Blinken acknowledges: Public pressure on Israel pushed Hamas to pull back from hostage talks

As his term in office winds down, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on a final mission, setting out to defend the Biden administration’s much-maligned foreign policy record, with its policy toward Israel being among the central flash points for criticism, both by supporters and enemies of the Jewish State.

On Saturday, The New York Times published a wide-ranging interview with Blinken, in which he explained the administration’s most controversial decisions, including during the Ukraine War and, as journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro put it, “the defining crisis of this era” – Israel’s war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.

The most notable sections of the discussion touched on the negotiations for a hostage release deal, which has continued in recent days as well.

After Garcia-Navarro characterized Israel’s military operations as “fairly indiscriminate. Entire areas flattened,” she asked why the Biden administration continued to supply heavy weaponry to Israel.

Blinken first noted that Israel needed the weapons, not only to fight Hamas but to keep up a regional deterrence. He explained that “the most effective way to have an enduring end to Gaza is through an agreement on a cease-fire that brings the hostages home.”

According to Blinken, the “biggest impediments” to this were that “whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a cease-fire and the release of hostages.”

This, he said, was the reason why the administration sometimes had disagreements in private, while publicly, signaling support for Israel. “Because with this daylight, the prospects of getting the hostage and cease-fire deal over the finish line become more distant.”

However, as Garcia-Navarro rightly pointed out, the administration signaled its frustration – and sometimes outright opposition – to Israel’s moves, very publicly. As an example, she mentioned that Israel entered the southern Gazan city of Rafah despite public opposition by Blinken, among other U.S. officials.

“When it comes to Rafah, we had deep, deep concerns about a direct attack and the use of the 2,000-pound munitions in densely populated areas,” Blinken acknowledged, but claimed: “What Israel wound up doing in Rafah was very different from what they were planning to do before we engaged with them.”

While some officials demanded Israel present a “credible” military plan before entering the town, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stated that “any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake.”

Blinken went on to explain that “the focus on getting a cease-fire, a hostage agreement was what was, in our estimation, the quickest and most durable way to get an end. And as I said, Hamas, when they saw Israel under pressure publicly, they pulled back.”

When asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct during hostage deal negotiations, Blinken denied reports that Israel blocked a potential deal last July.

“What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded. There have been times when actions that Israel has taken have, yes, made it more difficult. But there’s been a rationale for those actions,” Blinken said, highlighting the example of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's elimination.

Notably, despite openly disagreeing with Netanyahu several times during the war, Blinken’s comments confirmed the prime minister's consistent claims that Hamas was the ultimate obstacle to a deal, and not himself, as his domestic critics claim.

In this context, Blinken also noted how he thought it was “a little astounding” that despite “all of the understandable criticism of the way Israel has conducted itself in Gaza, you hear virtually nothing from anyone since Oct. 7 about Hamas.”

“Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender – I don’t know what the answer is to that. Israel, on various occasions, has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world? Where is the world, saying, Yeah, do that! End this! Stop the suffering of people that you brought on!”

“Now, again, that doesn’t absolve Israel of its actions in conducting the war. But I do have to question how it is that we haven’t seen a greater sustained condemnation and pressure on Hamas to stop what it started and to end the suffering of people that it initiated,” he added.

When asked if he believes there are still hostages alive, Blinken only replied: “Yes.”

In addition to the hostage issue, Blinken shed light on several other aspects of the Gaza War.

While he testified to personally witnessing the “horrors beyond anyone’s imagination inflicted on men, women and children” in Israel, Blinken also recounted how he threatened to cancel U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit several days after Oct. 7 to force Israel to agree to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza – weeks before the first Israeli soldier stepped foot inside the enclave.

“I spent with my team nine hours in the I.D.F.’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, six stories underground with the Israeli government, including the prime minister, including arguing for hours on end about the basic proposition that the humanitarian assistance needed to get to Palestinians in Gaza,” Blinken said.

“I told the prime minister, I’m going to call the president and tell him not to come if you don’t allow this assistance to start flowing. And I called the president to make sure that he agreed with that, and he fully did.”

“We’ve tried all along to look out for the needs of so many people who’ve been caught in this horrific crossfire. And we have a traumatized Palestinian population. I’ve met with Palestinian Americans who’ve lost loved ones in Gaza. I have with me still a little brochure that one fellow American made that has pictures of his family in Gaza – on the left side, those who were killed, including children, and on the right side, those who are still alive,” Blinken added.

When asked about internal opposition to his approach, which was seen as too pro-Israel by some workers in the U.S. State Department, Blinken revealed that he had received around 20 memos protesting his policy. “I have inordinate respect for the people in this department who have not only had different views of the policies that we’ve pursued but have expressed those views.”

Despite revelations that substantiate accusations of conduct seen by some as hostile to Israel, Blinken doubled down on his assertion that Israel is not committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

When asked if he was concerned about the Biden administration being perceived as presiding over an Israeli “genocide,” Blinken responded, “No. It’s not, first of all. Second, as to how the world sees it, I can’t fully answer to that. But everyone has to look at the facts and draw their own conclusions from those facts. And my conclusions are clear.“

Looking toward the future, he noted how he had “spent months working on a post-conflict plan with many countries in the region, Arab partners in particular.”

“We have the prospect of a totally different region with normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and many other countries, Israel integrated into the security architecture of the region, and because it will be a requirement of any such normalization agreement, a real pathway to a Palestinian state,” Blinken explained.

Earlier in the interview, Blinken mentioned how he was scheduled to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia on Oct. 10 to advance peace negotiations.

“Normalization with Saudi Arabia, that can happen tomorrow based on the work that we’ve done, the investments we’ve made, once there is an end to the conflict in Gaza and an agreement on a credible path forward for the Palestinians,” Blinken concluded.