Since we are already being subjected to revisionist versions of this moment, let us be very clear on what is happening right now: Hamas has rejected the ceasefire proposal accepted by Israel and endorsed by dozens of Western and Arab countries and by the UN Security Council. The terrorist group is currently the only party standing in the way of a ceasefire in Gaza. After a protracted delay, Hamas has come back to negotiators with a new set of demands that represent a hardening of its previous positions and a withdrawal from earlier concessions, even as Israel has gone further than ever before in an effort to bring about a ceasefire and release of hostages. As U.S. Secretary of State Blinken has said, the proposal currently on the table is "virtually identical" to one Hamas itself proposed a month ago, but Hamas has presented a set of changes that are "unworkable." "Since the President put the proposal forward, countries throughout the region and around the world – as well as international organizations – have all endorsed it. Israel has accepted it," Blinken said earlier this week. "The only outlier in this moment — the only outlier in this moment — is Hamas." The reality is that Hamas that has thwarted one proposed ceasefire after another in recent months. Negotiators have expressed public frustration with the terrorist group's tendency to engage in bait-and-switch tactics, seeming to make concessions and then withdrawing from them when a deal appears to be within reach. "Hamas could have answered with a single word: 'Yes,'" Blinken said. "Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted." “At some point in a negotiation — and this has gone back and forth for a long time — you get to a point where if one side continues to change its demands, including making demands and insisting on changes on things that they had already accepted, you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not,” Blinken said. That's classic diplomatic understatement. In point of fact, the "ceasefire now" crowd has long ignored Israel's mounting concessions and Hamas's continued intransigence, blaming Israel for the ongoing war even as the negotiators all point to Hamas as the primary obstacle to a ceasefire. At this point, this inversion of reality can only be willful. As The Wall Street Journal reported this week, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has told his associates that the group has no interest in ending the war and the deaths of Palestinian civilians are "necessary sacrifices." “It may be that Hamas continues to say 'no,'" said Blinken. "[Then] I think it will be clear to everyone around the world that it's on them, and that they will have made a choice to continue a war that they started." But will it be?
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