GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 339

Zero Chance Now

More Amendments Added

We are told that Hamas has added three more demands to the list of things needed to agree to a deal as we read in a report from i24news.tv:

US President Joe Biden's months-long efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement and release of hostages have been challenged again in recent days by additional Hamas demands, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The demands are being looked over by the US:

Officials in the administration are mulling the next steps to bring the sides together for a deal, seeking to present a new ceasefire proposal in the coming days.

What’s new? We read this:

Both sides tentatively agreed that Palestinian terrorists serving life sentences would be released in exchange for Israeli soldiers held by Hamas, but now the terrorist group is demanding that these prisoners be released in exchange for civilians held captive.

I think Hamas is desperate to replenish its leadership and need these prisoners to do that. Some see this as deal breaker for Israel who intends to eliminate all Hamas leaders:

A senior US official said this demand was a "poison pill" for Israel.

One US senator thinks Israel is slowing things down while also criticizing Hamas a little:

"Most days, it’s pretty clear the Americans are working much harder than the Israeli government is working at this," said Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He blamed "the political calculations" made by both Hamas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It’s pretty obvious that the US is also playing politics, something Murphy probably wouldn’t mention as he wants Democrats to reap the benefits of a ceasefire and end to the war by the upcoming Presidential elections:

The Biden administration sees a ceasefire as a key goal as November elections approach, and will apparently continue pushing despite formulating a "take it or leave it" proposal in the coming days.

Even Joe Biden blames the PM:

Some officials want Biden to increase pressure on Netanyahu, who Biden said is not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages.

If you haven’t known, Netanyahu sees holding onto the Philadelphi Corridor as key to their goals to totally destroy Hamas. And Hamas wants to keep stalling:

Netanyahu has vowed to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, a chokehold for smuggling into the southern Gaza Strip. An earlier proposal in May, which both sides viewed positively, was made before Israel had entered Rafah and taken control of the area.

A report last week also said that Hamas is patiently stretching out the negotiations, aiming at marginalizing Israel's standing in the international community to push negotiators to get the best possible deal for the terror group.

Deal Still Being Sought

We read in an article from The Jerusalem Post that the US is still trying to broker a hostage deal:

Hamas did change some of the terms of the ceasefire negotiations, making reaching a deal more difficult, National Security Communications adviser John Kirby told reporters on Monday, though he said "it's still worth an effort to get back into it."

Kirby did rightly point out that Hamas is holding things up:

Kirby described Hamas as the main obstacle to reaching the deal.

And US also questions the terrorist’s willingness to even want a deal, too:

Hamas's new demands call into question their readiness to do a deal at all, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added.

"Even though we're hearing that, we want to talk about the next steps," she said.

The US press secretary repeated what we already know which is level of urgency is much higher now:

The murder of the six hostages last weekend made the urgency for a deal even more clear, Jean-Pierre said.

Rather than ask how much pressure the US will put on Hamas, the media only brought up Israel – again:

When asked if the White House was prepared to apply pressure on Israel, like withholding weapons, Kirby said he "couldn't think of anything we haven't put more pressure on ourselves than to try and get this deal."

"We know how urgent this is, and we're working night and day to try to get a deal in place," Kirby said.

Well, they’re working on it until 4 pm every day. And on another front, the US won’t interceded with the UK over they decisions to delay arms going to Israel:

Biden will not try to convince Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reverse his government's decision to suspend some arms to Israel during their meeting at the White House on Friday as the "British government has made their determination, Kirby said.

When the two leaders meet it will be about more generic issues:

The leader's meetings will be about "how we move together as principal allies."

The questions then turned to the death of a Turkish-American activist that some believe was killed by IDF gunfire:

Kirby said Biden has not yet spoken to the family of Aysenur Eygi, though Israel reached out to the White House and "made sure we knew they were promptly investigating."

Israel should be able to present its findings in the coming days, according to Kirby.

So hope springs eternal about America. Except reality tells us that Israel is in a fight to survive against terrorists all around them and there’s no way the Prime Minister Netanyahu will let Hamas get more troops and weapons now that they have them cutoff from help to let them survive. After Hamas are still dead men walking and the IDF will ensure that is their fate. God is helping them and right there is the best thing Israel has and everyone underestimates or dismissed it. Believers, know all too well how God protects them. We’ve seen walls fall down, soldier’s eyes blinded and armies drowned by a tidal wave of water. And I’m only just getting started. While we may not know how God will do it, we do know He will, it’s just a matter of time. If I were against Israel right now, I’d give serious thought to surrendering.