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The US-Backed Gaza Ceasefire Talks Are A Complete Sham

The US Biden administration is claiming that the latest round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations have been the most productive in months. However, the deal that is currently on the table, after the Israeli government has additional conditions which go well beyond what was previously agreed to, no longer even make the agreement worthy of the title "ceasefire".

Last Thursday and Friday, another round of ceasefire negotiations took place in the Qatari Capital, Doha, where an Israeli negotiating team joined by the heads of its intelligence agencies participated alongside US, Egyptian, Qatari, and other intermediaries. "It was consensus of all of the participants over the past 48 hours that there's really a new spirit here to drive it to a conclusion," said an anonymous US official to Reuters, commenting on the conclusion of the talks that are now paused until next week. US President Joe Biden even stated that the deal was "much, much closer" and continued on to say that "I don't want to jinx anything ... we may have something. But we're not there yet".

If you were to listen to the US government or Western corporate media, the impression would be that a ceasefire deal has all but been reached, yet there are two massive problems with this warped interpretation of the recent negotiating round. Firstly, one of the two parties to the conflict, Hamas, is not even sitting at the negotiating table, and if Israel's new demands are going to be included in the next proposal, it isn't even a ceasefire agreement.

Hamas refused to even be part of the new round of negotiations, because in their view, the framework that was previous agreed upon by both sides had already been ratified and it had become clear that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was trying to amend this framework. On the other hand, the US and Israel are claiming to negotiate in good faith to try and end the war in Gaza.

Narrative War: Who Really Wants A Ceasefire?

In order to figure out which side is acting in good faith, we need only look the negotiation record, rooting our understanding of the current negotiations in what has been ratified by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), as it is perhaps the most impartial authority to defer to on this issue.

On May 31, US President Joe Biden gave a televised speech in which he stated that it is "time for this war to end" and urged his government Israeli counterparts to not pass down the opportunity to implement a three phase plan to stop the war, achieve a prisoner exchange and re-build Gaza. American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, later went on to repeatedly describe the Biden plan as an "Israeli proposal" and claim that Tel Aviv had already accepted the proposal.

Not only has there been no Israeli public declaration that they actually accepted this ceasefire proposal, or that it was their own, to the contrary, Israeli officials have repeatedly opposed the proposal, many Israeli representatives having even publicly stated that even if all the hostages were released that the war would continue. For instance, Israeli UN representative Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly statedthat Tel Aviv's war aims hadn't changed and that the war will continue "until Hamas military and governing capabilities are dismantled”. These sentiments were echoed in Benjamin Netanyahu's infamous address to US Congress also, as he made it clear that Israel intends to internally occupy portions of Gaza for the foreseeable future.  Another fact, that contradicts the idea that the US President's ceasefire proposal was actually Israeli and already accepted by them, is that in Biden's May 31 address, he was urging them to accept it. If they had already agreed to their own proposal, why would Biden try to convince them to accept it?

If we look at the actual proposal, as laid out in UNSC Resolution 2735, adopted on June 10, it is clearly outlined that in "Phase 2" of the ceasefire, there must be "upon agreement of the parties, a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza". The resolution also "rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza".

While Hamas had immediately welcomed Joe Biden's announcement and wrote a direct response to the UN on its intentions to implement a ceasefire upon its conclusion, the Israelis entered into a period of issuing opposing and often contradictory statements against implementing such a ceasefire. Then, in early July the Hamas movement had declared it had agreed upon the framework laid out in the UN resolution for implementing a ceasefire, which Joe Biden later claimed was agreed upon by both Israel and Hamas.

So, what changed and why haven't Hamas bothered to show up this time?

It is very simple, as has been repeatedly indicated by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli intention is to continue the war in Gaza until the complete defeat of Hamas and is now adding more conditions which come as flagrant violations of the three phase ceasefire proposal that was endorsed by the UN Security Council.

At the end of the day, how could Israel negotiate a ceasefire resolution with Hamas when their aim is to continue their war until the Palestinian Party is completely destroyed. It is either one or the other: Israel seeks a ceasefire with Hamas, which would mean that their war and goal of destroying the group would not be pursued, or they seek to completely eliminate Hamas as they are constantly saying. As the old saying goes, you cannot be both pregnant and not pregnant at the same time, its one or the other.

In the latest round of ceasefire negotiations, the Israeli delegation began by attempting to add two new conditions to the ceasefire proposal. These conditions included completely disregarding Phase 2 of the ceasefire framework by attempting to argue for keeping their armed forces inside the Netzarim and Philadelphi Corridor's inside of Gaza. Leaks exposed that the Israeli security establishment had agreed to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, which is situated in Southern Gaza's Rafah, along the Egyptian border area, but only for 6 to 8 weeks.

