Thread by @mtracey

The former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett just confirmed what any rational observer could've surmised: Russia and Ukraine reached a preliminary agreement during the early phase of the war — "Both sides very much wanted a ceasefire," Bennett said — but the US "blocked it"

Bennett was one of the few world leaders seen as impartial and trustworthy by both Putin and Zelensky. So when the invasion happened, he quickly took on a role as "shuttle diplomacy" mediator. He said he personally facilitated exchanges between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators

On March 5, 2022 -- nine days after the invasion -- Bennett secretly went to Moscow and met with Putin. Bennet says Putin agreed to two "big concessions" -- renouncing the "denazification" of Ukraine, understood to mean regime change, and renouncing the "disarmament" of Ukraine

Bennett says that simultaneously to this --again, based on his direct, intensive involvement in the day-to-day negotiations -- Zelensky also agreed to a "big concession," and would officially renounce NATO membership

"I say to myself wow, that’s a huge shift," Bennett recounts

Speaking about this publicly for what he says is the first time, Bennett is pressed by the interviewer about what odds of success he had given to a diplomatic agreement last March/April. Bennett insists there was at least an "over 50% chance of agreement"

"Anything I did was coordinated down to the last detail with the US, Germany, and France," said Bennett. As an impartial mediator, he said, it wasn't for him to make prescriptive determinations about the correct policy choice. "I turn to America in this regard," he admitted

Bennett says he was in constant contact with Jake Sullivan, sometimes Blinken, sometimes Biden himself. There was a "decision by the West to keep striking Putin," he says -- and it's clear he's talking about the US as the decisive player. More decisive than even Ukraine or Russia

Because when the rubber hit the road and the parameters of a diplomatic settlement had been mutually agreed upon by both Ukraine and Russia: "They blocked it," Bennett said -- as in the US. "And I thought they were wrong"

Listing some "downsides" of this decision, Bennett cites, for example: the casualties piling up in the war, destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure, negative impact on international food supplies, rise in energy costs, large-scale emigration

The "upside" is what he says is a "statement" that had been made: "President Biden created an alliance vis-a-vis an aggressor, in the general perception. And this reflects on other arenas such as Taiwan"

So on the one hand, mass death. On the other hand, Biden made a "statement"

For some reason it's still controversial in certain quarters to make the trivially obvious, factual observation that US policy from the very beginning has been to *fuel and expand the war* -- not curtail it. So for the nay-sayers, here's yet another piece of "slam dunk" evidence

And as regards Naftali Bennett, please note: I am not "taking him at his word," I am relaying the words he spoke within just the past few days about a critical sequence of events he was personally involved in. Though I'd be curious to hear the theories for why he'd be lying