Joel B. Pollak
The Israeli government reportedly told the Biden administration Wednesday that its public pressure on Israel to seek a ceasefire is encouraging Palestinian terrorists to continue their attacks, making it harder to accept a ceasefire, and prolonging the war.
Israel’s Channel 12, via the Times of Israel, reported: “Israeli officials have told US leadership that their pressure to reach a ceasefire quickly is only pushing off the possibility of a truce.”
Earlier Wednesday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden had personally told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” as Breitbart News reported.
Israel has seemed prepared to accept a ceasefire in the near future, but Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in southern border towns have continued.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have both been badly damaged by Israeli counter-attacks, but continue to celebrate the fact that Israelis are forced to take cover in bomb shelters several times a day.
Under such circumstances, a Hamas spokesperson said earlier this week, a ceasefire would be perceived as a Palestinian victory — “on our conditions, on conditions of the Palestinian resistance, not on conditions of Israeli occupation.”
Israel is concerned that if a ceasefire is reached before the threat of rocket attacks on Israeli population centers is greatly reduced, it will have accepted a de facto situation in which Israeli society can be brought to a halt at will.
President Biden is under increasing pressure from within his own party to demand a ceasefire. On Tuesday, he specifically acknowledged the concerns of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a radical who opposes the very existence of the State of Israel.
Netanyahu has told the Israeli public that regardless of Biden’s demands, he will continue Israel’s fight — named Operation Guardians of the Walls — until it has achieved its objectives of calm and quiet, without the threat of Palestinian rocket attacks.