Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied reports that he had accepted the terms of a Lebanon ceasefire proposed on Wednesday by French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden.
As Breitbart News reported, President Macron proposed a 21-day ceasefire at the UN just as Israel was gaining the upper hand against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. President Biden joined Israel's fight rather than supporting it.
Notably, the proposed ceasefire makes no mention of Hezbollah or its backer, Iran.
International media reports that Israel was considering a ceasefire sparked a flurry of condemnation within Israel, especially from residents in the north of the country who have been forced from their homes by Hezbollah attacks for more than a year. Only opposition leader Yair Lapid, who is close to the Biden administration, has accepted the idea of a Lebanese ceasefire in principle, and even he said it should only last seven days.
Netanyahu, who is in the United States for three days to address the United Nations General Assembly, denied the reports.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement.
The reports about a ceasefire are false. It is a proposal from the US and France, but the Prime Minister has not even responded to it.
Reports that there was an order to ease up on fighting in the north are the exact opposite of the truth: the prime minister followed the plan laid out and ordered the IDF to continue fighting with full force.
The fighting in Gaza will continue until all war objectives are achieved.
“Of course, Israel is open to diplomacy. Diplomacy has always been our recourse. Israel has not yet responded to this specific U.S.-French proposal,” Israeli government spokesman David Mensah told reporters Thursday morning.
He said those currently pushing for a ceasefire would realize that it was “antithetical to the goal I think we all strive for, which is peace and stability in the region.”
“It is actually Israel that is creating the strategic and diplomatic realities necessary for a long-term ceasefire through precision strikes against Hezbollah,” he said.
“By hitting them in a way that really hurts, Israel is making the possibility of a political and diplomatic solution that much more realistic.”
He added: “Hezbollah will not withdraw from southern Lebanon just because we ask it.”
“Our demands are very clear and reasonable: to allow tens of thousands of our citizens, who have been uprooted and displaced for a year, to return. This can be achieved if Hezbollah understands that it cannot attack Israel. It cannot have a physical presence along the border with southern Lebanon. So far, Hezbollah has said no to our proposals for a whole year.”
He said Israel's attack on Hezbollah “means that we are actually getting closer to the reality we all want, which is to foster a new security reality based on understandings that were reached in the past but never fully implemented.”
Mensah referred to the UN Security Council resolution. 1559 (2004) called for the disarmament of non-Lebanese groups in Lebanon (such as Hezbollah), and 1701 (2006) reiterates the disarmament clause and calls on Hezbollah to withdraw from the Israeli border north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday It airs Sundays from 7:00pm-10:00pm ET (4:00pm-7:00pm PT) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of the following books: Agenda: What President Trump Should Do in His First 100 Daysavailable for pre-order on Amazon. He also Trumpian virtue: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump's presidencyavailable now on Audible. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
