Qatar, Egypt, US urge Israel, Hamas to finalise Gaza truce deal

The joint statement by US, Egypt and Qatar once again emphasises that this is an ongoing process. There has been a lot of confusion over the past 24 hours about how on Earth it is possible that after Biden says this is an Israeli deal that’s on the table that Benjamin Netanyahu can then make various comments that seem to say he does not really agree with what the US president said in his speech.

And I think that’s understandable because none of us have actually seen what this four and a half page document actually is.

So a lot of today has been about trying to understand what has Netanyahu agreed to, what is the Israeli deal, and how does it work?

What the Biden administration says has happened is that Netanyahu has agreed to the parameters of this three phase deal. The first part of that deal is a six week ceasefire with some sort of captive exchange, humanitarian relief, and limited withdrawal of Israeli forces. But then all these other issues – such as the future of Hamas – they are all still to be negotiated in phase two. So therefore it can still be described as an Israeli deal that Netanyahu has signed off on.

There are differences between Biden and Netanyahu, which in itself is quite notable. Apparently Biden has evolved on this issue, while Netanyahu is still using the same kind of eradication [of Hamas] language that he was talking about before.

But for Biden, what he wants is that six week ceasefire which then can be rolled over as negotiations continue about the other phases. Because you know, we heard this last year. A Biden administration official was quoted as saying that Israel can do pretty much what it wants until the heat of the election season.

And now that election season is approaching, the conventions are going to begin in a few weeks time, and Biden needs that pause, some kind of pause, a six week pause. This isn’t about a permanent ceasefire yet. This is about a six week ceasefire that can potentially roll over so that Biden can begin to rehabilitate himself with his base during the the election season.

And the deal for Netanyahu is that by presenting this as an Israeli deal, he can start perhaps to rehabilitate himself as well as international law closes in.