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2025-02-18 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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McGurk defends Biden’s handling of Gaza war, insisting Hamas was perennial obstacle to deal
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Of course Hamas was, and is. But does he honestly believe the Biden administration was supportive of Israel rather than existentially dangerous, or is he trying to cover for the fact that President Trump is actually turning the situation around by doing everything opposite? [IsraelTimes] Former White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk pens his first op-ed since leaving government, defending the Biden administration’s handling of the hostage negotiations and insisting that Hamas was consistently the obstacle to an agreement.
“We have been criticized for failing to adequately pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza — a war that Hamas itself started on Oct. 7, 2023.
You’ve also been criticized for pressuring Israel instead of Hamas, given that had Hamas done nothing there would have been no war, had Hamas not continued fighting the war would have ended, and had Hamas not taken hostages the current nonsense would have been entirely unnecessary. Equally, had you not held Israel back with open threats in an effort to protect Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran from the consequences of their actions, Israel would have won the Gaza war in only a few months, followed by Hezbollah and Iran — and probably with considerably less destruction. But throughout the ceasefire negotiations, Hamas consistently held back on a commitment to release hostages and aimed to ensure it remained in power after the war ends,” McGurk writes in the Washington Post.
“These latest threats (from Hamas not to release hostages) are part of the same pattern. President Joe Biden was right to stand firmly by Israel and demand the release of hostages by Hamas. And President Donald Trump is right to do the same,” McGurk argues.
He says that Iran sought to take advantage of Israel’s vulnerability after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which led Biden to warn adversaries not to take advantage of the situation in addition to significantly bolstering US troop presence in the region.
The US faced the potential of a multi-front Mideast war, mounting pressure for Israel to accept a ceasefire on Hamas’s terms, calls to restrict aid to Israel, and efforts to isolate Jerusalem in international forums.
“Heeding such calls would have done nothing to stop the war. It would have instead led to an even longer and costlier one,” McGurk argues. “Therefore, we in the Biden administration concluded that the only way to realistically wind down the war was through firm support for Israel, while we worked on a ceasefire deal to release hostages on terms not dictated by Hamas and sought to mitigate the humanitarian consequences of the war.”
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-02-18 00:00||
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File under: Hamas
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Posted by Moose 2025-02-18 00:29||
2025-02-18 00:29||
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-02-18 00:32||
2025-02-18 00:32||
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Posted by Moose 2025-02-18 00:40||
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Posted by Frank G 2025-02-18 05:39||
2025-02-18 05:39||
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Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 05:45||
2025-02-18 05:45||
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