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Trump's Mideast envoy forced Netanyahu to accept a Gaza plan he repeatedly rejected (www.haaretz.com)

submitted 6 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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A week before Trump's inauguration, Jerusalem already sees a change in the rules of the game that has broken the deadlock in the hostage negotiations. Unusually, the outgoing Biden administration has let Witkoff lead the process, on the grounds that any obligations the United States undertakes will be incumbent on Trump, not on Biden.

Witkoff is a Jewish real estate investor and developer who is close to Trump. He doesn't have the background of the kind of people who usually fill diplomatic roles. "Witkoff isn't a diplomat. He doesn't talk like a diplomat, he has no interest in diplomatic manners and diplomatic protocols," says a senior Israeli diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He's a businessman who wants to reach a deal quickly and charges ahead unusually aggressively."

In fact, Witkoff has forced Israel to accept a plan that Netanyahu had repeatedly rejected over the past half year. Hamas has not budged from its position that the hostages' freedom must be conditioned on the release of Palestinian prisoners (the easy part) and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (the hard one). Netanyahu rejected this condition and thus was born the partial deal proposed by Egypt.

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[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Trump lesser evil confirmed?

[–] Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I didn’t expect Trump to be worse than Biden on Palestine, but I also did not expect him to be better. Wow

[–] inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

Same. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Biden admin was Netanyahu in practice. It would be virtually impossible to be worse than Biden on Palestine except by starting a full blown war in the Middle-East. But that would badly hurt the American economy when all the oil gets blown up.

[–] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Didn't he call netenyahoo before the election and say something like "no negotiating before the election" when this originally came up?

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Biden could have stopped the weapons supply, or at least made it conditional. Biden wasn’t even trying to stop Israel.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Biden not only could have, but was also required by law to do so. Biden committed multiple domestic & international crimes to continue arming Israel, against the advisement of White House counsel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2024/10/4/white-house-warned-of-risk-of-israeli-war-crimes-days-after-oct-7-report

[–] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

And trump could have done this... Before the election. Not promised Naziyahoo whatever he wanted, just wait till he's elected, and spared them months of this. Or he could have done this the months ago. It's fair to think he would have been worse, he promised he would be. It's the fault of trusting him. I'm glad he lied in this case though.

[–] Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago

If biden admin had any intention of forcing a ceasefire they would’ve done it long before that point. This ceasefire agreement shows how easy it is.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yep. Trump was always expected to deescalate. That’s why Biden immediately ramped up on every war front after Harris lost. They had to cram as much planned war in as quickly as they could.

I have an old college friend who’s a foreign service officer at the state dept. Right after the Harris loss, the state dept cancelled all leave, and called everyone in for this 3 month blitz. Gonna try to get some more info out of my friend, when he’s brought back in February.

This has been a Democrat crime spree. Wish there was any hope of the incoming admin holding them accountable, but I doubt they want to set a precedent for punishing war crimes before they start on their own.

[–] inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 6 days ago

If trump manages to end the genocide I will be gloating to all of my liberal friends about their lesser evil bullshit. I can’t fucking wait. I can’t stand trump but I had a feeling his anti war stance in general is maybe the only genuine thing about him as he’s been fairly consistent on that throughout his fame well before entering politics.

Short of glassing the Middle East I can’t imagine trump would be worse than biden. The bar would have to be in the deepest depths of Dante’s inferno of hell.