it is September 3rd 2024 and Biden is coming out and claiming that Netanyahu isn't doing enough to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal after six Israeli hostages were killed amid the idf's attempts to get access to them by military means and yes we are seeing protest in Israel people calling out Netanyahu for not reaching a deal for not getting those captives back alive by seeing them walk free as all of this happens we continue to see Israel killing Palestinians by the dozens in the Gaza Strip while carrying out a seventh day of rate in the West Bank and as all of that is happening we're also still keeping an eye on Iran wondering what they are going to do how they are going to retaliate but as our guest who we were joined by earlier made a very important point on this one he specifically noted that why would Iran retaliate right now when Israel is seeing all of the clashes and all of the issues that they are seeing coming to the surface with these protest in the streets for as long as there is disorder in Israel Iran may not be the one to send them a reason for Unity by carrying out a retaliatory attack we got into all of the latest happening earlier so let's take a listen to that conversation now joining me now to this guest is Veteran War correspondent Elijah man Elijah thanks so much for taking the time to join me it's great to be with you thank you for having me now I want to get your take on the latest here I know that Netanyahu is coming out and claiming that no one will preach to him under renewed pressure for a hostage and ceasefire deal after six Israeli hostages were killed theid the idf's efforts to free them by military means what does it tell us when Israel is pursuing the hostages in this manner all while knowing that a deal to get them out alive for that to be guaranteed is on the table well if we listen to what the US President Joe Biden said that Netanyahu is not doing enough and that was a direct criticism for the Israeli Prime Minister that we have never heard uh from the uh us uh president that usually send his foreign secretary the Secretary of State anony blinkin whitewashing all the attempt of netan to sabotage any deal but this time it is a direct criticism toward Netanyahu who is sabotaging all deals and changing his mind con continuously by imposing additional conditions on any negotiations to the point that he has reached now the Philadelphia Corridor and the narim corridor the narim that divide the north from the south uh and the Philadelphia Corridor that include the Rafa Crossing and isolate Gaza from Egypt and prevent any access uh of humanitarian AIDS the travel of people who seek uh education or uh medical attention outside Gaza that is all closed today so the reason why Netanyahu is doing that uh because he understood that this is a condition that Hamas will never agreed upon and Hamas asked as the Americans agreed and they are calling for the withdrawal of the is Israeli forces from the Narin Corridor and from the Philadelphia Corridor so basically the Americans are saying there is no deal on the table if the Israelis are not willing to withdraw from the Philadelphia and theim corridors and Netanyahu is saying I will not withdraw ever from these two corridors now we understand in the negotiations there is never anything that is called ever nevertheless for the time being because Netanyahu enjoys the support of the majority in the Israeli Society he can permit him himself to stand against the US president against the Israeli oppositions and against the people in the street because they do not represent so far the weight of the majority who are standing against their prime minister and want him to go to a deal yeah and I think that that's good to keep in mind especially as we do see protest in Israel calling for some sort of a deal although the the majority of their Still Still supports the bombing of the Palestinians and the ongoing killing of them that we're seeing I did think it was interesting because when it comes to these six hostages that were killed one of them was actually an American and although you do have as you pointed out Biden coming out and saying that Netanyahu isn't doing enough to reach a deal we're still not seeing any significant pressure coming from the US saying look you're going to reach a deal you're going to agree to this really aiming that at Israel or else the us is going to stop providing the weapons and we know that when it comes to that deal I mean these hostages could have been freed months ago so what kind of a message message does it send when not only is Netanyahu still refusing a deal but the US is still standing behind him well we have seen an attempt from the United States to withhold 3,000 plus bombs on Israel and we've seen how the Israelis have reacted harshly against the US Administration when Joe Biden sent already more than 50 th000 uh tons of explosive and ammunition to Israel therefore only for a small amount the Israelis did not accept the uh uh the prevention of the Americans to give them particular bombs and they reply by saying instead of using Precision missile against one building we will uh destroy 10 buildings uh on the way if we don't have these Precision missiles so this way of challenging the Israeli from the Israeli uh side to the US Administration in the time of us election is very well uh thought and uh planned by prime minister Benyamin netan he understands that the American Administration cannot withhold anything from Israel in the time of War otherwise this will be reflected negatively on the US elections and that is the reason why Netanyahu feels that he's