In reversal, Netanyahu sending delegation to White House for Rafah talks
Source: Axios
Updated 7 hours ago
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to send two top Israeli officials to Washington as early as next week for talks about a possible military operation in Rafah, four U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.
Why it matters: It's a sharp reversal by Netanyahu who on Monday canceled the same trip by the same people in protest over the U.S. not vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The fallout over the canceled trip and a deadlock in hostage talks added to already spiraling relations between Netanyahu and the Biden administration.
Driving the news: "The Prime Minister's office has agreed to reschedule the meeting dedicated to Rafah," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday, adding that the discussions about Rafah are "urgent."
"We are now working on a convenient date that will work for both sides," she said. Netanyahu is expected to send his close confidants Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi. Netanyahu's office said the prime minister hadn't approved the delegation's departure but didn't deny discussions are being held about it.
What they're saying: A U.S. official told Axios cancelling the trip and the rhetoric around it was "an unnecessary drama on Netanyahu's part."
Read more: https://www.axios.com/2024/03/27/netanyahu-biden-delegation-rafah-reversal
PortTack
(32,819 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,762 posts)Bibi can yield to pressure.
'Bout time.
JohnSJ
(92,492 posts)RussellCattle
(1,535 posts)..of sending underlings to talk is just avoiding doing anything to pretend he cares about the worlds concerns about his genocidal plans for the Palestinians if they dont pack up and leave Judea and Samaria. Ten to one theyll want to spend most of the talking about more free munitions.
MOMFUDSKI
(5,765 posts)and saw how well that can work.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,398 posts)Hopefully more killing can be avoided.
quakerboy
(13,923 posts)Avoiding more killing is NOT what Netanyaho and his allies want to see happen anytime in the near future.
TeamProg
(6,328 posts)moniss
(4,274 posts)that has been used by parties before. First they say a "conference" etc. will be held. Then they cancel because of some claimed slight. Then they say they are "working" to try and take part. Then they refuse to attend anyway. Lather, rinse, repeat. A variation on it is when it is a multi-party conference with adversaries involved and then the ploy is to say you will attend but then say you won't attend because you don't like the attendees chosen by the other parties. Then the conference takes place and you decry the results and refuse to comply because you were not there and therefore were "excluded and treated unfairly".
But it has never ceased to amaze me how the people who claim to be the wisest, most caring, responsible people and therefore deserving of position, wealth and praise are the ones who engage in the most garish display of childish behavior while thousands die and millions suffer. Lest there be any doubt here is a link to people who spent months arguing about the shape of the table they would have in the room all while thousands died and more were injured.
https://defenceindepth.co/2017/05/19/stuck-in-endless-preliminaries-vietnam-and-the-battle-of-the-paris-peace-table-november-1968-january-1969/
BaronChocula
(1,626 posts)on a plethora of fronts including this one. Yes, I said plethora. Is there a better word? Shitload? Yes. Shitload.
Mosby
(16,401 posts)Release all the hostages and the Rafah operation will be postponed.
If they are not released the Rafah offensive will move forward.
maxsolomon
(33,449 posts)A pause of several weeks, with staged hostage releases in exchange for prisoners, with the potential to become permanent.
Hamas wants a commitment to a permanent ceasefire with IDF withdrawal. Essentially an end to the war that leaves them in power.
Mosby
(16,401 posts)Was 700 Israeli prisoners, including murderers, for 40 hostages and a 6 week ceasefire.
EndlessWire
(6,573 posts)the subject of what Israel is doing in the West Bank will come up. This meeting can't just be so they can submit a laundry list of weapons acquisitions to wipe Palestine off the map.
The world is a hard, bitter place right now. We are being measured by our responses. I still think that no peace can be had if these two populations aren't separated by countries. It's dreadful to think that Gaza will be cleared of Palestinians and Hamas just so that little twerp Jared can profit from beach front property.
maxsolomon
(33,449 posts)And as much as I despise him, "profit from beachfront property" is not what Kushner was talking about. He was proposing a temporary relocation of Gazans to the Negev so the war could proceed with less loss of life. He was talking out his ass; Israel isn't letting 2 million strarving, angry, traumatized Arabs into their borders.
Israel is also not going to embrace a 2-State solution while this war is underway - if ever. Hamas wanted to kill that possibility and they may have succeeded.