Everyone who wants peace now must raise their voices
and let the leaders know
they should take this deal,
work to make it real,
make it lasting,
and forge a better future out of the tragic terror
attack and war.
It's time to begin this new stage.
The hostage is to come home,
for Israel to be secure,
for the suffering to stop.
It's time for this war to end
in our spotlight. President Biden is now calling on Hamas
to accept a new ceasefire deal in order to bring
an end to the war in Gaza.
Biden earlier today laid out what he calls a path
for peace,
revealing details of a three phase plan that would stop
the fighting,
release all hostages and help civilians who are caught in
the middle of the war.
This comes as Israeli forces advance into central Rafa,
pushing even deeper into the southern Gaza City despite international
backlash and pressure from allies to scale back after a
recent strike that killed dozens of Palestinian civilians.
Let's bring back our panel,
Christina and Barbara. And joining us is ABC News contributor
and op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times,
Elsie Granderson, and ABC News senior national policy reporter Anne
Flaherty.
And I'll go to you first.
the US has obviously played a key role in these
ongoing back and forth negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
What do you make of this proposal from President Biden?
What kind of pressure is he under and,
and doing this, putting this out and endorsing this today?
Yeah, without a doubt, President Biden is under tremendous political
pressure,
especially in an election year.
If you remember, this is the guy who ran in
O8 with Obama on an anti war ticket.
And now he's back in,
you know, center stage in this debate about
US supplying weapons in the Middle East.
It's not where he wants to be.
So, you know, is this plan his his ticket out?
He certainly hopes so. We've been here before.
So there's reason to be a little bit cautious.
You know, the only two entities that can end this
war is Israel and Hamas.
And we need to see them rally behind this.
We haven't seen that entirely yet.
We did hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel,
who said, you know, look,
our our final goal has to be eliminating Hamas.
You know, so is that going to actually do it?
I think only time is going to tell
and we've seen glimmers of hope for a deal and
then they have been dashed timing.
And Barbara, what do you make of the timing of
this plan from President Biden?
Well, with Netanyahu's, you know,
invitation to come and speak,
you know, that came from the four leaders of Congress.
You know, you do have some opportunity for discussion here.
So, you know, a lot of open-ended questions still.
So, you know, you have this on the table,
but, you know, a lot of,
you know, negotiations that have to go on with Hamas
and think you want to see a lot of,
you know, the hostages, you know,
people do not want to have
Hamas still out there. That's a big problem.
So still going to have to see a lot of,
you know, seeing them go away is the real problem,
right, No doubt. Well, and Christina,
President Biden mentioned that both Hamas and Israel would need
to live up to their commitments.
We have seen in recent days the White House say
that Israel has not crossed those so-called red lines in
Rafa,
but this is a fine line that the president's walking
there.
Yeah. I think that the Biden administration wants this deal.
The Palestinian people want this deal.
I think whether Hamas and the Israeli government want the
deal is another question,
right? The Biden administration has been contradicted many times by
Netanyahu.
Just earlier this week, we had someone in the Israeli
government,
while one of the highest officials,
saying they expected this war to continue throughout the end
of the year.
So I think we have to wait and see
what will ultimately happen. But we do know that the
majority,
the Democratic base wants a ceasefire.
As said, there is tremendous political pressure on the Biden
administration to find a resolution.
It's just not clear. We'll have to wait and see.
That's actually what will happen.
And as we focus so much on an A ceasefire
on the hostages,
LZ, that the phase three of this plan is about
the
reconstruction of Gaza, this longer term plan,
so many millions of people have been displaced.
Do you see this as the conversation that should be
being had right now?
Absolutely. This is a conversation that should be centered.
And this is the conversation in the election year where
voters have an opportunity to think about which president you
want in these moments.
Now, if you look at,
you know, the former President Trump and you listen to
rhetoric from his party,
they definitely want the war to continue to go on
as long as possible.
And you don't hear them talk a lot about humanitarianism.
You certainly don't hear a lot of talk about ceasefire.
If you look at President Biden,
obviously there's a lot of people in his extreme left
who are not happy with the decisions that he's made.
But you hear Biden's rhetoric where he is trying to
talk about humanitarian aid,
where he is trying to talk about a ceasefire.
So if you're a voter right now,
yes, there's a domestic lens in terms of short term,
in terms of what you're going to do in November.
But four years from now,
if there's another moment like this,
which voice do you find yourself leaning more towards?
I think this is a moment American voters need to
be thinking about through that lens as well as the
international lens.
And in terms of Israel's place in the world.
An interesting point that we're out,
we're so focused on the weeks,
months ahead of the election,
but that outcome will, of course,
determine so much and years ahead of their Aussie.
Christina, Barbara, and thank you all so much.