CIA Director William Burns will urge Israel and Hamas to agree on a deal that seeks the release of all hostages in Gaza in exchange for a two-month cease-fire.

President Biden plans to dispatch CIA Director William J. Burns in the coming days to help broker an ambitious deal between Hamas and Israel that would involve the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza and the longest cessation of hostilities since the war began last year, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Burns is expected to travel to Europe for the talks and meet with the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, David Barnea and Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. The planned gathering has not been previously reported.

Egypt and Qatar have been key interlocutors between Israel and Hamas, the militant group whose deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7 set off the war in Gaza. The two countries helped secure an initial pause in hostilities and hostage release in November. But tensions between the Israelis and Qataris are on a razor’s edge after leaked audio of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu captured the Israeli leader disparaging Qatar in a conversation with Israeli hostage families.

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  • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    231·
    5 months ago

    Wait the CIA can help broker peace deals?! I thought they only assassinated leaders and funded rebels. Cool.

    • psvrh
      15·
      5 months ago

      If you had the top people in Netanyahu’s government whacked, as well as a few upper-echelon Hamas leaders, it’s probably sort out a lot of the issue.

      So maybe this is up the CIA’s alley?

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        93·
        5 months ago

        *Israel laughs in Mossad.

        Did you miss the news about how a bunch of worldwide CIA operatives were getting killed mysteriously after a certain former President seemed to be hoarding classified files?

        Pretty fucksure Mossad has the upper hand here considering the CIA has been hacked a few times in the last few years, has abysmal recruitment levels, and literally just lost a bunch of their good agents.

        USA is falling apart and it shows.

        • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
          61·
          5 months ago

          For those who don’t know who Bill Burns is, the choice to send him probably has little to do with his position as director of the CIA, and more to do with his experience as an accomplished diplomat. The following is from his Wikipedia article.

          In 1994, Burns was named to Time’s lists of “50 Most Promising American Leaders Under Age 40” and “100 Most Promising Global Leaders Under Age 40”.[49] He was named Foreign Policy’s “Diplomat of the Year” in 2013.[50] He is the recipient of Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Statesman Award (2014),[51] the Middle East Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2014), and the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Annenberg Award for Diplomatic Excellence (2015).[52] Burns received the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award (2022).[53][54]

          I’m not going to speculate on his odds of success, but his selection for this role is an indication of the seriousness of the Biden Administration in trying to make it work.

    • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      5 months ago

      You forgot about all that cocaine and heroin trafficking. And torture. They were really into torture for a long time. 

  • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    I’ve long thought Bill Burns is probably one of the most intelligent people in Biden’s arsenal. Though I’m a little surprised this isn’t delegated to the Secretary of State (whom I respect all the same).

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    79·
    5 months ago

    And then after two months they turn the genocide machine back on.

    And in the meantime, will they end the vicious blockade of supplies or will they still not be allowed to have fuel? Will they retreat from the strip, or leave behind occupiers to hold on to captured locations? Will they release all of the Palestinian hostages held on the Israeli side?

    Not sure Hamas will go for this.

    • donuts@kbin.social
      44·
      5 months ago

      And then after two months they turn the genocide machine back on?

      Wait, did you think that a ceasefire meant that neither side would ever fight again, and that they’d all live happily ever after?

      If that was the case, Hamas wouldn’t have brought an end to the last ceasefire on October 7th, 2023.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        47·
        5 months ago

        In 2019 during the great march of return, IDF troops murdered 223 protesters and shot over six thousand with live ammunition - often aiming for their knees to cripple them for life.

        That’s what the so-called ceasefire was like before Oct 7th.

        Saying Hamas ended the ceasefire is oversimplifying the situation. During the so-called ceasefire Israel’s war on Gaza never ended.

        • donuts@kbin.social
          3·
          5 months ago

          In 2019 during the great march of return […] During the so-called ceasefire Israel’s war on Gaza never ended.

          This would be a more compelling point had you not cited yet another border incursion by Hamas into Israeli territory, wouldn’t it?

          A lasting ceasefire means that both sides must cease fire, border incursions and other blatant provocations. (It wouldn’t hurt to cut down on the militant rhetoric too, but I digress…)

          If South Koreans or North Koreans decided tomorrow to march thousands into the Korean DMZ, what do you think the other side would do as a response? Do you suppose that it might rapidly escalate into a very dangerous situation for both sides?

          The bottom line is that there was relative peace and stability on October 6th, and then on October 7th, something happened that undeniably made the conflict worse for everyone. There is not an innocent person in the Levant whose life is better post-October 7th, and Hamas are to blame and thus cannot be trusted by any rational mind to preserve future ceasefires.

          There is a long history of militant border incursions on Israeli territory going all the way back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and they always backfire when Israel fights back, which is why Gaza’s borders are as they are today. Gaza was 3-4x bigger and controlled over half of the Egyptian border before the Arab League very unwisely chose to invade Israel in 1948.

          One would think that the Palestinians would figure out by now that militant provocations against Israel are not the path to a better life. They only embolden Netenyahu’s government, which has historically thrived on demonizing Hamas. Hamas’ Islamist jihad and Netenyahu’s right-wing fascism have been mutually fueling the cause of political extremism in the Middle East, and that’s why they are in the situation that we see today.

          Unfortunately, neither side is run by political leaders who want peace, only power. And so, unless Israeli and Palestinian leadership changes, I feel that we won’t see a long-term ceasefire or lasting peace in our lifetimes.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            27·
            5 months ago

            Apartheid isn’t peace. It’s not like Gaza has control over its border. It’s a ghetto!

            One would think that the Palestinians would figure out by now that militant provocations against Israel are not the path to a better life.

            Racist paternalism.