negotiating from a position of strength and no longer actually negotiating but challenging criticizing the Americans and criticizing anyone in Israel who stands against his plan to continue the war in Gaza and everybody today understand including the Israeli media the Israeli politicians you hear it on the Israeli televisions on all the channels saying that this is a war of Netanyahu his personal War because he wants to survive and avoid accountability for his failure on the 7th of October and the corruption charges therefore it is a necessity for nany to continue the war to keep the Coalition together because the far right nationalist uh Orthodox ministers uh of finance bzal smri and security minister Timar Bing had threatened him to resign and to break the Coalition and to bring Netanyahu down in case he stops the war so for the moment although it looks like Netanyahu is a hostage himself of the two far right ministers nevertheless we know that they all meet on the same ideological plans and they all want the destruction of Gaza they want to transform the north of Gaza into an an area where no Palestinian can live in so they can the Israelis can rebuild it again but as settlement for their own people that they would be the AV on guard in case of another attack similar to the 7th of October the problem is so far the Israelis have not found anyone who can rule Gaza apart from Hamas and netan doesn't want even the Palestinian Authority because he doesn't want the link between Gaza and West Bank and for him to stop the war on Gaza in case the Palestinian Authority uh take over so his plan is quite obvious he doesn't want the Palestinian to remain in Gaza and he will offer them at the end of the day to leave the trip and not to leave to the West Bank no he is conducting another operation in the West Bank and he's considering the West Bank and in particular Janine and T camps as a war theaters So the plan of the liid party and of the far right nationalist parties is meeting on the same uh common ground to expel the Palestinian from Palestine yeah and I think that's got to be the most important point out of all of this because exactly as you're laying it out there I mean in all of the places where you see this back and forth about a possible ceasefire deal or even as we talked about last week when it comes to the constant beating of the ward drums wanting Israel wanting to invade Lebanon to go after Hezbollah there what It ultimately comes back to is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and now we're seeing a sth day of raids that Israel has carried out in the West Bank at the same time they're still killing dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with their bombs there now they're targeting the West Bank as well do you expect to see see this targeting these raids to see it continue in this way is this kind of the next phase that Israel is moving into is they continue this war which ultimately is against the Palestinian people well the defense minister of Israel you AF Galan said we have finished a job in Gaza and the Army doesn't have any more task to do and acknowledging that Israel has failed in the initial declar objectives to free all the captives and to destroy Hamas this is why the Israeli Prime Minister came into his uh latest uh press conference saying the war will stop only when we destroy Hamas so he's still holding on to the same objective that were described even by the chief of staff hery alivi and all the Israeli officials are impossible to achieve and the criticism between the Israeli um politician like prime minister Netanyahu and the chief of staff is coming out with the first time when there are accusations uh on both sides one accusing the other and vice versa and the Army is saying well you have given us impossible objectives and the netan is saying well you are failing to achieve these objectives therefore it is with the killing of the six uh captives uh that was recently discovered is due to the insisting of Netanyahu really to make sure to provoke Hamas to kill all the remaining captives so he doesn't have to negotiate at all and he will not be under pressure because he would say well they all dead already why do I have to give any concessions so he's doing everything in his power to make sure that all the remaining captives the 30 or 40 or 100 we don't not the numbered are all killed by either his bombardment or by forcing the um resistance to kill them before Netanyahu can reach them AOW and then come out and say well to the people of Israel your uh manifestations are worthless because the way I am conducting the war is uh reaching to an objective to free all the captives alive so this is why the resistance has taken the decision to deal with the captives in a different way because the last time in the nirat attack in June when there were four Israeli captives that were freed by the Israeli Army more than 600 Palestinians were killed and wounded in the operation where the Israelis were careless about civilian casualties and they just bombed the entire area so for the resistance for the Palestinian resistance they considered that this is not going to be repeated again and if the Israelis will understand that they are very close to the location of the prisoners alive then they will do exactly the same Massac they have done in the nirat camp and to prevent this they would execute the captives and then leave so the Army can come and recover these captives but dead and for that it's a putting pressure on benam NY because the Israeli society today understands that the military operation is the cause behind the uh Palestinian uh