Falcon powers – The Guardian’s Washington correspondent Julian Borger said that US President Joe Biden’s unsuccessful ceasefire plan reveals his lack of influence.
When Biden announced on Friday that a ceasefire in Gaza may be near, Benjamin Netanyahu’s harsh response came quickly.
Borger said that President Biden made the comments from the White House, facing the camera directly: “It is time for this war to end.” But the plan carried a worrying aspect when Biden presented its details, which theoretically would lead to a permanent ceasefire, increased flow of humanitarian aid, and the start of reconstruction operations.
If this was an Israeli plan, why did the US President announce it in Washington and not Israel, which did not issue any statement due to the Saturday holiday? And when Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke, his words were full of hesitation and distress for a politician who had just woken up.
He “ordered his negotiating team to submit a proposal” to “continue the war and achieve all its goals.”
In another statement issued after dawn, which was more frank and rejecting, any plan that does not contain the destruction of Hamas’ military and political capabilities “is not a beginning.”
US officials discussed that Biden’s plan would meet Israel’s necessary security demands, and therefore there was no conflict between the President’s speech and Netanyahu’s, but they failed to find a way to explain the Israeli Prime Minister’s statements, which clearly affirmed that he was not the party that prepared the plan, but a reluctant participant. His statements also aimed to insult Biden. Netanyahu, the skilled player of communications and manipulation, knows that the phrase “is not a beginning” will appear in the headlines of American newspapers the next morning, alongside a picture of Biden calling for peace.
