Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
The elusive ceasefire deal in Gaza is not held up on a condition. The sticking point to end an 11-month-long war, which has killed over 40,000 in Gaza, is held up by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alone.
Aaron David Miller is an American Middle East analyst, author, and negotiator. Miller worked for the US Department of State for 24 years and as an advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations.
Miller said on CNN on September 4, that the ceasefire deal between Netanyahu and Hamas will not happen, because the sticking point is not the Philadelphia Corridor, it is about Netanyahu’s seat in office.
Netanyahu is under an enormous amount of pressure both domestically and globally to stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Yet, he seems impervious to the intense pressure, even from the US, which is his source of weapons and cash to continue the war on Gaza. Millions of protesters calling for the freedom of Palestine are in the streets around the world, and world leaders call for a ceasefire.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are in the streets demanding that Netanyahu sign a ceasefire deal to release their hostages. Israeli opposition leaders and Israeli peace activists are demanding a ceasefire and a change in the government.
The International Court of Justice ruled that the occupation of Palestine was against international law.
Hamas, the Palestinian resistance, is holding to their condition for the Israeli military to pull out completely of Gaza to accept the ceasefire between the two sides. But, Netanyahu is sticking to his demand of keeping troops inside Gaza on the Egyptian border, referred to as the Philadelphia Corridor.
Hamas has kept Netanyahu from achieving his military goals in Gaza. No senior Hamas leaders have been killed in Gaza, and the military wing of Hamas is still strong and fighting.
Hamas started a fight on October 7 which galvanized the international community on the side of the Palestinians. The two-state solution is cited by the US, and the UN as the only solution to the conflict.
The only country against the two-state solution is Israel.
Netanyahu asked AIPAC to put pressure on US President Joe Biden to drop out of the race. Biden was demanding Netanyahu make a ceasefire deal, to release Israeli hostages as well as stop the bloodshed in Gaza.
Biden’s decision to drop out of the race for re-election came just days after Netanyahu reneged on a ceasefire promise to Biden.
Netanyahu refused to comply with Biden because Netanyahu’s freedom depends on staying in office. If he goes against his right-wing religious extremist allies, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, they will drop his government like a hot potato.
If Netanyahu is out of office and has no immunity, he will serve jail time for the corruption charges he was found guilty of.
AIPAC was used as an effective tool in the hands of Netanyahu, as the ultra-powerful lobby that controls all Israeli issues in the US government. AIPAC circulated information to the media which portrayed Biden as too old to run for a second term, and would lose the race to Trump.
Netanyahu is betting on VP Kamala Harris winning over Trump. Despite that former President Donald Trump did more for Israel than any previous president, Trump has never forgotten that Netanyahu endorsed Biden in the 2020 election. Israel has thousands of citizens who hold US citizenship as well and vote in US elections.
Trump is well known for shutting down foreign wars which are a financial drain on the American taxpayer. If Trump is elected, Netanyahu might get a phone call telling him the billions of dollars in weapons and cash to Israel are being cut off, and demanding Netanyahu sign a ceasefire deal.
“Anything but a ceasefire!” has come to be Netanyahu’s mantra.
In 2022, Netanyahu took office in his current term as Prime Minister and said he had two goals: firstly, to increase Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank, and secondly, to sign a normalization treaty with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi deal is off the table because of the Gaza war, but the expansion of illegal settlements is raging on, and at a much faster pace since the world is distracted by events in Gaza, and the West Bank is in the shadows.
In June 2024, both CNN and the New York Times reported on a leaked conversation by Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich in which he explained his plan to annex the Occupied West Bank into Israel, which would forever end the two-state solution, and prevent the freedom of the Palestinian people.
Smotrich has controlled the Civil Administration since 2022, following Netanyahu’s formation of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. He holds the power within his office to complete the annexation plan, and the resulting deportations, which is ethnic cleansing paid for by the US taxpayers.
On August 26, Israeli Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for Jews to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of the holiest sites in Islam. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are heads of Jewish extremist parties that keep Netanyahu in power. No matter how hate-filled or inflammatory their statements are, Netanyahu is bound to them both, hand and foot.
Ben-Gvir went so far in a radio interview as to call for a synagogue to be built on the site, which would likely cause a religious war with implications across the Middle East, including Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim population.
Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace in Gaza and Israel. The Israeli hostage families feel betrayed by their government, and their loved ones are forgotten and dying in Gaza.
The people of Gaza will never be safe as long as Netanyahu is in power, and the people in Israel will likewise be in constant fear of violence associated with the resistance to the occupation of Palestine. The Geneva Convention explains the right of every person to hold arms in their struggle to regain their rights and stop the occupation.
The core values every American holds dearest, which were paid for in American blood in 1776, are freedom and the end of occupation. To be an American is to stand with the Palestinian cause of freedom and the end of the Israeli occupation.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
