PM had been expected to welcome initiative on arrival in NY, relate to it in UN speech. But after outcry at home, PMO says he never backed it and he vows to keep hitting Hezbollah
26 September 2024, 11:21 pmUpdated at 2:22 am
White House officials said Thursday they had coordinated a ceasefire plan that the US and France presented a day earlier with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and believed Israel was fully on board with it. And they indicated surprise and disappointment that Israel had rejected it and that the Prime Minister’s Office was now saying Netanyahu had never indicated he would back it.
A French official also made clear to The Times of Israel that the ceasefire initiative had been coordinated with Israel.
The plan for a 21-day ceasefire, intended to pave the way for a permanent cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and help advance an end to the war in Gaza, was jointly announced by US President Joe Biden and French President Emanuel Macron while Netanyahu was en route to New York, where he will address the UN General Assembly on Friday.
While still in the air, however, Netanyahu’s office issued a firm denial that he had assented to the idea, calling it an “American-French proposal that the prime minister didn’t even respond to.”
Describing reports that Netanyahu also gave instructions to reduce the scale of airstrikes in Lebanon as “the opposite of the truth,” the Prime Minister’s Office also said that he, in fact, “instructed the IDF to continue fighting at full force, according to the plans that were presented to him.”
Foreign Minister Israel Katz was unequivocal, posting on X that “there will be no ceasefire in the north.”
In a briefing with reporters hours after Netanyahu made his comments, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US “had every reason to believe that in the drafting of [the statement] and in the delivery of it, that the Israelis were fully informed and fully aware of every word in it. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t believe that it would be received with the seriousness with which it was composed.”
Asked if it was fair to say the US wouldn’t have published the statement had it not believed that Israel was on board with the plan, Kirby responded in the affirmative. “We’ve seen Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments. We still believe an all-out war is not the best way to get people back in their homes. If that’s the goal, we don’t believe an all-out war is the right way to do that,” Kirby added.
“I can’t speak for Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Kirby said. “I can’t answer why he said what he said… whether [the considerations] were political or operational or otherwise. Those are questions that he needs to be asked.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also insisted Thursday that the call for a ceasefire had been “coordinated” with Israel, despite the rejection. She added that talks were continuing at the UN General Assembly in New York.
A senior Western diplomat who spoke to The Times of Israel said that both Israel and Lebanon privately gave mediators their support for the arrangement before it was announced. Indeed, the diplomat said that Netanyahu and his aides were closely involved in crafting and approving the joint US-French statement.
Netanyahu’s backtracking on the ceasefire process, which was aimed at covering both Lebanon and Gaza, “shatters what remains of relations with the Biden administration,” an unnamed source familiar with the details of the process told Israel’s Channel 12 news on Thursday evening.
The TV report specified that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer had reached agreements in principle with the US on the approach, with Netanyahu’s approval, before the prime minister backtracked.
After the TV report aired, an Israeli official reiterated, “As we said, Israel was updated about the American proposal but never agreed to it.”
Nonetheless, the White House still believes that it is possible to reach a diplomatic solution between Israel and Hezbollah, and has continued talks with Israeli counterparts even after Netanyahu’s remarks upon landing in New York.
A French official told The Times of Israel on Thursday that “there were conversations at a very high level between the US, France, and Israel, and from those conversations, we understood there was a basis to go ahead with the joint announcement.”
“We understand that Netanyahu has to deal with the domestic political reaction as well, but for us, the possibility for a ceasefire to allow negotiations remains alive,” said the French official.
Several days of discussions
The process began earlier this week with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reaching out to Dermer, and saying that steps must be taken to prevent the Israel-Hezbollah escalation spilling out of hand, Channel 12 reported. Dermer reportedly responded that Netanyahu wanted to avoid all-out war.
Discussions then got underway on a temporary ceasefire during which a more permanent arrangement could be negotiated. This intended arrangement would be based on ongoing efforts by US envoy Amos Hochstein and on UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Lebanon war, and also on the Gaza hostage-ceasefire proposal unveiled by Biden at the end of May, the TV report said.
This broad framework was intended to enable Israel to say it had separated the northern front crisis from Gaza, while Hezbollah could argue that it was ceasing its attacks because the Gaza war would be coming to an end.
According to what Channel 12 called “an emerging understanding,” Netanyahu was to have related to the intended arrangement during his speech to the General Assembly. He was expected to declare that Hamas had been defeated militarily in Gaza and announce the transition to the next phase of that war.
