Biden Leaks Confidential Details of Hostage Talks to Late-night ComedianJoel B. Pollak 27 Feb 2024
President Joe Biden divulged details of secret negotiations over Israeli hostages to late-night comedy host Seth Myers on Monday — giving away bargaining positions by a key U.S. ally, while predicting success that all sides in the talks said was premature.
Biden, eating ice cream with the host of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Myers, said that he hoped for a “ceasefire” by next Monday. He did not specify whether he meant a temporary or permanent ceasefire, and both Israel and Hamas said there was no such deal.
Reports, in fact, emerged on Monday that Hamas had rejected the terms of a proposed framework for a deal, throwing cold water on the optimism that had briefly emerged over the weekend for an agreement.
In addition to predicting unlikely success in the negotiations, Biden divulged that Israel had offered to stop the war during the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadan — thus pinning an ally to a public position that had intended to be an offer, not a firm commitment in the absence of mutual agreement.
Arab and Muslim armies have often fought and even started wars during Ramadan, notably the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
Israeli government spokesperson Tal Heinrich said Tuesday that there was no agreement with Hamas, adding that the terrorist group’s demands — including an end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — were “outlandish” and from “another planet.” She quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement to CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday: “Hamas started out with just crazy demands. And, you know, it’s- it’s too soon to say if they’re- if they’ve abandoned them, but if they do abandon them and get into what you call the ballpark, they’re not even in the city. They’re in another planet.”
“No daylight between Washington and Jerusalem [exists] as it pertains to the goals of this war,” Heinrich told reporters on Tuesday. Still, she added that Hamas’s demands were “delusional” and that they “have to come down to earth,” suggesting no deal was imminent.
During the Trump administration, Democrats and the media claimed that President Donald Trump had revealed classified information to Russians during diplomatic meetings — which he denied, though he was legally entitled to declassify anything.
Critics have speculated that Biden wanted to appease Arab and Muslim voters in Michigan ahead of Tuesday’s primary vote, where he is certain to win but faces a possible boycott by Democratic Party primary voters upset about the war in Gaza.
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