According to Axios, the president’s senior advisers said that the current deal being discussed is seen as the “only conceivable path”.
US President Biden has been personally involved in intensive efforts in recent days to negotiate a ceasefire agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Resistance Hamas, the American news website Axios reported on Wednesday.
Citing US officials, Axios reported that Biden sees the agreement “as a crucial element of a much wider strategy at home and abroad”.
According to Axios, the president’s senior advisers said that the current deal being discussed is seen as the “only conceivable path” to end a war “that has drawn sharp criticism of Biden among some of his key supporters ahead of the presidential election.”
White House National Security Communications Advisor, John Kirby, confirmed on Tuesday that the deal is seen as the only possible choice. “There just has to be a deal,” he said when asked about a plan B if negotiations aren’t successful.
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Biden believes that the deal “would put an Israeli military operation into Rafah on hold,” Axios reported.
This comes despite statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that Israel will launch an invasion of the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah regardless of truce negotiations with Hamas.
US officials reportedly told Axios that “a ceasefire is the only real way to systematically address the situation and avert the risk of famine in the enclave”.
Far Beyond Gaza
According to Axios, “the consequences for Biden stretch far beyond Gaza.”
“The White House believes a ceasefire as part of the hostage deal will extinguish other fires in the region,” Axios reported, including attacks by the Yemeni Ansarallah group against ships in the Red Sea.
Moreover, the deal could decrease tensions at the Israel-Lebanon border, which have been escalating over the last months, and potentially pave the way for a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, according to the American website.
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Internal Front
On the internal front, a deal could “help to lower the temperature around protests on U.S. college campuses that are critical of Biden’s policy on Israel,” Axios reported.
Moreover, it could “help Biden attempt to rebuild his tarnished image among Arab voters in the key swing state of Michigan.”
Throughout the last seven months, the Biden Administration has repeatedly opposed any attempts at ending the war, also by vetoing three resolutions at the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire.
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Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,568 Palestinians have been killed, and 77,765 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
