US President Joe Biden says people have “every reason” to believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dragging out the war in Gaza for political reasons.

• “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion,” Biden tells Time magazine.

Netanyahu has long faced this criticism, but it has intensified in recent days as far-right coalition partners have threatened to collapse his government if the premier sticks with the hostage deal proposal he authorized last week, which would potentially bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu for months held off on holding strategic meetings regarding the postwar management of Gaza, avoiding conflict with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have called for permanently occupying Gaza and re-establishing Israeli settlements there. The Israeli security establishment has argued that failure to advance a viable alternative to Hamas has allowed the terror group to quickly fill vacuums left by the IDF on the battlefields, further extending the war.

Netanyahu has argued that talk of day-after planning is overblown before Israel defeats Hamas, as no one will be willing to replace the terror group as long as it is still in power.

This approach has caused significant frustration in Washington, which has pushed Israel to plan for postwar Gaza since the early days of the campaign.

Also in the Time interview, Biden says an Israel-Saudi normalization deal would be “overwhelmingly in our interest.”

• On efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages, who include Americans, Biden says, “We believe there are those that are still alive.”
• “I met with all the families. But we don’t have final proof on exactly who’s alive.”

Asked if Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, Biden responds, “It’s uncertain.”

Source: TOI

Shas says it fully supports Israel’s Gaza hostage deal proposal

The Haredi Shas party will support the the hostage deal proposal presented by US President Joe Biden last week, it says.

• “At the faction meeting that took place yesterday, the Israeli proposal for the abductees deal was discussed. In the end, the faction decided to fully support the Israeli proposal, which includes far-reaching measures for the return of the hostages and the observance of the miztvah of redeeming captives,” the party says in a statement.
• “Shas supports the proposal and backs the prime minister and the war cabinet in facing off all pressure, reaching a deal and saving the lives of many of our brothers and sisters who are in distress and captivity.”

Shas’s support comes less than a day after United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf tweeted that his party “will support any proposal that will lead to the release of the abductees.”

While both ultra-Orthodox parties have now come out in favor of the proposal, which Biden presented as being Israeli in origin, the Knesset’s two far-right national religious parties, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, have both threatened to bring down the government if the deal is adopted, saying it amounts to a surrender to Hamas.

Source: TOI