Israel has 'accomplished most of their goals in Gaza': John Kirby

George Stephanopoulos interviews White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby on “This Week.”

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too many innocent people have been
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killed including thousands of children
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far too many have been badly wounded
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it's time to begin this new
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stage the hostages to come home for
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Israel to be secure for the suffering to
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stop it's time for this war to
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end that was President Biden on Friday
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calling on Hamas to agree to cease for a
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deal with Israel White House National
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Security communication advisor John
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Kirby joins us right now John thanks for
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joining us as always let's begin with
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that proposal the president laid out
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there uh late this week Israel has said
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that this was something they agreed to
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but their conditions have not been met
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where does this stand
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exactly well it is an Israeli proposal
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one that they arrived at after uh
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intense diplomacy with our own National
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Security team and over at the state
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department in what it is a phased
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approach George so where we are right
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now is that proposal an Israeli proposal
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has been given to Hamas it was done on
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Thursday night hour time we're waiting
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for an official response from Hamas we
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would note that publicly Hamas officials
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came out and welcomed this proposal and
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so what would we hope would happen is
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they would agree to start phase one as
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soon as possible and phase one would
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allow for some hostages the elderly sick
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uh women hostages to to get out over a
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period of six weeks no no fighting more
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humanitarian assistance in and while
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that's all going on the two sides would
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sit down and try to negotiate what phase
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two could look like and when that could
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be begin but based on what we're hearing
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from prime minister n are we in the
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situation now where if Hamas says yes
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then Israel is going to say
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no no this was an Israeli proposal we
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have every expectations that that if
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Hamas agrees to the proposal as was
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transmitted to them and Israeli proposal
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that Israel would say yes again well all
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you get in in a in a yes right now
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George and it's not a it's not a small
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thing but what you get is the start of
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phase one so you get some hostages
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coming out initial hostages you get some
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calm you get some more human Arian
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assistance maybe up to 600 trucks and
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then the two sides can start talking
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about phase two uh so prime minister
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netanyahu's team in fact his foreign
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minister again just said uh that they
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welcome this uh this announcement by the
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president and that they did in fact
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agree that this was their proposal the
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president said Hamas is no longer
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capable of carrying out large-scale
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Terror attacks is that based on new US
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intelligence and do the Israelis
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agree it is based on accumulation of our
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own int Ence assessments across the
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intelligence agencies uh that militarily
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speaking Hamas is in no position to
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conduct another attack like October 7th
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now we're also not saying that Hamas has
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been wiped out off the face of the the
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map we've not said that Hamas has no
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military capabilities we've not said
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that they don't still represent a viable
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threat to the Israeli people of course
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they do but they don't have the military
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capabilities to do what they did on the
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7th of October and so from a military
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perspective only George uh as President
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Biden said the Israelis have a
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Mo most uh of their goals in Gaza let me
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ask you about Ukraine president reversed
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his previous position and granted
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Ukraine permission to strike inside
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Russia With Us weapons what prompted the
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switch and are you worried that it's
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going to draw the us into a direct
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conflict that was the president's
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concerned
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before we've been concerned about
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escalation since the very beginning of
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this war and those concerns uh remain
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valid uh the president has said uh he
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does not want to be responsible for
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starting World War II we're not looking
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for a conflict with Russia another
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nuclear arm power that said around the
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middle of May the ukrainians faced with
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an incredible amount of pressure on kke
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that town to the in the north of Ukraine
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not not far from the Russian border uh
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they asked for some limited permission
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to use us supplied weapons against
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imminent threats just across the border
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so we're talking about military imp
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placements gun positions that kind of
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thing logistic staging bases that the
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Russians were using uh to create some
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sort of buffer zone so that they could
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continue to pound car ke president
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looked at that to the inter agency team
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made sure he had understood all the
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ramifications of the request and then
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approved it it is limited to the kke
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region and it is limited with respect to
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the kinds of targets they can hit and
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how far back they can go it was part of
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a pattern of the president refusing at
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first to to provide Ukraine with certain
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Munitions and permissions and then going
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along with it have those delays
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prolonged the war and put Ukraine in a
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tougher position president zinski seems
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to suggest
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that the delay that most prolonged this
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war and made things difficult was the
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delay in the Congress George when we had
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a supplemental request submitted in
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October of last year and for six months
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Congress did nothing to get us the kinds
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of funding we needed to supply Ukraine
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and for six months basically the
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ukrainians got nothing from the United
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States the biggest contributor of
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security assistance in just a month or
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so since that supplemental was passed I
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would remind you that we had submitted
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now five security assistance packages to
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Ukraine to get them the capabilities
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that they need and as for the other
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argument about the the you know the the
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the creeping nature of this what what we
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have done is as the war has changed in
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character over the last two plus years
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our support has evolved in the beginning
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they needed Stinger uh anti-air missiles
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and Javelin anti-tank missiles now they
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need much more air defense and
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long-range capabilities and we continue
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to provide those capabilities again as
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the war has changed as Putin has changed
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his operational strategy finally former
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president Trump said this morning on Fox
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news that the world is out of control
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and laid the blame on President Biden
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because he said world leaders don't
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respect President Biden your
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response well I don't get into uh
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election campaign rhetoric I can't do
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that I can just tell you that everywhere
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the president goes and he will hear this
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message I have no doubt when we go to
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France next week for for the D-Day
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commemoration and a state visit with
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President mcon as well as the G7 in
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Italy the week later he'll continue to
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hear from American leaders as he has
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heard that they welcome American
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leadership on the world stage that they
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appreciate the way the president has
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revitalized our alliances and
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Partnerships and our networks around the
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world and how we have stood up to
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aggression whe whether that's Putin
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whether that's what Hamas has done to
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the Israeli people or what China and the
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the tensions that China has created in
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the indopacific it is widely known
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around the world that President Biden
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stands with allies and partners and
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stands for American leadership and he'll
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hear that again I'm sure this week John
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Kirby thanks as always for your
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time you bet