An Israeli rejection of the three passed hostage deals would ensure endless conflict with Hamas, a move that would only benefit the group’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, top US official Phil Gordon told the 21st Herzliya Conference on Monday.
“We know there are some in Israel who do not support this proposal,” even if it means deprioritizing the release of hostages, Gordan said, adding, “We simply disagree with that.”
Gordon, who is Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security advisor and an assistant to President Joe Biden, spoke amid a stiff debate in Israel over the deal to secure the release of the remaining 120 hostages. Opponents of the deal fear that it will keep Hamas in power in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed ownership of the deal and pledged a commitment to it, even as he has stressed that the only way to destroy Hamas was a total victory on the battlefield.
Gordon dismissed what he described as a false paradigm that has been presented between a hostage deal that brought about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and IDF victory over Hamas, explaining that it is not a choice between one option or the other.
“A rejection of this deal would not bring about some undefined notion of total victory, but it would lead to endless conflict draining Israel’s resources, contributing to its isolation on the world stage and preventing the hostages from being reunited with their families,” Gordon said.
Sinwar leverages Palestinian death and destruction
Sinwar cynically leverages Palestinian death and the destruction in Gaza against Israel, Gordon said.
“Don’t forget Sinwar wants to see Israel isolated in the world. He wants to bring in regional actors against Israel and he wants to divide Israel from the United States.
“A transition to lower intensity military operations and an improvement in the humanitarian situation in Gaza would deprive him of all of those goals as well as the fantasy that the longer he holds out the more leverage he has” against Israel, he said.
“We need to make Sinwar realize that time is not on his side and that this [hostage] deal is one that he should accept,” Gordon said.
He recalled the many steps the US has taken to rally international support for the deal.
“It is now time for Hamas to accept the deal” and by “refusing to do so Hamas is responsible for the ongoing suffering of so many Palestinians.”
“While it’s disappointing that Hamas has taken so long to respond, and that it proposed additional amendments beyond its original position, we continue to work relentlessly to get that agreement and to close the gaps,” he said.
The US is grateful for the efforts of mediating countries Qatar and Egypt to hold close the deal, he said.
“We should not give up hope for getting a deal even as we press Hamas still to agree,” he stated.
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