JERUSALEM, Israel – As fighting escalates in Gaza and along Israel's northern border, the U.S. and its Arab partners are working on a blueprint with a firm timeline for establishing a Palestinian state if a ceasefire takes effect. However, that blueprint is a non-starter for Israel.
After a call with President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state. Posting on X, he summed up his opposition in two sentences:
"Israel categorically rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. Such an arrangement will be reached only through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.”
He added, “Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7 massacre would give a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism and prevent any future peace settlement.”
The U.S.-Arab plan would include many steps rejected by Israel in the past, including the evacuation of many communities in biblical Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem, and a combined government for the West Bank and Gaza.
On Friday in southern Israel, a terrorist attack at a bus station left two people dead and four others wounded before the shooter was stopped.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman said it isn't the right time to speak about the day after the war.
"Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts to the Palestinian people, at a time when the Palestinian Authority themselves have yet to even condemn the October 7 massacre," Hyman insisted. “Now is the time for victory, total victory over Hamas. All discussions of the day after Hamas will be had the day after Hamas."
Meanwhile, Israel criticized a United Nations official who told Sky News that despite its "acts of terror," Hamas is not a terror organization – which is the position held by the U.N.
Martin Griffiths, U.N. Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs asserted, "I think it's very difficult. And as you said, I've worked with many, many, many different terrorist and insurgent groups. Hamas is not a terrorist group for us, of course, as you know, it's a political movement."
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan responded sharply in an X post: "You are no humanitarian. Sadly, you are a terror collaborator.”
Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials met with C.I.A. Director William Burns in Tel Aviv to discuss talks for the release of the hostages. The prime minister earlier refused to send a delegation to Cairo for talks on Thursday until Hamas lessened its demands.
Families of the hostages chained themselves together at the entrance of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, calling for the war cabinet to send a delegation to Cairo.
In Gaza, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari explained Israel's mission in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where bodies and hostages were believed to have been held.
"According to the information we have collected, I can now share, some of the terrorists who took part in the massacre of October 7th, they were found by our forces inside the Nasser Hospital complex," Hagari said. "If it weren’t for Hamas starting this war, taking our hostages and hiding in the hospital, we wouldn’t need to be in the hospital in the first place. Hamas started this war. Israel will end this war."
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