Middle East

NPR - President Biden surprised Israeli leaders and set off a political firestorm inside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet Friday when he publicly endorsed a cease-fire proposal that Israel had offered privately. The plan would unfold in three phases. A six-week phase calls for a full and complete cease-fire and the release of a number of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. A final release of all hostages and a permanent end to hostilities would follow. The final phase would focus on reconstruction efforts in Gaza. Although Biden has packaged this deal as a proposal Israel backs, NPR's Daniel Estrin tells Up First that there's major disagreement in Israel. Netanyahu has endorsed it privately, but the far-right flank of his government is threatening to resign because the proposal leaves Hamas intact. "Netanyahu has an important choice to make," Estrin says. "Ending the war could cost him his own political survival." 

CNN -  Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to resign and bring down the governing coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he accepts a peace proposal laid out by President Biden. Biden unveiled on Friday what he said was a three-phase Israeli proposal to end the conflict in Gaza that would pair a release of hostages with a "full and complete ceasefire." Biden said Hamas had been degraded to a point where it could no longer carry out the type of attack seen on October 7 that launched the current war in Gaza. However, the two Israeli ministers made it clear they reject an immediate ceasefire. Netanyahu has also signaled he is not ready either, casting doubt over Biden's proposal.