A man pushes his bicycle over rubble as displaced Palestinians return to Bani Suhayla and neighbouring towns east of Khan Yunis following reports of Israeli forces withdrawing from the area in the southern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2024. Picture: Bashar Taleb / AFP
By Iqbal Jassat
The triumphant narrative that's emerged from the settler colonial regime's notorious Polish-born war criminal Mileikowsky known as Benjamin Netanyahu, following his latest cosy meeting with Antony Blinken on the so-called "Ceasefire Deal", is that he has accepted it.
Blinken in turn confirmed that his talks were "successful", meaning that the trap set up by the Biden Administration in cahoots with the Zionist regime to ensnare Hamas, has been approved by Mileikowsky-Netanyahu.
What both fail to acknowledge is that the reservation expressed by Hamas is entirely legitimate.
An honest objective analysis of Hamas' rejection will reveal that it is due to the imposition of Israeli demands incorporated into the text which detracts from the original May 31 proposal.
It is absurd and irrational to expect Hamas to agree to the "new conditions" added by Israel, for it will have the effect of allowing the horrific genocide to continue in Gaza, by providing a "green light" to Mileikowsky-Netanyahu and his war criminal thugs to annihilate Palestinians.
The missing component in the US/Israel narrative that parts of mainstream media has unfairly chosen to ignore, is that Hamas had agreed to the May 31 ceasefire proposal originally presented by the United States.
And that it remains committed to it, not the "Zionist doctored" version. Hamas official and spokesperson Basem Naim, recounted the Islamic Palestinian movement's initial positive reaction to a three-phase plan first outlined by President Joe Biden on May 31.
The original plan first promoted by Biden involved a six-week ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from populated areas of Gaza, the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes, a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza and an exchange of a number of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The second phase of the original required further detainee swaps, a lasting ceasefire and the total withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.
And finally, the bodies of the deceased would be exchanged and a reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence.
However, Naim argued Israel instead sought to double down on its 10-month war effort in Gaza and impose new demands, leading to another potential impasse in talks that US officials claimed saw a breakthrough earlier on Monday.
To attack Hamas for its refusal to go along with the "deal" that has substantially been altered to Israel's advantage, is entirely misplaced and dishonest.
The correct context requires us to recall that Hamas welcomed Biden's announcement on May 31, along with a subsequent United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution endorsing it on June 11, and that the group "confirmed its readiness for immediate implementation and submitted its approval of the mediators' proposal on July 2".
Hamas is therefore correct to accuse Mileikowsky-Netanyahu of deliberately manipulating the terms of the deal, for it allows him to continue Zionism's goals of ethnic cleansing.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Osama Hamdan made Hamas' position clear: a ceasefire deal must result in a permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“The Israelis have retreated from issues included in Biden’s proposal. Netanyahu’s talk about agreeing to an updated proposal indicates that the US administration has failed to convince him to accept the previous agreement."
It is therefore not only erroneous but misleading and dishonest for US president Joe Biden to say that Hamas was “backing away” from the deal agreed to by Israel.
In their response Hamas said it was wrong to depict their stance as" backing away". Instead they stressed that they remained eager to reach a deal providing the provisions are based on the earlier framework.
Just as it remains necessary for the world, especially civil society to not let their guard down while the genocide in Gaza continues to kill and plunder, it is equally crucial to ensure that the myth of a fake deal is exposed.
* Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the Media Review Network.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.