Matthew Miller tells Israeli TV show US wanted to declare publicly that Netanyahu was ‘completely intransigent,’ but saw Sinwar pull back from talks when detecting US-Israel strain
The Biden administration on several occasions wanted to publicly declare that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hampering efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement, but refrained from doing so upon understanding it would lead Hamas to harden its negotiating positions, a former senior US official revealed in an exposé that aired on Thursday.
“There were times that we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to get a deal,” former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, who was a close aide to former secretary of state Antony Blinken, told Channel 13’s “Hamakor” (“The Source”) TV program.
“But we discussed it amongst ourselves, and we made the decision that it wouldn’t accomplish anything, [because] we had seen it in a number of cases: [Former Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar pulled back from negotiations when he thought there was division between the United States and Israel,” Miller continued. “We wanted to speak very toughly to the government of Israel behind closed doors, but ultimately not do anything that we thought would make it harder to get to a deal.”
Netanyahu has long been accused by critics within Israel and abroad of dragging out hostage negotiations since the early months of the war. But he has rejected those arguments by noting that US officials have repeatedly said publicly that Hamas was the main obstacle preventing deals from being reached.
Miller’s comments to Channel 13 offered some context for why that was the case, and the former Biden official recalled several instances when the US came close to calling out Netanyahu for allegedly torpedoing negotiations.
Netanyahu is the whole reason Hamas is in power
And arguably the reason Trump is in power, but some people aren’t ready to talk about that one yet.
Fuck you spineless cowards with a rusty rake. History will remember your complicity in the wholesale slaughter of an entire people.
“We almost said something.”
Spineless gits.
Complicit gits.
History will judge very harshly.
Oh, that very-very harsh historical judgement!
Sadly looking like the best we’ll get.
Imagine the worlds strongest military nation, with a budget larger than the next 5 countries, with bases around the globe, the largest economy in the world, spanning over a continent with access to two oceans, hundreds of millions of people…
Is pathetically enslaved to a small state of a few million violent extremists who humiliate the US in every possible way at every possible turn. And the US willfully lets itself be humiliated in the face of the world over and over and over again. No matter the administration in the US or in Israel, no matter the claims of “MAGA”. When the Israelis government unzips its pants and starts peeing, the US government is rushing on its knees to let the pee go in their face.
The US centre right opposition is always like “well we could have… we should have… but… well… like…” or something to that effect.
Until the Americans get an opposition that is not only not (less?) corrupt, but also focused on doing the right thing and willing to take risks, they are not going to to able to take on the oligarch regime.
Yup. If you have shitty values it’s hard to do the right thing.
We could do the bare minimum against the genocide, but khamas!
If there were any justice in this world Matt Miller would be tried for aiding and abetting a genocide, convicted by a jury of his peers, and hung from the neck until dead.
Ah yes, pretending intransigence isn’t happening to stop different intransigence. Definitely a sustainable strategy, and definitely not part of why Hamas doesn’t trust US negotiators in the first place. /s
The short term plans have been shit like this. The long term “plan” has been slogans and platitudes. Repeat for decades and unsurprisingly it escalates to genocide. This has been the shame of the West in my lifetime.
