President Biden today issued a clarion call for Americans to fight the rising tide of anti-Semitism across the US calling this A Moment Of Crisis for the Jewish Community during a somber closely watched speech addressing the Holocaust Memorial ceremony at the capital linking the horrors of the Holocaust to this October 7th attack on Israelis carried out by Hamas his remarks come at a pivotal time of the war in Gaza with Israeli forces seizing control of the Palestanian side of the Rafa border crossing carrying out intense military air strikes overnight that killed entire families and dozens of Palestinian civilians and children more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since the War Began more than seven months ago as fears Mount over a fullscale invasion of the southern city which has been vital for getting humanitarian Aid into Gaza at a time when those on the ground say Northern Gaza is experiencing a full-blown famine it also puts negotiations with Hamas about a potential ceasefire on edge Israel hasn't accepted the proposed deal brokered by Egypt and cutter but is engaging in talks making the situation even more delicate for more on that I'm joined by Trita Parsithe Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute for responsible statecraft tra parsey good to see you let me just reiterate that Israel has not accepted the terms of this proposed ceasefire but is engaging in talks what does that mean exactly what does that look like I think what it means more than anything else is that the Israelis are very wary of being portrayed as the ones who are standing in the way of an agreement which has been revealed to be the case in the last 48 hours because Hamas did agree to a draft of the proposal uh which would include the release of all of the hostages but it would also include an end to the fighting and what is now becoming very clear is that under no circumstances with the Netanyahu government agreed to end the war until Hamas is completely defeated which of course seems extremely unlikely to be achieved which then means that the war would just keep on going is that would you say the main sticking point when these negotiations have happened in the past because it seems anyway like uh the sides have gotten to this point and the negotiations get tripped up on the same subject it has very much been uh part of the challenge which is how many hostages for how long of ceasefire and again uh the explicit aim of the Israeli government is the total defeat of Hamas which then means that any deal that would release the hostages but would also allow Hamas to claim some sort of a victory is unacceptable to the Israeli side I think a larger deeper problem frankly is that the hostage release and the ceasefire has been connected to each other in a negotiation because it essentially means that as long as the hostages are not released Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza is then Justified and it is not because it is a violation of international law this is part of the reason why the UN resolution that was passed disconnected the two issues why while it may make sense on the surface to make things contingent upon each other reality is that he has led to situation in which we neither have the release of the hostages nor a ceasefire I'm curious then how this uh the air strikes that have been carried out uh in Rafa the around the Rafa Crossing uh on the Gaza side may or may not have an effect on the talks that are ongoing uh it is not yet the ground Invasion that has been anticipated um but it also does not take that off the table um does that put this in an even more precarious situation it certainly does because we are already starting to see new images of horrific horrific damage and death that is caused by these air strikes and I think we've reached the point also that for the first time we're seeing the bid Administration uh hinting at uh limiting arm sales to Israel as a result of the frustration that they're having with the Netanyahu government not agreeing to this uh exchange that had been negotiated is there a role to just of the general International pressure that's been escalated and of course I'm thinking about the the campus protests led by students uh the movement there does that have a role here I certainly think it does uh you now of course President Biden says that these protests have no impact on his thinking on this I frankly don't think that is true because he is seeing his own uh reelection Prospect slipping in the polls and a key reason for that not the only but a key reason for that is the manner in which he is angering his own base his own supporters who got him elected four years ago with this approach to Gaza that has allowed Israel to Now kill more than 34,000 people continues to arm and funded while it's increasingly clear that even if the hostages are released Netanyahu simply will not sign on the dotted lines because he does not want to end this war Trita Parsi always good to have your Insight thank you so much thank you for having me [Music]