While this diplomatic process, overseen by Netanyahu and Dermer, continued, the IDF carried on with its strikes on Hezbollah. Netanyahu updated a small number of ministers about the developments. When word of the potential ceasefire began to emerge from the Biden administration in Washington on Wednesday, it was with Netanyahu’s knowledge and approval, the TV report said.
The understanding was that Netanyahu would relate publicly to the intended arrangement when he landed in New York on Thursday and it would be possible to take the effort forward, the report said. Netanyahu was set to say that while Israel continues to battle Hezbollah, it welcomes any ceasefire initiative that would safely enable the return of northern Israeli residents to their homes. There were even draft texts of what Netanyahu would say, according to the report.
But then came the wave of political criticism of the nascent ceasefire in Israel, and “everything turned upside down,” the report said, leading Netanyahu to distance himself from truce proposals and issue denials from his plane. Opposition to the idea of a ceasefire erupted in Israel on Thursday morning, including from local council heads in the Hezbollah-battered north. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened to withdraw his far-right Otzma Yehudit party from Netanyahu’s government if he agreed to halt the fighting.
Channel 12 quoted a source familiar with the details as saying, “Obviously, the president of the United States would not lead a process like this without the agreement of Prime Minister Netanyahu. This backtracking completely shatters what remains of relations with the Biden administration.”
Calming his political base
The Western diplomat who spoke with The Times of Israel said Netanyahu’s conduct over the Lebanon ceasefire was an extension of how he has handled the Gaza hostage talks, in which he has privately agreed to show flexibility only to make public statements immediately afterward aimed at calming his political base but that risk thwarting progress in negotiations.
Reporters traveling with Netanyahu were told that no such arrangement was discussed by the security cabinet. While this is accurate, Channel 12’s report said, the issue was discussed in an ad hoc forum Netanyahu assembled in recent days, attended by several key ministers although not by Defense Minister Yoav Galant. He told them about the discussions and the US-French ceasefire efforts. Several ministers made plain their opposition to a ceasefire, and Netanyahu assured them the plan was also an effort to bolster Israel’s legitimacy.
US envoy warns of regional escalation
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew reiterated Thursday evening the Biden administration’s call for a 21-day ceasefire, while stressing that Hezbollah was the party that instigated the ongoing conflict along the border.
“Since Hezbollah began its rocket attacks on Israel on October 8, round after round of strikes and counter strikes have driven people from their homes,” Lew wrote on X.
“The unacceptable risk of broader regional escalation demands immediate action,” he continued, arguing that the ceasefire backed by over a dozen countries “is the best way for diplomacy to restore safety for citizens to return to their homes.”
“Conditions in the north of Israel and the south of Lebanon must change to permit their safe return. At the same time, we press forward every day for an agreement to release the hostages and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza,” Lew added.
Amid the talk of a ceasefire, some 25 rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Lower Galilee in the evening, setting off sirens in several towns and injuring one person.
According to the military, the rockets all struck open areas.
Paramedics treated a 45-year-old man who was moderately wounded by shrapnel in the attack, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement.
An Israeli Air Force drone struck the launcher used in the attack a short while later, the IDF said.
Overall Thursday, Hezbollah launched more than 175 rockets at northern Israel, while the Israeli military said fighter jets struck some 220 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon throughout the day. A military statement said the strikes in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley targeted buildings used by Hezbollah, rocket launchers used in attacks on northern Israel, weapon depots, and operatives.
In preparation for a further escalation of the conflict, troops of the IDF’s 7th Armored Brigade wrapped up a drill simulating a ground offensive in Lebanon, the military said.
According to the IDF, the drill took place several kilometers from the Lebanon border, and simulated ground operations and combat in “complex and mountainous terrain.”
The drill was the latest in a series carried out by the IDF for a potential ground offensive in Lebanon.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war that has raged there since Hamas’s October 7 invasion and slaughter in southern Israel. Tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel have been forced from their homes ever since by the relentless Hezbollah rocket fire.
Since Israel escalated its airstrikes on the Hezbollah terror group on Monday, more than 630 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Thousands of pagers detonated on their Hezbollah owners last week, putting a reported 1,500 fighters from the terror group out of commission, in an attack blamed on Israel.
Israel has said it has targeted homes in which Hezbollah emplaced missiles and rockets, having urged residents to flee. It says that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead. Numerous senior Hezbollah commanders have been killed, as well as leaders of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, which Israel says was planning an invasion of the Galilee.
Agencies contributed to this report.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/pms-rejection-of-lebanon-ceasefire-plan-shatters-ties-with-biden-tv-report/.
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