executing their captives instead of allowing them to be freed by the Israeli Army at the cost of several hundreds of Palestinian civilians and also because netan is refusing a deal that he offered all the details in uh uh May uh several month ago to President Biden and that President Biden said this is an Israeli plan and then Netanyahu changed his mind and introduced more details and more conditions so it is inevitable to understand that actually netan is not only sabotaging the deal but he doesn't want the deal and he came out and said it in the meeting at the war cabinet when he was asked and it was leaked by the Israeli press when he was asked by the defense minister UF Gallant do you prefer the uh Philadelphia Corridor on the Israeli captives and he said yes so it was clear for Netanyahu is the gain of control of a 14 kilometers Corridor is more valuable than around 100 captives or 200 plus uh those who are alive and uh dead to be recovered so that is clear and this is something that hits the doctrine of the Israeli and the Israeli Army where it is the the uh narrative that Israel cannot and will never leave people behind it is no longer implemented we've seen it in Ron Arad the pilot in 1986 when Israel just forgot about him completely in the hand of AAL movement when his jet was downed and this is what the Israeli defense minister reminded Netanyahu that he is really copying exactly the same scenario as the Israeli pilot Ron Arad that disappeared and Israel knows nothing about him and this is what is going to um H what is going to happen to the Israeli captives that go going to be killed in tunnels by the Israeli bombing or other means and nobody will ever know where they were yeah yeah I know that there's uh certainly a lot at stake here and it's interesting I appreciate your explanation on the different ways that we're seeing Netanyahu kind of I would say go back and forth but at the same time he's in this place of juggling all of these different things well at the same time you're seeing Hamas also juggle things also figure out ways to sort of adapt their strategy based on what Israel is doing or in the case of the ceasefire refusing to do now lastly I wanted to ask you about where Iran stands in all of this because I know that we're still in this place of watching and waiting to see how and when and if Iran is going to retaliate retaliate for Israel's assassination of inian Diplomat and Hamas political Chief isal hania and there was some hope I know this was expressed by the Biden Administration that if they could just come to some sort of a ceasefire agreement then Iran would hold off on its retaliation against Israel where do you see Iran standing right now especially given the way that Netanyahu is acting given the fact that it does not appear that he is going to be agreeing to a deal anytime soon at least as it stands right now no strategic mind would disturb the hundreds of thousands of uh uh manifestation in the street of Israel against Netanyahu today by bringing back the Israeli Society together against one threat that is Iran if Iran bombed Israel today because there is a large division among the Israeli Society from the Iranian perspective it is much better to allow them to continue manifesting against bamin Netanyahu who is looking for any War to just find a way out of the crisis that he is in because the society today is saying you have to go for a deal if Iran bombs Israel today then people will disappear from the street Netanyahu will say we are under a serious threat from Iran and he will respond back to Iran and then will divert the attention completely away from the Israeli captives and from the war in Gaza I don't think it will be any of a clever move by Iran to attack today and I think the Iranian officials are very much aware that any attack today will unite the Israeli society that has never been as divided as it is today for that Iran is waiting to see the result of the negotiations the Americans are saying every day John Kirby the spokesperson of the White House and the National Security said today we are closer than ever and the gaps are too small not to achieve a deal even if what he's saying may not be reflecting the reality because benam nanyu is not abiding by the US administration's wishful thinking and he is resisting to this pressure nevertheless it is for Iran to allow the Americans to do their job or declare we have failed and we cannot reach any agreement with Netanyahu and then the demonstration in the street will either escalate or deescalate if the manifestation in the street deescalate then Iran will retaliate and will hit back because this is not negotiable however in this situation today as long as the manifestation continue and growing we're talking about hundreds of thousands we're talking about the airport blocked we talking about the civilian institutions that are on strike this is the ideal situation for Iran to sit back and watch what's happening in Israel yeah I know there's certainly a lot of moving Parts here and I I'm with you sometimes the best thing is to sit back and to watch as things play out before you act and not to always interfere but it'll be interesting to see what ends up happening and I look forward to talking to you all about it in the future Veteran War correspondent Elijah man thank you so much for your time and insight thank you for having me if anything in this video resonated with you be sure to like it share it with your friends leave a comment and as always don't forget to subscribe and if you want to keep up with all of my work make sure that 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