{"id":120933,"date":"2021-05-20T23:47:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T06:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=120933"},"modified":"2021-05-20T23:47:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T06:47:19","slug":"president-biden-on-middle-east-israel-hamas-cease-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=120933","title":{"rendered":"President Biden on Middle East, Israel &#038; Hamas Cease Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Folks, I\u2019ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu.  Earlier today, I spoke with President Al Sisi of Egypt.  And Minister \u2014 Prime Minister Netanyahu informed me that Israel has agreed to a mutual, unconditional ceasefire to begin in less than two hours.  The Egyptians have now informed us that Hamas and the other groups in Gaza have also agreed.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nKWFzxiWVnQ\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In my conversation with President [Prime Minister] Netanyahu, I commended him for the decision to bring the current hostilities to a close within less than 11 days.  I also emphasized what I have said throughout this conflict: The United States fully supports Israel\u2019s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The Prime Minister also shared with me his appreciation for the Iron Dome system, which our nations developed together and which has saved the lives of countless Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jew.  I assured him of my full support to replenish Israel\u2019s Iron Dome system to ensure its defenses and security in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last 11 days, I spoke with the Prime Minister six times.  I\u2019ve also spoken with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority more than once in part of our intense diplomatic engagement. <\/p>\n<p>And I want to also thank the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, our National Security Advisor, and everyone on our team for their incredible efforts to bring this about \u2014 this outcome that we\u2019re about to see.<\/p>\n<p>You know, we\u2019ve held intensive high-level discussions,<br \/>\nhour by hour, literally \u2014 Egypt, the Palestinian Authority,<br \/>\nand other Middle Eastern countries \u2014 with an aim of avoiding the sort of prolonged conflict we\u2019ve seen in previous years when the hostilities have broken out.<\/p>\n<p>I extend my sincere gratitude to President Al Sisi and the senior Egyptian officials who played a critical role in this diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>I also apprec- \u2014 appreciate the contributions<br \/>\nof other parties in the region who have been engaged in working towards the end of hostilities.<\/p>\n<p>These hostilities have resulted in the tragic deaths of so many civilians, including children.  And I send my sincere condolences to all the families \u2014 Israeli and Palestinian \u2014 who have lost loved ones and my hope for a full recovery for the wounded.<\/p>\n<p>The United States is committed to working with the United Nations, and we remain committed to working with the United Nations and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support<br \/>\nfor the people of Gaza and the Gaza rec- \u2014 reconstruction efforts.<\/p>\n<p>We will do this in full partnership with the Palestinian Authority \u2014 not Hamas, the Authority \u2014 in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy. <\/p>\n<p>My administration will continue our quiet and relentless diplomacy toward that end.  I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress, and I\u2019m committed to working for it.<\/p>\n<p>I want to thank you all.  And may God bless you all.  And I pray that this continues.  Thank you so much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Folks, I\u2019ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Earlier today, I spoke with President Al Sisi of Egypt. And Minister \u2014 Prime Minister Netanyahu informed me that Israel has agreed to a mutual, unconditional ceasefire to begin in less than two hours. The Egyptians have now informed us that Hamas and the other groups [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Fullscreen-capture-5202021-113740-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}