While this has caused a controversy among Israelis domestically, this is not actually a concession as it is now being presented, in fact, this is an additional condition that was recently added to the discussion by the Israelis and the idea that Israel will withdraw for a few months in order to release Israeli captives in a prisoner exchange, before returning to the area, indicates that they have no intention to actually adhere to a permanent ceasefire. Israel was also requesting that some of the Palestinian prisoners to be released in a prisoner swap instead be exiled to foreign countries.

This round of talks also comes after Israel's assassination of the Hamas chief, Ismail Hanniyeh, who was the lead in the Gaza negotiations and who was murdered in the Iranian Capital of Tehran. Following this, Israel decided to carry out a series of horrifying massacres inside the Gaza Strip, including the August 10 massacre of over 100 civilians, which also injured 280 others, at Gaza City’s Tabeen School. It was after this and the talk of Israel's additional demands that Hamas announced that they would not entertain any further negotiations until the Israelis return to the framework outlined in the UNSC resolution of June 10.

Not A Ceasefire

What Israel is seeking is not actually a ceasefire, it is a temporary pause with which they can gain back all their prisoners who are held in Gaza (and whom they failed to free from captivity) after which they can pick up their war effort where they left off. The "ceasefire" would roughly resemble the November 24 temporary pause that was implemented -- with numerous violations of the deal -- until December 1, that freed 70 Israelis who were being held captive in exchange for 210 Palestinian hostages. Under this short truce, which began as a four day cessation of hostilities, the Israelis managed to actually free a large percentage of their captives and sought to release the rest under this agreement at the time, without actually wanting to reach a permanent ceasefire, leading to the breakdown of the "truce".

It is important to note that at this time, the US Biden administration refused to actually call for a ceasefire, and in March, when US Vice President Kamala Harris finally used the word ceasefire, she made sure to add "for at least the next 6 weeks". This detail is key, because today we are hearing that VP Harris has been calling for a ceasefire since early 2024, but this is not true. A 6-week truce had been the standing US policy position since December. That is what they are seeking, the only thing that changed was that the word truce was swapped with the word ceasefire, which is obviously not accurate.

At this point, the US is still putting on a show about how hard it is working towards securing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and we are again hearing of the apparent frustration of Joe Biden towards Benjamin Netanyahu, which serves to  make the public believe that Washington is putting pressure on their Israeli counterparts to reach a deal.

While US corporate media outlets tell their readers/listeners about Joe Biden's angry phone calls, quoting anonymous sources, the Biden administration has been busy beefing up its military presence across West Asia to help Israel against Iran, Hezbollah, and Yemen's Ansarallah, also approving a 20 billion dollar weapons package to Israel. It is clear that Washington does not actually seek to pressure Israel in any meaningful way and has consistently lied about the negotiation process in order to guard the Israelis and blame Hamas. If you look at every statement issued by officials from Hamas, they consistently support achieving a permanent ceasefire, there is no such public statements ever issued by Benjamin Netanyahu or anyone in his coalition that state as such. Whenever any Israeli politician speaks about a ceasefire, they speak about a deal which will free the Israeli captives and always continue on to proclaim that they will not be stopped from defeating Hamas.

At best, what the Israelis are willing to accept is some form of brief pause, one which will last for a maximum of a few months and allow for them to retrieve all the Israelis held captive inside the Gaza Strip. If Hamas agreed to this, then Israel would still hold thousands of Palestinian hostages and would have a free hand to continue its war against Gaza indefinitely while Hamas would have no leverage with which to negotiate any further truce.

In early May, Hamas even agreed to a ceasefire proposal, which Israel immediately rejected and decided instead to invade southern Gaza's Rafah that same day. Israel continued on to massacre thousands of Palestinian civilians, displace over a million people who were already driven out of their homes previously and has never once publicly agreed to any ceasefire. In June, Israel again did the same, this time going on to carry out numerous massacres to obfuscate the fact that they are only ones holding up a genuine ceasefire. 

The reality today is this, Israel will not agree to a ceasefire agreement unless it is forced to do so, either by the eruption of a regional war or US pressure. The US government refuses to pressure Israel, so we can likely rule that out. On the other hand, Israel has attacked Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran, vowing to attack again in light of retaliatory strikes from all three. If the US or Israel were actually interested in a ceasefire, it would have already happened. The talks in Qatar are just another exercise for propaganda purposes, so that both the Israeli and US governments can give their people the false impression that they are trying to close a deal of some kind. The United Nations Security Council ceasefire proposal outline is clear and reaching a deal is simple given this framework.

In conclusion, there are no ceasefire talks in Doha, there is simply discussion between the US and Israel, with Qatari and Egyptian delegations attending to create a meaningless debate that will be relayed back to Hamas who have lost the patience to even entertain such nonsense. If there is no ceasefire, this war will only come to a close in the event of a regional war. US propaganda will attempt to blame Hamas for the failure of this round of the negotiations and may even attempt to blame Iran, Hezbollah, and Yemen's Ansarallah. However, the reality is clear; neither Israel nor the US government want a ceasefire, and both are invested in an effort seemingly designed to annihilate, not just Gaza, but all things Palestine.