Biden official: Netanyahu sabotaged deals but calling him out would have helped Hamas
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Matthew Miller tells Israeli TV show US wanted to declare publicly that Netanyahu was ‘completely intransigent,’ but saw Sinwar pull back from talks when detecting US-Israel strain
The Biden administration on several occasions wanted to publicly declare that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hampering efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement, but refrained from doing so upon understanding it would lead Hamas to harden its negotiating positions, a former senior US official revealed in an exposé that aired on Thursday.
“There were times that we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to get a deal,” former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, who was a close aide to former secretary of state Antony Blinken, told Channel 13’s “Hamakor” (“The Source”) TV program.
“But we discussed it amongst ourselves, and we made the decision that it wouldn’t accomplish anything, [because] we had seen it in a number of cases: [Former Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar pulled back from negotiations when he thought there was division between the United States and Israel,” Miller continued. “We wanted to speak very toughly to the government of Israel behind closed doors, but ultimately not do anything that we thought would make it harder to get to a deal.”
Netanyahu has long been accused by critics within Israel and abroad of dragging out hostage negotiations since the early months of the war. But he has rejected those arguments by noting that US officials have repeatedly said publicly that Hamas was the main obstacle preventing deals from being reached.
Miller’s comments to Channel 13 offered some context for why that was the case, and the former Biden official recalled several instances when the US came close to calling out Netanyahu for allegedly torpedoing negotiations.
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Matthew Miller tells Israeli TV show US wanted to declare publicly that Netanyahu was ‘completely intransigent,’ but saw Sinwar pull back from talks when detecting US-Israel strain
The Biden administration on several occasions wanted to publicly declare that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hampering efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement, but refrained from doing so upon understanding it would lead Hamas to harden its negotiating positions, a former senior US official revealed in an exposé that aired on Thursday.
“There were times that we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to get a deal,” former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, who was a close aide to former secretary of state Antony Blinken, told Channel 13’s “Hamakor” (“The Source”) TV program.
“But we discussed it amongst ourselves, and we made the decision that it wouldn’t accomplish anything, [because] we had seen it in a number of cases: [Former Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar pulled back from negotiations when he thought there was division between the United States and Israel,” Miller continued. “We wanted to speak very toughly to the government of Israel behind closed doors, but ultimately not do anything that we thought would make it harder to get to a deal.”
Netanyahu has long been accused by critics within Israel and abroad of dragging out hostage negotiations since the early months of the war. But he has rejected those arguments by noting that US officials have repeatedly said publicly that Hamas was the main obstacle preventing deals from being reached.
Miller’s comments to Channel 13 offered some context for why that was the case, and the former Biden official recalled several instances when the US came close to calling out Netanyahu for allegedly torpedoing negotiations.
Ah yes, pretending intransigence isn't happening to stop different intransigence. Definitely a sustainable strategy, and definitely not part of why Hamas doesn't trust US negotiators in the first place. /s
The short term plans have been shit like this. The long term "plan" has been slogans and platitudes. Repeat for decades and unsurprisingly it escalates to genocide. This has been the shame of the West in my lifetime.