Day 243 roundtable: Biden's ceasefire plan

On Friday, US President Joe Biden made an unexpected speech laying out what he called an Israeli proposal that would lead to a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Confusion quickly ensued as the Israeli government described Biden’s call for a permanent ceasefire a “nonstarter.”

The Israeli government is publicly undermining what was said to be its own proposal.

Nonetheless, Biden’s speech indicated that as the US election looms, his administration seeks to give the appearance of striving to end a war of extermination. Yet it continues to arm and enable that genocide without taking effective steps to halt Israel’s killing campaign; and Biden seeks to avoid paying the political price of a complete about-face.

Ali Abunimah summarized the latest developments in the prospects for a ceasefire.

Jump to Ali’s segment here.

Ali and I were then joined by Helena Cobban to further discuss the ceasefire proposal and analyze other regional and global developments.

Helena, a writer and author with decades of experience and knowledge about the region, is the director of Just World Educational.

One of the organization’s latest projects is called “Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters.”

This series of public conversations and other educational resources is inspired by the observation that the broad, dishonest and often virulent campaign of demonization that Israel and Western powers have long maintained against Hamas constitutes a serious obstacle in the path of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a just peace.

Jump to Helena Cobban’s segment here.

Jon Elmer covered all the latest news from the resistance across Gaza, including the combat footage from the final days of the battle in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Jump to Jon’s segment here.

We had a brief group discussion following Jon’s segment, highlighting new revelations about Israeli influence in US politics.

Jump to the group discussion here.

And I began the broadcast with a news update on the latest from Gaza and the West Bank.

Jump to the news segment here.

These are just some of the many topics we cover on The Electronic Intifada livestream. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

With Ali Abunimah, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Jon Elmer, Tamara Nassar and Asa Winstanley