Times of Israel: Trump Assassination Attempt Was Good For Israel

With victory starting to slip away, Deif strike comes at worst time for Sinwar

Hamas’s Gaza leader was sure he was winning as the world piled on Israel and the IDF spun its wheels; now, even if his main co-conspirator survived, the momentum has shifted

By LAZAR BERMAN

[...] With the worst of the military pressure ostensibly behind him, and Biden doing everything he could to prevent a massive Israeli operation in Rafah, Sinwar thought he had little to fear.

But something shifted in recent weeks.

Assessing that Israel had indeed gone a very long way in trying to forge a deal, the US began placing blame directly on Hamas for the failure to reach one and for the suffering of Gazan civilians.

"Hamas could have answered with a single word: 'Yes.' 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," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a June visit to Qatar, soon after Israel's latest proposal was delivered.

"As a result, the war — [which] Hamas started on October 7 with its barbaric attack on Israel... will go on."

Moreover, the US political calendar has also been coming into play. With the Biden administration focused on domestic politics after the president's disastrous debate performance last month, there is no reason to expect any drastic new pressure on Israel from Washington before the presidential election. Saturday's assassination attempt on Donald Trump will further hold the attention of the US media and administration.

The Biden administration seems to be treating the ongoing attempts to restart talks as the last chance to reach a deal. The president took the drastic step of publicly laying out Israel's offer on May 31, and has ensured that fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar are fully engaged with the effort.

If Hamas does not agree to this proposal, the US may well give up its attempts to hammer out a deal before November, and indicate to Israel that it agrees that there is nothing left to try other than intensified military pressure.

There's no question that the IDF campaign has been expanding of late.

Last week's return to Gaza City was a surprise escalation, as Israeli forces moved quickly in significant numbers back to Gaza's main city. The aggressiveness of the operation could be seen in the evacuation orders, which were issued to "everyone in Gaza City," not to residents of specific neighborhoods, as was the case in the past.