At last evening’s Democratic Convention, U.S. President Biden touted his drive to stop the killing in Gaza: “I’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza, and bring peace and security to the Middle East. As you know, I wrote a peace treaty for Gaza. A few days ago [August 16], I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to doing that than we’ve done since October 7.” He added he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are “working around the clock to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian, health and food assistance into Gaza now…. To end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people, and finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war.”
A day earlier, Hamas had issued a statement on Biden’s so-called “bridging proposal” of Aug. 16. They explained that remarks by Biden and Blinken were “misleading and don’t reflect the reality of the movement’s position that it’s keen to reach a cessation of aggression.” The problem is, the proposal is not what was agreed to. Worse, now it goes even further in incorporating the latest additional demands of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. These include Israel maintaining a military force separating Gaza from Egypt (the Philadelphi Corridor) and another force splitting Gaza into two sections (the new Netzarim Corridor), with no final date of their withdrawal; Israel gets at least 100 vetoes over requested Palestinian prisoners in the proposed exchange; and Israel gets to deport other prisoners not back to Gaza, but abroad.
They called the proposal a “reversal” of what the parties had agreed upon on July 2, and said that it evidences a “complete bias” on Washington’s part towards Israel. They then blame the U.S. for its “partnership” in the assault on Gaza and claim that Biden’s remarks serve as an “American green light for the Zionist extremist government to commit more crimes against defenseless civilians.” Instead, they call on the U.S. administration to reverse its policy and to “work seriously” to stop the war in Gaza.
