Former Israeli hostage and peace negotiator Gershon Baskin blames Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US administration for the continuation of the war.
#Gaza #US
#Gaza #US
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00:00OK, so this phased approach that has been the, you know, the Biden administration's
00:05preferred approach, you see that carrying on uninterrupted, do you?
00:09And not least because you mentioned that both the outgoing and the incoming administrations
00:14were working and were very much present at those negotiations.
00:18You don't see that being interrupted?
00:19Well, the problem with an extended deal like this that's going to take two or three months
00:23to finish is that it could break down at any time.
00:26Any kind of catastrophe could happen.
00:28Israeli soldiers could encounter Hamas fighters or the other way around and people get killed
00:32and then the warfare renews again and the deal is off.
00:35This is why the major problem with this deal is that in phase one, they're only releasing
00:3933 of the 98 hostages, leaving 65 behind.
00:45And the war is going to go on, presumably without really fighting, but the war is not
00:50going to be officially over for at least two months.
00:53This all could have been done in a three week period and it's a pity that it hasn't
00:56been done.
00:57I put direct responsibility not only on Prime Minister Netanyahu, but also on the American
01:01administration.
01:03The American administration negotiators who put forth this phased plan have stuck to it
01:07for months, even when they knew back in September that Hamas was ready to do a deal in three
01:12weeks that would end the war to an Israeli withdrawal of all hostages and Palestinian
01:17prisoners.