After families across Israel had lit their Sabbath candles, returned home from synagogue services and begun their festive meals, President Biden looked at his watch in D.C.
"Just checking it's afternoon," he said. And then got started on his speech to save Hamas.
There was nothing accidental about the timing of the speech on Friday afternoon at a time when much of America's political establishment was heading out for the weekend while Israeli Jews were celebrating the Sabbath and many of them were not even using electronic devices.
After celebrating former President Donald Trump's conviction, Biden announced a new deal under which Hamas would rule Gaza, get billions in U.S. aid and dozens of its terrorists would be released from prison in exchange for every hostage. Or every hostage's dead body.
Under the terms of Biden's proposal, Hamas wins and Israel gets back survivors and corpses.
Finally, American taxpayers will be on the hook for an "extensive three- to five-year reconstruction program for Gaza that's fully backed by us" that will cost endless billions.
The deal that Biden laid out gives Hamas everything it wanted, including staying in power. An end to Israeli attempts to eliminate the terror group. And all the money it could possibly need. Rather than an Israeli proposal, this is almost the exact same 'ceasefire' deal that Hamas, Qatar and Egypt had assembled and that Hamas then made a show of accepting a few weeks ago.
All Biden did was brush off the Hamas proposal and then declare that it was the Israeli proposal.
Indeed, a follow-up call with a senior White House official had him admit that, "it's nearly identical to Hamas's own proposals of only a few weeks ago" and that "what is now in front of everybody is basically the terms by which Hamas was prepared to move forward."
Again, he repeated, "Hamas has said they'd be prepared to do deal X, and what is now on the table is basically that with some very minor adjustments."
Biden described the Hamas proposal as the "Israeli proposal" and urged Israel to accept it. In reality, he had taken an Israeli counter-proposal, changed crucial elements so that it matched Hamas demands at a time when the Israeli government would not be able to respond and unveiled it to the world while daring Israelis to call him a liar. All to save Islamic terrorists.
Netanyahu poured cold water on the proposal, stating:
"Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: The destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place. The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that the country would "not accept Hamas rule" and was fighting to destroy Hamas and liberate the hostages.
Benny Gantz, the third member of the 'war cabinet' whom the Biden administration had been relying on to force acceptance of the deal, made no initial statement at all. An anonymous White House official expressed "disappointment" that he hadn't endorsed the proposal. When he did issue a statement, it was a confusing word salad that praised Biden but stated:
"The State of Israel stands united in our wish to return the hostages, it is a superior moral obligation that does not diminish our commitment to achieve the war's objectives".
So much for the "Israeli proposal".
Not a single member of the Israeli government had explicitly gotten behind Biden's proposal to leave Hamas in power (or with a fig leaf "technocratic" government to handle the foreign aid.) Neither did they explicitly take on the Biden administration by disavowing it. And the Biden administration is doubling down on forcing Israelis to accept the proposal and save Hamas.
Had this really been an Israeli proposal, it would not have been announced on the Sabbath, and would have been featured at a press conference in Israel. Instead, it was met with uncomfortable silence and awkward statements in Jerusalem. The pressure campaign out of D.C. on specific Israeli government officials made it all too clear whose "proposal" this really was.
This is a proposal by Hamas and its allies, Egypt and Qatar, along with Hamas allies in the Biden administration who are fighting to keep it alive, that Biden is imposing on Israel.
It's a proposal to allow Hamas to cash out hostages and their bodies in exchange for victory.
While the Biden administration demanded that the Israeli government endorse his proposal, there were no such expectations of Hamas.
The White House on a follow-up call claimed that Hamas "just got this last night" and that he was "not going to respond to public statements made by some Hamas officials here and there. They know what's in the deal. They know it's nearly identical to what they put on the table."
Hamas, the administration, claimed "know what's in the deal" but also "just got this" and what Hamas leaders say does not matter because they keep saying that they intend to go on attacking Israel until it is destroyed and that flies in the face of a "permanent ceasefire."
The White House official announced that the administration will ignore Hamas promises to go on waging terror as part of a cover-up to push the Hamas proposal to save the terror group.
He also explicitly rejected the Israeli expectation Hamas would be destroyed.
Introducing his proposal, Biden claimed that it "would bring about a better 'day after' in Gaza without Hamas in power" and then laid out a deal with Hamas that would keep the Islamic terror group in power. Having begun his speech with a lie, he kept on lying all through the rest of it.
But Biden assured Israelis that they don't have to worry:
"The people of Israel should know they can make this offer without any further risk to their own security because they've devastated Hamas form- forces over the past eight months. At this point, Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another October 7th."
Getting to that "point" took 8 months of fighting and over 600 Israeli soldiers killed in action.
How long will it take Hamas to rearm and rebuild, especially once Biden's proposed "major reconstruction plan for Gaza" moves billions of dollars into the terror zone? Months? Years?
And how many people will die in the next terror attack enabled and financed by Biden?
The Biden administration had assured Israel that it had nothing to worry about from Hamas in the weeks before Oct 7 when a deal was reached. The assurances are just as worthless now.
But Biden promised Israelis that "Egypt and Qatar have assured me and they are continuing to work to ensure that Hamas doesn't do that." Qatar is a state sponsor of Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups while Egypt was caught red-handed propping up the Egyptian-origin terror group which had begun as part of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and began carrying out terrorist attacks under Egyptian sponsorship while Gaza was under Egyptian occupation.
The state sponsors of terrorism will police the terrorists. And Biden will police Israel.
Biden's deal is "nearly identical to Hamas's own proposals", it saves the Islamic terrorist group just as it's on the brink of destruction, and commits America to financing its reconstruction.
It's not a deal to end a war, but to save and finance Hamas so it can begin the next war.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.
Richard Kronenfeld