And Biden Falsely Stated Several Times This Was an Israeli Deal

ZOA strongly condemns the horrendous suicidal-for-Israel proposal announced by President Biden at the White House on Friday, May 31, 2024, approximately half an hour after the Sabbath began in Jerusalem, Israel. The timing of Biden’s announcement appears to have been designed to prevent Jewish Sabbath observers and the Jewish government from promptly responding. Biden contradictorily claimed that Israel had “offered” or “accepted” or “can offer” a comprehensive new proposal which was transmitted by Qatar to Hamas. Biden then outlined this alleged proposal’s terms – which were virtually identical to Hamas’ demands.

Soon afterwards, extremist anti-Israel former President Barack Obama revealed in a tweet that Biden (not Israel) put forth this proposal. A statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office also indicated that Israel’s “actual proposal” is far different from the proposal that Biden misrepresented as coming from Israel. Biden’s misrepresentation appears to be yet another way to pressure Israel into a deal that would severely damage Israel’s security and ability to deter terror for years to come, lead to more October 7ths, and embolden Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian attacks on Israel.

Notably, at the Arab National Security Conference in Beirut, the very same day that Biden announced his proposal echoing Hamas’ demands, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh reiterated Hamas’ demands that are identical to Biden’s plan; called for widespread violent mobilization against Israel; gloated that Israel had lost its deterrence advantage and failed to achieve its goals; and boasted that he had developed an integrated plan of action against Israel in all areas. The Hamas/Biden deal appears to be part of Hamas’ “integrated plan of action” to destroy Israel.

Biden’s proposal gives Hamas everything it wants, namely:

• Israel will leave all of Gaza and maintain no protective demilitarized buffer zone;
• There is no provision for removing Hamas from Gaza – and in fact Hamas is a signing party. In other words, Hamas will continue to control Gaza;
• Gazans (many of whom participated in the October 7th slaughter) will return to their homes in all areas of Gaza, and will be able to attack Israel all over again;
• Israel will release massive numbers of convicted Hamas murderers from Israeli jails: at least 30 Palestinian Arab terrorists for each raped and tortured child, female or elderly hostage or dead hostage body; and 50 convicted Hamas terrorists – chosen by Hamas – including terrorists serving life sentences for murdering Jews – for each of the other Israeli hostages. This adds up to the release of an estimated 6,000 Nazi-like Hamas terrorists, and is tantamount to signing the death warrant of thousands of Jews.
• Hamas will not immediately account for the hostages and their condition. Instead, Hamas will leave the hostages languishing in Hamas’ brutal captivity for weeks and months longer. Only 33 hostages or dead hostage bodies are to be released over the first six weeks, in exchange for an Israeli ceasefire, withdrawal and the release of the first 990 convicted Hamas terrorists. There will be negotiations for the “second stage” – including the timing of the release of the remaining almost 100 hostages or their bodies in return for almost 5,000 convicted Hamas terrorists and Israel’s withdrawal and permanent ceasefire;
• There will be an immediate “temporary” ceasefire leading to a permanent ceasefire;
• Gaza will be rebuilt under the auspices of the same Hamas allies who previously transmitted and hid weapons for Hamas and financed building Hamas’ terror tunnels and terror infrastructure (Qatar, Egypt and the UN). This will enable Hamas to perpetrate more and more horrendous October 7ths as their leaders have promised;
• Israel’s and Egypt’s weapons blockades of Gaza will be lifted within five years, thereby enabling huge amounts of weapons to pour freely into Gaza;
• 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid per day will be sent into Gaza – and will surely will be promptly seized by Hamas.

(Details from Biden’s announcement and the Saudi Al Majalla magazine.)

As Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) noted, Biden’s proposal will not bring peace. Senator Fetterman explained that there won’t be peace “until there is an absolute [Hamas] surrender and they are . . . either in exile or they’re brought to justice or they’re eliminated. One way or another, there’s not going to be any meaningful peace, so long as Hamas is able to operate.”

Sickeningly, in order to persuade Israel to agree to this disastrous deal, Biden falsely and misleadingly claimed: “The people of Israel should know they can make this offer without any further risk to their own security because they’ve devastated Hamas forces over the past eight months. At this point, Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another October 7th, which — one of the Israelis’ main objective in this war.”

False! In fact, Hamas is still killing and wounding Israelis and launching rockets at Israel. Just this past week (on Sunday, May 26), Hamas launched from its enclave in Rafah barrages of rockets at central Israel, damaging a home in Herzliya (10 miles north of Tel Aviv), wounding two Israelis, and causing Israelis all over central Israel to run for bomb shelters. And on May 5, Hamas launched, from a civilian shelter, a rocket barrage that killed four Israeli soldiers at the Kerem Shalom crossing being used to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza. Most concerningly, Biden’s plan would build Hamas’ capabilities, and make Hamas capable of launching many more October 7ths within a short time frame.

Here are some of the provisions that should be in any deal that are notably absent from Biden’s proposal. These items are necessary to have peace:

• Immediate humanitarian visits to every hostage, as required by humanitarian law;
• Immediate release of the hostages, as required by humanitarian law;
• The arrest or surrender and war crimes trials of Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif Ibrahim al-Masri (note that his name “al-Masri” identifies him as Egyptian), Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Hanyieh and others involved in planning and financing Hamas’ October 7 atrocities;
• Removal of Hamas from power;
• Destruction of all of Hamas’ arms and terror tunnels;
• Rescission of the Hamas Charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of every Jew throughout the world;
• Removal of UNRWA;
• Re-education and de-Hamas-ification of the Gazan public, similar to the de-nazification that took place in Germany following WWII;
• Israeli retention of the Philadelphi corridor and northern and other demilitarized zones in Gaza, to prevent future October 7 attacks;
• Reinstituting maximum sanctions against Iran that Biden has ignored so that Iran can no longer fund, train and arm Hamas.

Biden’s proposal rewards Hamas for its war crimes, instead of making Hamas accountable for its heinous rapes, torture and murders inflicted on the Jewish children, women and civilians. Ironically, prior to announcing his pro-Hamas proposal, President Biden first remarked, regarding former President Trump’s conviction in New York, that “no one is above the law.” Unfortunately, Biden’s proposal places Hamas above the law.