and they should move on it now.”

Asked if the Haniyeh killing made it harder to reach a deal, Biden said, "It’s not helped. That’s all I’m going to say right now.”

Even as Biden and Netanyahu quarreled, the two allies were working closely to thwart a threatened Iranian attack in retaliation for the Haniyeh killing. Biden ordered more warships and aircraft to the region, and U.S. military officers were collaborating with Israeli counterparts to counter such a strike, much as they did in April when they knocked down nearly all of 300 missiles and drones that Iran had launched at Israel.

The president’s frustration over the fitful cease-fire talks came as Israel’s Channel 12 reported Friday that Netanyahu had clashed with his own security chiefs, who accused him of changing the terms of the proposal to make it harder to reach a deal. The prime minister’s office denied the report.

Netanyahu ordered his negotiators to return to Cairo on Saturday to resume the talks, and U.S. officials said they were determined to keep pressing. The U.S. official said disagreements between U.S. and Israeli officials over the latest draft proposal had been resolved over the past week and that it was not fair for critics to accuse Netanyahu of changing the conditions. But reports from Cairo indicated that no breakthrough had been reached.

The senior Israeli government official described in detail how Israel sees the state of play at the moment. The official flatly denied that Israel had added new conditions, asserting that Hamas had made 29 changes to the document.

But either way, it was clear that significant points of dispute between the two sides remained unresolved. The first phase of the three-stage cease-fire plan calls for Hamas to turn over 33 hostages and for Israel to release a number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons during a 42-day break in military operations.

Netanyahu, however, is insisting that the remains of hostages who have died not be counted toward the total to be returned. Under the deal as currently written, Israel retains a veto of about 100 Palestinians serving life sentences who will not be eligible for release and can stipulate that about 50 others go into exile rather than return to Gaza.

The Israelis insist on preserving control of what is called the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt, to prevent weapons and militants from entering Gaza. The Israeli official strongly denied reports that the Israelis had agreed to leave that corridor. The Israelis also are demanding a mechanism to prevent Hamas fighters from traveling from south to north in Gaza, although it is not clear whether that would have to mean checkpoints.

While Israeli forces would pull back to the along the borders of Gaza under the cease-fire plan, the Israeli official said Israel considers Rafah, the major city in the south of Gaza, to be part of that perimeter, meaning its forces would remain there.

Israel also wants to make it clear that as the two sides negotiate during a final phase of the cease-fire, it can choose to withdraw from the talks if it does not think progress is being made toward a permanent resolution and resume the war. Otherwise, Hamas could simply stretch out the talks with no intention of actually coming to a final agreement while hostilities remain paused, the official said, calling that a huge deal-breaker.

The Israeli official complained that pressure from the Americans might encourage Hamas to assume that the United States does not fully support Israel and that the group therefore does not need to make a deal. Biden administration officials have rejected that logic, and some have questioned whether Netanyahu really wants a deal or simply wants to look like he does to deflect pressure from the families of hostages eager for the return of their loved ones.

The issue came up during the Oval Office meeting between Biden and Netanyahu on July 25. Biden pressed Netanyahu strongly during that conversation to make a cease-fire agreement, raising his voice and insisting that a deal be done in a week or two, according to the U.S. official, in details previously reported by Axios.

Biden had a document in his hand to discuss the Israeli position on the cease-fire. The U.S. official said the Israelis had amended their views of some parts of the proposal and brought those views to the meeting, but Biden and his advisers argued that some of those views were problematic and could prevent a deal. Netanyahu told Biden he had not added any conditions, the Israeli official said.

Biden and the Americans asked to have teams from the two sides get together to work out those points of dispute, which they did in the succeeding days, according to the U.S. official. The final result is now in good shape, added the official.

But an Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon on Tuesday, just five days after the Oval Office meeting, and the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday caught the Americans off guard. While they said they did not mourn either man, the timing and venues of the operations stunned the Americans and raised questions in their minds about whether Netanyahu was as serious about the cease-fire as he had just told the president he was.

The subsequent phone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu on Thursday was a tough one. The president was extremely direct and forthright, according to the U.S. official, telling the prime minister that it was time to get the deal over the finish line.

In the interview, the senior Israeli official said it seemed like the American side wanted a deal immediately, regardless of what is in it, and complained about the pressure being put on Netanyahu.

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