Netanyahu to US: Don’t push a truce on us again
posted at 11:31 am on August 2, 2014 by Ed Morrissey
Most people would have learned their lesson after trusting a terrorist group to keep their word, but John Kerry and Barack Obama aren’t most people. Benjamin Netanyahu apparently felt the need to make the lesson more explicit, as the Associated Press reports today. The Israeli Prime Minister also offered a warning about the US’ new friends, the Qataris:
Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel.
Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration “not to ever second guess me again” on the matter. The officials also said Netanyahu said he should be “trusted” on the issue and about the unwillingness of Hamas to enter into and follow through on cease-fire talks.
The Obama administration on Friday condemned “outrageous” violations of an internationally brokered Gaza cease-fire by Palestinian militants and called the apparent abduction of an Israeli soldier a “barbaric” action.
The strong reaction came as top Israeli officials questioned the effort to forge the truce, accusing the U.S. and the United Nations of being naive in assuming the radical Hamas movement would adhere with its terms. The officials also blamed the Gulf state of Qatar for not forcing the militants to comply.
Yesterday, Hamas denied that any Israeli soldier was captured, but that doesn’t match up with their own claims:
PJ Media’s The Grid notes that Hamas initially bragged about capturing the IDF soldier to Turkish media — and then began changing their story four different times after getting almost universal condemnation for the collapse of the cease fire. By the time of the CNN interview above, Hamas had gone from bragging about the operation to claiming it was a false-flag provocation by Israel to end the cease fire. Even without the Twitter trail, though, this claim made no sense. The cease-fire benefited the Israelis in the short run, not the least by humiliating Hamas and (briefly) tying their hands while denying every one of their demands. The cease fire was on the basis of the Egyptian proposal that Hamas had repeatedly rejected, and their sudden reversal was curious at the time — and now seems obviously to have been a ruse.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that Arab nations had been curiously silent about the Israeli actions in Gaza. CNN followed up with a review of reactions to Hamas’ war from the surrounding Sunni states, which ranges from deafening silence to outright condemnation … of either Hamas or “state-sponsored terrorism.” And that was before Hamas broke the cease-fire agreement:
In other words, Kerry and Obama didn’t just ignore Netanyahu, but also Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia in dealing with Hamas through Qatar and Turkey. Perhaps instead of dispensing advice, Kerry and Obama should start taking some from Netanyahu. That way it won’t be quite as obvious the next time they have to hear I told you so! from the Israeli PM.
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/08/02/netanyahu-to-us-dont-push-a-truce-on-us-again/
