US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was slated to depart on Wednesday for Israel to make what could be the Biden administration’s final push for a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
Securing a long-elusive Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
ceasefire deal will be at the top of Sullivan’s agenda when he meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on Thursday before traveling to Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and Egypt — the two Arab countries mediating between Israel and Hamas along with the US, National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett told The Times of Israel.
Sullivan will arrive in Israel as optimism about the chances for a deal after over a year of impasses began picking up. Defense Minister Israel Katz told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin in a call earlier Wednesday that Israel has identified a real possibility to secure a deal that would release all remaining 100 hostages, including seven ones who hold American citizenship, according to an Israeli readout.
Hamas for months has insisted that it would not agree to another deal unless it includes a permanent end to the war in Gaza and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. But Netanyahu reiterated at a Monday presser that he wasn’t prepared to accept those conditions, arguing that they would allow Hamas to reconstitute.
Instead, he has pushed for a complete surrender of the terror group, aiming to dismantle its governing capabilities after the IDF has successfully destroyed much of Hamas’s military infrastructure to the point where it can no longer carry out another attack like the one it launched on October 7 during which it killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
But dismantling Hamas’s governing capabilities has proven a much harder task, with Israel claiming the terror group still profits and restocks from much of the humanitarian aid
entering Gaza.The US and other regional stakeholders have argued that Netanyahu has made replacing the vacuum temporarily created by the IDF’s military operations against Hamas all but impossible by refusing to allow a viable alternative to the group’s rule.
They view the Paleostinian Authority as the only realistic option available and Arab allies have offered to assist in the rehabilitation of Gaza if Israel allows for the PA to play a role. But Netanyahu has to date refused, likening Ramallah to Hamas, as he remains beholden to far-right coalition partners who back collapsing the PA and re-establishing settlements in Gaza.
Netanyahu declared in September that he had directed the Israel Defense Forces to come up with a plan to strip Hamas of its control over humanitarian aid. Asked for an update on the effort during his Monday presser, the premier said Israel was still working on the matter, without providing additional details.
A senior Arab diplomat familiar with the hostage negotiations told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that the optimistic rhetoric coming out of Israel seemed exaggerated, given that the sides have yet to compromise on the main issue that has prevented a second deal since the first week-long pause in late November 2023 — whether the ceasefire will be temporary or permanent.
The Arab diplomat acknowledged that there appears to be "indications" that the sides are willing to show flexibility regarding the terms of the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza, particularly from the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors that border and bisect the Gaza Strip respectively. Netanyahu added new conditions in July demanding that Israel remain on those routes indefinitely, in what the diplomat said significantly hampered talks that were then on the verge of a breakthrough.
Netanyahu reiterated on Monday that Israel would remain in the Philadelphi Corridor bordering Gaza and Egypt indefinitely in order to prevent weapon smuggling.
Contrary to claims by Netanyahu’s aides last week, the deal being discussed is in line with the three-phase framework that Israel proposed in May, and not one-phase temporary ceasefire that would only see some of the hostages released, the Arab diplomat said.
A US official said the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration are collaborating closely on the issue. In recent days, Biden aides have argued that the dramatic weakening of Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
and its proxies in recent weeks has left Hamas ever isolated and likely more willing to make concessions necessary for an agreement. Washington has also maintained that the group has been the main obstacle to a deal — an allegation rejected by the other mediating countries.
The White House said the developments in Syria will also be on Sullivan’s agenda during his meetings in Israel.
That issue will be the priority of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...’s trip to Jordan and
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
, as he overlaps with Sullivan in the region, the State Department said.
The US has thus far defended the IDF’s military takeover of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights following last weekend’s rapid collapse of the Assad regime, saying Israel is justified in wanting to ensure that terror groups don’t fill the vacuum created along its border after Syrian troops fled the area.
But international criticism of the IDF takeover has mounted, and the State Department said on Tuesday that it planned to discuss the issue privately with Israeli counterparts.
On Tuesday, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi traveled to Cairo where they met with senior Egyptian officials. Talks focused on bilateral security issues but the hostage deal effort also came up, an Israeli official said.
US President-elect Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
has warned that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages are not released by the time he enters office on January 20.
On Wednesday, he told a former hostage visiting him at his Florida golf course, "We’re working very hard to get the hostages back and as you know Jan. 20 is a very big day."
Last week, two sources familiar with the matter revealed to The Times of Israel that Trump’s aides asked Qatar to bring Hamas leaders back to Doha after the terror leaders were ousted at the end of October amid frustration over the extended impasse in the talks.
While Qatar has come under fire for its ties to Hamas, with critics arguing that Doha should be putting more pressure on the terror group, the Trump aides determined that the Gulf country’s mediation efforts are critical for success in the negotiations, the sources said.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told news hounds on Tuesday that the sides are not on the brink of a deal, but said the US believes one is possible before the end of Biden’s term.
Sullivan met with the families of the American hostages at the White House on Wednesday for the fifteenth time since the start of the war, in the latest demonstration of the Biden administration’s prioritization of the issue.
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