[UPDATED] JERUSALEM – United States diplomatic efforts to get Israel and Hamas to agree on a Gaza Strip ceasefire and open the way to Middle East peace process failed Wednesday. The attempt faced an especially harsh rejection from Israel.
In a television appearance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there is no other option for Israel other than “total” military triumph. “We are on the road to a decisive victory,” he said.
He spoke a few hours after meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who traveled to Israel looking for agreement to end the Gaza War. In a particularly harsh rebuke to the American diplomat, Netanyahu announced his order for Israeli troops to invade Rafah, a municipality at the border with Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to the area to escape ground combat and Israel’s air onslaught in other parts of the coastal enclave.
Before arriving in Israel, Blinken had cautioned Israel to “avoid military escalation in Rafah.”
The day before Blinken arrived in Israel, Hamas, which launched the war last October 7 with an attack on communities in Israel’s far south, offered its own hostage release and peace proposal. It demanded a 135 day ceasefire, a period which would be used to carry out an exchange of all 130 Israeli civilian hostages held by Hamas for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel.
The group also called for “indirect talks” to permanently end all military operations and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
Wednesday night, Blinken took a soft tone toward Israel: he pointed out the benefits of peace with the Palestinians for Israel and assured the Israelis that Hamas would have no post-war role.
At a Tel Aviv press conference, he suggested his efforts were not over. “Our focus is on getting ideas,” he said. His sharpest criticism came in the contest of killing civilians. Israel’s military assaults mean “the daily toll that it takes on innocent civilians remains too high,” he said.
The mild approach may not suit critics of his boss, President Joe Biden. The Gaza war is but one of multiple foreign policy problems Biden faces. With the war in Ukraine and tensions with China among them, they collectively seem to mock Biden’s recent boast that the US “holds the world together.” [END UPDATE. Original story picks up below.]
At home, Biden is under multiple political pressures to fashion a Middle East solution satisfactory to disparate domestic constituencies that are usually loyal to his Democratic Party.
Some belong to traditionally pro-Israeli lobbyist groups that back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military assault on Hamas. Opposing pressure comes from pro-Palestinian demonstrators who are appalled at the carnage.
And then there’s the formal political opposition: the Republican Party and Biden’s presumed rival in this November’s presidential election, Donald Trump. Both accuse Biden of being soft on Iran, Hamas’s main political and military sponsor.
Biden once harbored hopes of getting a nuclear arms control deal with Tehran. In Republican eyes, the Gaza crisis shows the president’s folly in trying.
Successful diplomacy would, at least, defang the Republicans on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. It might even present Biden with a heroic image to show off to November’s voters.
Last week, Blinken leaked his proposals to a pair of US newspapers and one in the United Kingdom. The points include:
- a ceasefire,
- some form of new government institutions to run Gaza after the fighting stops and
- formal talks to create a sovereign Palestinian government to run the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
“The United States is actively pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state – with real security guarantees for Israel,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller summarized it last week, “because we do believe that is the best way to bring about lasting peace and security for Israel, for Palestinians, and for the region.”
In its first formal response to the Blinken plan, Hamas called for an end to the war, according to Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, the Foreign Minister of Qatar. Sheikh Mohammed nonetheless characterized the response as “generally positive.” He was speaking in Doha on Tuesday after meeting with Blinken, who then headed to Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, Palestinian sources close to Hamas said its leaders want an initial “humanitarian ceasefire” to provide enough time to exchange the 130 Israeli hostages it holds for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners jailed inside Israel. Hamas also is demanding free entry of food, water and fuel to the Gaza Strip. Civilians would be able to move freely around the coastal enclave, according to Hamas’ desire.
Netanyahu has publicly rejected Blinken’s formulas. In talks to supporters, he makes it clear: Everything in the American plan is a no-go. “We will not end the war before we complete all of its goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” he said.
The war will last “months, not years,” he told members of his ruling coalition on Monday.
All this runs counter to the desires of not only Biden but also the European Union. They all want a post-war solution in Gaza that is not to Netanyahu’s liking. As a sweetener, Blinken proposes something new he has negotiated – recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia. But he also throws in something old, and distasteful to Netanyahu: creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s opposition to the so-called two-state solution is longstanding. Moreover, beneath the surface, there is a simmering anger toward the US among his followers in the military establishment and the general public.
Public opinion polls in Israel reject a two-state solution – and also pressure from Washington on Israel generally. A recent poll by the Gallup organization showed that 65% of Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Israel Democracy Institute found that 75% of Jewish Israelis think the country should ignore US pressure to wind down the war.
A reserve colonel who is currently a consultant to the Israeli Defense Forces gave voice to vivid complaints about the United States when I interviewed him in Jerusalem. “We are pressured by our dear friends in Washington. They think that somehow Hamas should remain alive,” he said.
“We will not allow it,” he added. Hamas has mastered manipulation and “all they want is to gain time.”
“We’ve had disagreements with the Americans before, sometimes harsh,” the colonel said. He referenced criticism lodged by US President George W Bush in 2002 when an Israeli F-16 jet dropped a one-ton bomb on a house in Gaza. The target was a Hamas military leader. The strike also killed 14 other residents of the building, including seven children.
“We got over criticisms before. We will get over the ones now. We will still be friends,” the colonel concluded.
Biden is not helpless – he is complicit because he was owned by the Israeli lobby as much as any other congressman. And he continues to be owned by the Jewish voters as he runs for re election. Only George H.W, Bush and James Baker stood up to Israel and withheld funds to control its political leaders. Nothing will change America’s pro Israeli bent – not until a new generation of Americans takes over Washington, D.C. What must happen is the Muslim world (whether it’s Iran or the Arabs) attacking Israel and destroying that nation’s belligerence. Perhaps then there will be peace in the Middle East.
Nothing rankles jueaphobic bigots more than Jews playing against type, making our enemies pay. Get used to it, we are no longer a nation of Anne Franks.
You would be a nation of Anne Franks were it not for the billions and billions of American taxpayer dollars over the past 75 years. Not to mention the numerous vetoes of resolutions made against Israel in the UN Security Council. To this day, if Biden had the courage, Israel would be shut off from further arms and funds destroying Israel’s ability to “make your enemies pay.” Poor Israel – talking big and carrying no stick.
Biden faces constant pro-palestine pressure from the democrats and is far from being captured by Jewish interest(if anything he is most beholden to the black wing of his party). As for your comments on Israeli ‘belligerence’, they are nothing but delusions of a rabid antisemite, ignorant of the inexorable normalization of the Gulf and Israel. It is Iran who will now feel a humbled belligerence.
Biden faces constant pro-palestine pressure from the democrats and is far from being captured by Jewish interest(if anything he is most beholden to the black wing of his party). As for your comments on Israeli ‘belligerence’, they are nothing but delusions of a rabid antisemite, ignorant of the inexorable normalization of the Gulf and Israel. It is Iran who will now feel a humbled belligerence.
Biden is helpless because the Israel Lobby owns the US Congress on these matters. The majority of its members, their families, and staff; have been on all-expense-paid “educational” junkets to Israel to be “educated”. Congress will never allow any president to pressure Israel. Ask Obama. Netanyahu & Co. know this very well.
Nothing rankles jueaphobic bigots more than Jews playing against type, making our enemies pay. Get used to it, we are no longer a nation of Anne Franks.