On today’s Morning Joe, Jonathan Lemire said there’s skepticism the hostage deal will hold because Netanyahu — not Hamas! — might “submarine” it.
Yes, you can always trust the sterling citizens of Hamas to be good to their word. But Bibi? Not so much–you know those tricky Israelis!
Lemire also got in an unintentional laugh line, saying:
‘”Biden privately blames Netanyahu for prolonging the war, which he believes hurt his re-election chances.”
As I posted at X: “Yes, if only Bibi had been more malleable, Biden wouldn’t have said ‘we finally beat Medicare’ during the debate.”
Washington Post columnist and MSNBC analyst Eugene Robinson said Bibi has problems dealing with the “far right” of his coalition. Robinson mentioned that, among other things, the Israeli right wants the total elimination of Hamas. That’s a problem? So Gene, you’d like to see Hamas continue to exist?
It’s fascinating that Hamas is never “far” anything. They’re never extremists. They’re somehow the reasonable actors in comparison to “far-right” opponents.
Note: In support of his claim that there’s skepticism the hostage deal will hold, Lemire cited a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who told him that Bibi might submarine the deal if it suited his purposes. Lemire didn’t disclose the senator’s name. It’s fair to assume that it wasn’t a Republican. Of the Democrats on the Committee, four of them voted in favor of three resolutions put forward by Bernie Sanders that would have blocked US military aid to Israel. In addition to Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member, the other three following Bernie Sanders’ anti-Israel lead were Jeff Merkley, Tim Kaine, and Brian Schatz. Any guesses on Lemire’s source?
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBCMorning Joe1/16/256:12 am ET
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Biden privately blames Netanyahu for prolonging the war, which he believes hurt his re-election chances.
. . .
The chaotic, sort of bombastic approach that Trump takes to the office, where he said, literally, there’d be hell to pay in the Middle East if a deal wasn’t struck before he took office could have spooked all, all parties involved.
That said, there’s still skepticism that this deal will hold, that Netanyahu will follow through. I was speaking to someone in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just yesterday who had real concerns that at the end, that Netanyahu would find some way to submarine it if he thought it was for his own advantage.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Really, exactly. And I think he I think he he would have.
But my question about Netanyahu is, you know, his governing coalition is of the far right that, that’s not going to like this deal. That doesn’t like this deal, that doesn’t want any deal.
That wants the final end of, of Hamas and, and essentially, Israeli annexation of, of Gaza and the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria and, and so he has to deal with that.
