Speaking at a news conference during a brief visit to Haiti, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken again tried to portray his so-called Gaza ceasefire deal as near the finish line. He stated that “based on what I’ve seen, 90% is agreed, but there are a few critical issues that remain where we need to be able to get agreement.” He stressed that “it’s really incumbent on both parties to get to yes on these remaining issues.” He did accurately warn that every day that a deal is not finalized and the two sides don’t say “yes, period,” is a day “in which something else happens and there is an intervening event which simply pushes things off and runs the risk of derailing what is a pretty fragile apple cart.”
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News yesterday that Blinken’s claim was “exactly inaccurate.… There’s a story, a narrative out there that there’s a deal out there … that’s just a false narrative. There’s not a deal in the making,” but “unfortunately, it’s not close.” In this case, Netanyahu is the more accurate one.