For many weeks now, we've been hearing updates from the Biden administration, particularly John Kirby, that Israel and Hamas are "getting closer" to a ceasefire agreement based on Biden's own proposed plan he put forward earlier this summer. These increasingly rosy forecasts were obviously intended to give the impression that both sides were hard at work ironing out the details of a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement. Of course, the only people delivering this supposed good news were speaking from the White House. Neither Israel nor any Hamas spokespeople ever seemed anywhere near as certain. Yesterday, it all apparently became too much for Hamas spokesperson and Political Bureau member Basem Naim. He spoke to reporters and said that Hamas wasn't even involved in the latest round of negotiations and that the latest statements from John Kirby "are an attempt to sell illusions to cover up the crimes of the occupation." It sounds like someone has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar again. (Newsweek)

A senior Hamas official has accused U.S. President Joe Biden's administration of deliberately misrepresenting the level of progress achieved in ongoing negotiations toward a ceasefire in Gaza in order to put pressure on the Palestinian group.

The remarks, which were shared with Newsweek, came shortly after White House National Security Council Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters on Monday that "enough progress" had been made by the parties to the discussions taking place in the Egyptian capital of Cairo "to a point where they felt like the next logical step was to have groups at lower levels sit down to hammer out these finer details."

The working-level stage of talks, according to Kirby, "are of a much more detailed, specific nature than we've typically been able to talk about," including the nature of the exchange of hostages held in Hamas captivity since the group led a surprise attack last October and Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.

Kirby has pretty much been caught in a flat-out lie here. Just yesterday, he said, "Hamas continues to be represented as these working group meetings are going on as we speak and over the next few days." But that's simply not true. Hamas was supposedly represented by "a delegation of mediators in Egypt and Qatar." That was confirmed by Basem Naim, who said that nobody approved those representatives and "the resistance" (meaning Hamas) hadn't agreed to anything. 

To be clear, it's a rare day indeed when you'll find me agreeing with anything said by anyone from Hamas about anything. If Basem Naim personally assured me that water is wet, I'd probably go take a quick dip in the pool to check for myself. But in this situation, I'd have to say that he has nailed precisely what's been going on. The White House has been peddling illusions and doing so for political purposes. The leadership of Hamas believes Biden is doing it to put pressure on Hamas to compromise, but if so, that effort has cratered completely. Far more likely, Biden's people are attempting to sell the illusion of a peace accord shaping up to make him look like the peace-bringer he would like to be seen as and cover up his abject failure to exert the leadership required to maintain stability in that region and prevent the conflict from escalating out of control.

The truly sad part of all of this is that somebody in the White House needs to understand that you can't fake a peace deal that doesn't exist simply by holding a few press conferences. And you can't hold meaningful peace negotiations when you appoint someone you prefer to "represent" one of the warring factions while leaving that group's actual leadership out in the cold. If you try to do that, reality will pull the mask away sooner or later, and that's what it looks like we're seeing this week. There is no doubt in my mind that both Egypt and Qatar would love to see a lasting ceasefire and a lowering of the temperature in this conflict. But that simply isn't possible without both Israel and Hamas at the table and willing to accept the terms being offered.

Biden's team is clearly trying to resolve this situation by playing political games. I don't know why we should be surprised since that's essentially all he's done on every issue since taking office. He supports Israel, but only to a point and not enough to risk any votes for Harris in Michigan. He rarely if ever mentions the fact that there are American citizens still being held among the remaining hostages and he's done essentially nothing about that either. It would almost be worth mocking him over this if there weren't so many very real lives on the line.