An Israeli ‘Pause’ Would Help Hamas Why would the jihadists give up their hostage leverage so easily? Meanwhile, Hezbollah blinks—for now.
President Biden has been stalwart in backing Israel’s right to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 massacre. But a political backlash is growing, in the Democratic Party and abroad, to rein in Israel before it can achieve its military objectives. Is the Administration’s support beginning to crack?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Israel Friday to deliver a mixed message: Defeat Hamas—“there cannot and must not be a return to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo”—but pause the fighting and think about a two-state solution for Palestinians “not tomorrow, not after the war, but today.”
He may want to hold off on that last desire. After Hamas used Gaza to carry out massacres, and with some 200,000 Israelis now internally displaced, creating a new Palestinian state near Israel’s big cities sounds reckless even to Israeli doves. Maybe some time down the road.
Mr. Blinken presented “humanitarian pauses” as critical to protecting Gazans, getting them aid and freeing Israeli and U.S. hostages. The “pause” idea was embraced by Mr. Biden Wednesday in response to an anti-Israel protester’s hectoring for a cease-fire. “I think we need a pause,” the President said. “A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
On Thursday 13 Senate Democrats echoed that call. Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) even advised Israeli generals to rethink their “current operational approach.”
The President may conciliate some Democrats to his left, but a pause would halt Israel’s advance and momentum in exchange for uncertain gains. Mr. Blinken acknowledged that Israel has raised “legitimate questions” about “how to connect a pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn’t use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage.”
“We believe they can be solved,” the Secretary of State added, but he didn’t say how. He’ll need details to convince Israel, which won’t consider a temporary cease-fire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, unless Hamas releases its 242 hostages.
As Israeli forces have advanced, quickly encircling Gaza City and bearing down on tunnel networks and strongholds, Hamas would like nothing more than to slow them down.
It strains credibility to think Hamas wouldn’t use a pause to its advantage. Nor is Hamas likely to release all hostages and forfeit its best leverage. It may drag out negotiations, dribbling out hostages to win reprieve after reprieve, plus propaganda bumps.
The way to help Palestinian civilians isn’t to slow the Israeli advance. The less control Hamas has over Gaza’s streets, the more civilians can escape the fighting and the more aid can be brought in securely. The ground invasion has already allowed humanitarian assistance to ramp up, with more than 100 truckloads now arriving each day. Hamas would use freedom of action to keep civilians as shields and pilfer more aid—limiting what Israel can let in.
Mr. Blinken’s wasn’t the only big speech Friday. Hassan Nasrallah, the terrorist leader of Hezbollah, emerged from the bunker from which he rules Lebanon to huff and puff and conspicuously fail to blow the house down. He made the usual threats against Israel and the U.S., but he also claimed Hezbollah is already doing its part to fight Israel.
Hezbollah’s daily attacks are dangerous, but Mr. Nasrallah said nothing to indicate a break from the low-intensity, tit-for-tat pattern of fighting. This is a tentative success for U.S. policy, which seeks to constrain both Hezbollah and Israel from escalating. The aircraft-carrier strike groups that Mr. Biden deployed so far have served their purpose.
Pushing for pauses in Gaza, on the other hand, could backfire by keeping Hamas afloat and dragging out the conflict—to the detriment of Israeli and Palestinian civilians. The U.S. interest is in a swift and decisive Israeli victory.
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