Gershon Baskin shares with CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield his analysis regarding the “proof of life” videos of Keith Siegel and Omri Miran, the Hamas’s demands from the Israeli Government, and the position of the Israeli Government.
All right. Let’s talk more now with former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin, who is Middle East director of the International communities Organization. Gershon, great to see you.
So I want to begin with, you know, a relative of hostage Keith Siegel, you know, whose video proof of life was just released. Hanna Siegel is his niece. And she said it was bittersweet seeing the video and hearing her uncle’s voice. Take a listen to what she told CBS today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNA SIEGEL, NIECE OF HAMAS HOSTAGE KEITH SIEGEL: He starts the video by saying how much he loves us, he loves our family and he’s obviously under duress.
He’s gaunt, he looks weak, but that’s real. I know that he misses his family.
SIEGEL: He talks in the video about hearing bombs all around him. And so we worry about the fact that he’s being held underground by a terrorist group.
[14:05:00]
Of course, we worry about the fact that he’s starving. When Aviva came out because she talked to us about how they were beginning to starve. And I can’t imagine that that hasn’t gotten so much worse. You can see it on his face.
And we also worry about the bombs going off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Keith Siegel is one of several American hostages being held. She makes reference to Aviva. That’s his wife, who was also a hostage. But she was released back in November.
So Hanna, as you hear there, Gershon believes also that the release of this weekend’s videos and that of Hersch Goldberg-Polin, you know, seen it a proof of life video last week. She believes all of that are signals from Hamas that they are ready to make a deal.
Do you agree?
GERSHON BASKIN, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES ORGANIZATION: Hamas has been ready to make a deal for quite some time, but their conditions are that the deal include the formal end of the war and its commitment to Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
And that’s a step too far for the current Israeli government. Netanyahu who’s held hostage by the right-wing, more right-wing elements within his government say that if Netanyahu agrees to end the war. In fact, if he agrees not to attack in Rafah, his government will break apart. Netanyahu is most concerned with the prolongation of his government which means that he wants to prolong the war.
And here’s where we’re stuck because the negotiators have come back to Israel, the Qataris and the Egyptians over and over again and said that Hamas is willing to release all the hostages dead and alive, all 133 of them but the condition is that this war come to an end.
And here’s where were stuck.
WHITFIELD: And so Hanna, you know, seemed to think that this isn’t coming to an end, or at least an agreement seems elusive. At least in part because of Prime Minister Netanyahu. And that it’s not in his political interests, she believes, to close a deal. Do you share that same view?
BASKIN: I do. I think it’s very clear that Netanyahu has missed opportunities that have been there on the table in the past months to make a deal.
There was a short period of time when that might have been possible to do what they call a humanitarian deal. A release of the remaining women and children, sick, elderly, and wounded without the Israeli commitment to end the war. But Israel was too slow to act on that. And Hamas leaned back and hardened its positions and demanded the end of the war. And here as I said, Netanyahu does not want to end the war. He
believes that there can be the complete victory that no one else agrees with. There’s no such thing as a complete victory in these circumstance.
The longer that Israel remains in Gaza, the more we will see armed insurgency against Israel and will encourage the development o, Hamas and more radical groups than Hamas.
There must be a political alternative put on the table for the day after, and Netanyahu and his government refused to do that? And the negotiators are stuck. They can’t negotiate without having an alternative for Hamas on the table because an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and ending the war leaves Hamas in place in Gaza.
WHITFIELD: The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, heading to Saudi Arabia to try again, y k, to end this deadlock. So what can be done or said from his point of view, from his role that hasn’t already.
BASKIN: Well, I think that the Saudis and the other Arab neighbors, the moderate Sunni Arab states have been talking to the Palestinians of different factions and trying to come up with a solution of a credible, legitimate Palestinian entity that can take over control of the Gaza Strip but not only the Gaza Strip, the West Bank as well.
And here there would be a requirement for President Abbas, the long- term Palestinian president, 18 years or 19 years in a four-year term, who has lost his legitimacy amongst his own people. He would have to step aside.
And here we have a great reluctance from his side as well. But perhaps the Arab countries can persuade Abbas to step aside and they can support a credible, legitimate Palestinian element to take over with the agreement of the Saudis and the Jordanians and the Egyptians and the Emiratis and perhaps others to send a peacekeeping force to Gaza once Israel withdraws.
This is the political element that Netanyahu refuses to accept. And perhaps the carrot that the American administration is waving in front of Netanyahu of normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia might be sweet enough for Netanyahu to try and accept and persuade his government to accept.
WHITFIELD: Do you find any encouragement that an end is near.
BASKIN: I’m rather skeptical. I don’t think that Hamas will agree to a partial deal.
I hope that they would so we can get some kind of ceasefire. I believe that once we have a ceasefire in place for four weeks or five weeks or six weeks, there might be a way of negotiating to turn that into a permanent ceasefire, the end of the war and the political solution that we need to enable Israel to withdraw from Gaza.
[14:10:00] Right now, we’re deadlocked. The war goes on. The Israeli threat of the incursion into Rafah is genuine. You don’t make threats unless you intend to carry them out. Israel has issued draft notices to reserve soldiers to show up on May 1st to begin their preparation for the incursion into Rafah.
So I think everything must be done to prevent that because there are 1.5 million Palestinians in that small area of the Gaza Strip. And we really do need to get the hostages home and to end this war. Enough already.
WHITFIELD: Gershon Baskin, thanks so much.
BASKIN: Thank you.
