Hamas responsible for failure to reach ceasefire, hostage deal, says US

‘Very Rigid’ – US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew blames Hamas for deadlocked hostage talks and failure to reach a ceasefire, accusing terror group of ‘hardening their position.’

By World Israel News Staff

Hamas is to blame for deadlocked hostage deal talks and efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, America’s top envoy to Israel said Thursday.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew told Kan 11 News Thursday that while he believed some of Israel’s actions “have distracted attention” from Hamas’ recalcitrance, he emphasized that the terror group was primarily to blame for the months of failed talks in Doha and Cairo.

“Overall, Hamas has been very rigid,” said Lew.

“In the weeks leading up to the murder of the six hostages, we were seeing no movement at all. We were negotiating where some of the names we were negotiating over were killed on [the] day where the six hostages were killed.”

Lew made a veiled criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in early September held a press conference on ceasefire talks, appearing in front of a map of the Gaza Strip to highlight the strategic importance of the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, and the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.

“I think that some of the things that the government of Israel has done have distracted attention from the fact that Hamas has been so rigid,” said Lew.

“Most people think that the Philadelphi Corridor was the biggest issue, because the government here talked about the Philadelphi Corridor. In fact, there was a constructive negotiation on the Philadelphi Corridor that could have led to a phase one deal, and Hamas was rigidly insisting on tougher terms in terms of prisoners and rights to have say over who gets released.”

“They were hardening their position but the world doesn’t necessarily know that because the maps of the Philadelphi Corridor was what they saw. So, I think that the resistance has come from Hamas, in large part, but some of the actions taken by the government of Israel shifted the focus from Hamas in a way that’s not helpful.”

Lew downplayed the divide between the Biden White House and the Israeli government during the Gaza war, and denied the administration withheld weapons other than aerial munitions.

“There was never an embargo. It is a fiction that there was an arms embargo. There’s one munition that we have held, and that is 2,000-pound bombs. Everything else is business as usual. Sometimes business as usual takes a little bit longer than you wanted to because there’s bureaucratic steps that are involved.”

The Israeli government and Republican lawmakers accused the Biden White House of also slow-walking the transfer of additional weapons systems, including armored vehicles and fighter jets.