biden is again upset that the "timing" of the strike to get rid of that piece of shit haniyeh puts a "cease fire" in gaza in jeopardy, indicating again that he fundamentally doesn't understand what the war is about. is it because netanyahu is being sneaky? is it actually his fault, really?
no. netanyahu is being crystal clear: while he will agree in principle to temporarily stop the operation to erase hamas from the planet to get some or all of the hostages back, which is a reasonable position, he realizes that hamas will never present a reasonable offer (hamas took the hostages as leverage and is continuing to call for the recognition of sovereignty in exchange for releasing the prisoners, which was in truth the desperate last act of a dying movement and is contemptible and has no possibility of leading to a successful truce) so there is no actual likelihood of a ceasefire and this rhetorical position is consequently real but trivial. it's sort of like telling a lion that you have locked up that you'll let it go so long as it promises not to eat you. that lion can never make that promise, or at least not honestly. ergo, the offer may be made honestly, while knowing it will never come to pass. further, you keep a lion locked up because it threatens you harm, not because you enjoy locking up lions.
further, netanyahu has been as clear as day that the war is ultimately not about releasing the hostages and that releasing the hostages will therefore not end the war, even if he acknowledges being willing to accept a ceasefire for as long as it takes to release them, if hamas will in fact release them, and for terms that are not insane. rather, the war is about destroying hamas and will end with the destruction of hamas, whether the hostages are released or not.
(the reality is that the remaining hostages are probably either all or almost all dead, and those still alive are probably on their second pregnancy and consequently property of their husbands, under sharia law, and not returnable. under islamic law, you own the women you impregnate. they're property. it's also difficult to predict how a woman ends up feeling about a man that rapes her hundreds of times. israel will never get those girls back without launching commando raids and killing the rapist/husbands, and then they'll probably have to take the kids, too.)
i suppose that if netanyahu wants to really be cynical, he could order a prisoner swap and then launch an airstrike on the bus as it enters gaza. but, hamas won't even let them get to that point of absurdity.
meanwhile, biden is still role playing bill clinton in the oslo accords, and trying to "bridge a divide" to build a "lasting peace". he hears gaza's pain. he hears israel's pain, too. in fact, i think he has tinnitus from listening to himself speak, so he hears everybody's pain. your words are his pain. literally.
the reality is that the october 7th attack fundamentally changed everything in israel. it changed the security calculation. it turned pacifists into war mongers. it has radically altered the israeli psyche, and it should have. israel woke up one day in the dark ages and is trying to turn the clocks forward, without the sardonic humour of a classic bill murray film. this is not oslo. this is not camp david. this is a different game, a different war, a different day and, in fact, a different century. this isn't about palestine anymore, it's about iran, and it's about china.
it's hard for an old man to adjust. after all, joe understands the conflict; he's been dealing with it for 50 years. in his mind, he was always going to be the one to sign the deal and bring a lasting peace. he's been planning for this moment his whole life. he's the genius that will solve this problem. right? netanyahu is mucking it all up, the sonofabitch.
that's the problem.
there's not going to be a cease fire in gaza and there shouldn't be. hamas will and should be destroyed, and gaza will need to be occupied and pacified by force.
the united states needs a commander in chief that can adjust and change with the times and correctly understand what is happening now, not what happened 30 years ago. the world has passed biden by and left his foreign policy in the 20th century and his refusal to adjust to the new reality in israel is exhibit a. netanyahu has no choice but to use kid gloves. but, the pentagon really needs to intervene, or at least give allies alternate contact info, for the next six months.