The time has passed

The parents of a young hostage in Gaza, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, gave a gut-wrenching speech at the DNC a little over a week ago. In Kamala Harris' acceptance speech, she said "the time is now" to negotiate a deal.  The time, actually, was some time in October.

Israel’s military said it has recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas militants in Gaza – including an Israeli-American captive – dealing fresh heartbreak to relatives who fear time is running out for loved ones seized by the militants more than 10 months ago.

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The hostages were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists, a short while before we reached them,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a briefing.

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Three of the six whose bodies were recovered had been expected to be released during the first phase of an eventual ceasefire agreement, two Israeli officials have told CNN.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi and Carmel Gat were slated to be released as part of the “humanitarian category” based on the framework Israel and Hamas agreed to in early July, the officials said.

“Our prime minister delayed it,” one of the Israeli officials said.

  MSN

And who do you think will get the blame here in America? That's right. Kamala Harris.

The Israeli military named the other five victims as Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alex Lobanov and Ori Danino.

There will be protests.

UPDATE 11:03 am:

Senior Israeli officials, most prominently the defense minister, have joined the public demands for Netanyahu to stop obstructing ceasefire negotiations, while Hamas has said they will not participate in any process until the U.S. convinces Israel to accept a negotiating framework Hamas agreed to in early July. Both Hamas and the families of Israeli captives still held in Gaza have stated that Netanyahu bears responsibility for continuing the war and preventing the exchange of prisoners.

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By Sunday afternoon, street protests were staged throughout parts of Israel and the mayor of Tel Aviv announced a municipal strike for Monday. “[W]e will allow all employees to go out and support the families’ struggle,” he wrote on Twitter/X.

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Histadrut labor federation, Israel’s largest trade union, announced a general strike. If that action extends beyond a symbolic strike of one or two days, it could cascade into a formidable crisis for Netanyahu. “Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. This is now a fact,” the family association said in a statement. “We call on the public to prepare. We will bring the country to a halt. The abandonment is over.”

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Vice President Kamala Harris released a statement endorsing Israel’s version of events on the captives discovered in Rafah and echoed Netanyahu’s pledge to eliminate Hamas. “Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands.”

  Drop Site News

So, not Netanyahu?

A Hamas official involved with the ceasefire negotiations told Drop Site News that the vice president and other U.S. officials have deliberately misled the public about the process out of concerns that the Gaza war will hurt the Democrats’ chances of victory in November.

“Kamala Harris is now obsessed with how to defeat Trump, how to win the election, and she knows that the genocide in Gaza and these massacres are a crucial element in the campaign,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau. “She wants to create a delusional image that there is something in process, which is not right.”

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“They are looking for a ceasefire, but they are not for ending the war permanently,” Naim said. “There is a tactical discussion how to achieve [Israel’s] goals in a different way which cannot damage the American image internationally while they are supporting genocide, because they know that it is damaging their chances to win the election.”

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Drop Site News has reviewed internal documents from the negotiations showing that on July 2 Hamas formally informed international mediators that it had accepted the framework, which Hamas says it was told had been amended by the U.S. and approved by Israel on June 24. This amendment removed language Hamas had previously insisted on that called for negotiations no later than 14 days into the first phase of a deal on the “necessary arrangements for the return of a sustainable calm (permanent ceasefire),” according to a draft seen by Drop Site News. Hamas believed this compromise was strong evidence of their desire to reach a deal.

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Since early July, Netanyahu has intensified Israel’s attacks in Gaza, repeatedly added new terms to the framework, and assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader and its lead negotiator, in Tehran. Among the new demands put forward by Netanyahu is the right to continue occupying the Philadelphi corridor along the border with Egypt, to maintain control of the Rafah border crossing and to position Israeli troops in central Gaza along the Netzarim axis where IDF forces would establish checkpoints to search Palestinians seeking to return to their homes in northern Gaza.

Egypt has objected to Israeli proposals to remain in the Philadelphi corridor. [...] Meanwhile, the independent Egyptian news site Madr Masr recently published satellite imagery showing Israel has fortified its presence along Netzarim. The IDF began bulldozing areas along that axis five months into the war and insists it wants to maintain a presence there as part of any agreement with Hamas.

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“No one in Hamas can accept any form of Israeli presence in the Netzarim corridor and investigating the people while they are returning home. And no one accepts this and accepts the military presence in the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah crossing,” said Naim. “I think the only way to reach a deal is to lift these points from any deal,” otherwise “it means that we are accepting a permanent occupation of the Gaza Strip.”

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“[Netanyahu] totally changed the terms about the prisoner exchange, which has already been agreed upon and negotiated for months,” said Naim. “I think it would be shameful for any Palestinian to accept such a deal.”

Rather than insisting on upholding what Biden said was Israel’s own proposal in May, the U.S. has appeased Netanyahu’s efforts to allow an indefinite presence of Israeli forces in Gaza and an open-ended campaign of military attacks.

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“Blinken has damaged the whole process because he lost all his credibility as a serious mediator,” said Naim. “We see today the worst example of a secretary of state of a superpower. Very weak, very weak. He’s a big failure.”

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In early August, the White House insisted that a ceasefire was within reach and had put forward what it called a “final bridging proposal” to resolve outstanding issues. “We are closer than we’ve ever been,” Biden said on August 16. Four days later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Tel Aviv meeting with Netanyahu. “He supports it,” Blinken told reporters after their meeting. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.” Within hours of Blinken departing Israel, Netanyahu’s people were leaking stories contesting those assertions and saying the Israeli prime minister had in fact convinced Blinken to accept Israel’s continued occupation of parts of Gaza. The U.S. denied that happened.

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“What's happening in Gaza and what's happening in the West Bank is a clear sign, a clear indication that this conflict needs a political solution. And Palestinians have all the rights to achieve their national goals of dignity, freedom and independence, self sovereignty,” Naim said. “Leaving these fascist leaders in Israel, they will destabilize not only the situation here, but the situation in the whole region. Because day after day, they are converting this political conflict into a religious conflict.”

Fuck religion. Fuck Netanyahu.

UPDATE 04:47 pm:  And fuck Donald Trump.

Right on cue...

UPDATE 09/03/2024: