Will Washington Pressure Tel Aviv to End the War in Gaza?
By
Kaniz Fatma, New Age Islam
19 December
2023
The
Israel-Palestine Conflict Can Only Be Resolved Through a Two-State Solution
Main
Points
1. The US is urging Israel to end
large-scale fighting by the end of the year, amid concerns about public
sentiment shifting against Israel due to Gaza civilian deaths
2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
vowed to continue fighting until Hamas is eliminated, asserting Israel's
security over Gaza, and voicing disagreement with Washington on post-war Gaza
management
3. A survey of Israelis reveals that
43% disagree with Netanyahu's handling of Biden, while 36% support his actions
4. Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's Deputy
Permanent Representative to the UN, expressed concern over the Gaza massacre
and hope for an end, acknowledging the UN's inability to make decisions
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Representative Image
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On
Thursday, December 14, the White House spokesperson stated that the US wants
the conflict between Israel and Hamas to end "as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, during his recent visit to Israel, Jake Sullivan, the US National
Security Advisor, put pressure on the Netanyahu government to scale back its
aggressive military campaign and concentrate on targeted operations while he
was recently in Israel. "The Biden administration wants the Israeli army
to end the current phase of "violent" fighting in Gaza within
weeks," Sullivan said in a meeting with senior Israeli diplomats.
The New
York Times reported in a press report that the United States is pressuring
Israel to end the large-scale fighting by the end of the year. The report
claims that the administration intends for the next phase of the battle to be
centred around smaller units of elite Israeli forces that will enter densely
populated areas of Gaza to conduct targeted missions aimed at locating,
capturing, or killing Hamas leaders, freeing hostages, and demolishing Hamas
tunnels before leaving. This week, US President Joe Biden also issued a
warning, stating that the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza is turning
public sentiment against Israel. According to American officials, the White
House is working behind closed doors to speed up the end of the war's
high-intensity phase.
Before
leaving for Jerusalem, Jake Sullivan declared at a "Wall Street
Journal" event that:
He will
call on Israeli authorities to "move to a different phase from the type of
high-intensity operations we see today" and address a timeline for ending
the conflict. "There will be a transition to another phase of this war, a
phase that focuses in more precise ways and relies on intelligence information
to target Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip," he added at a press conference
in Jerusalem. The Israeli war aims to kill or capture the most significant
Hamas figures in Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar, the organization's leader,
Muhammad Deif, a military wing official who planned the October 7 attack, and
Marwan Issa, the second man in the field leadership of Hamas.
Sullivan
held meetings in Israel after it was reported that the Israeli army had
distributed leaflets in Gaza, offering substantial rewards for information
about the whereabouts of senior Hamas leaders: $100,000 for anyone with
information about the whereabouts of military commander Mohammed Deif, and
$400,000 for Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas political organisation.
Sullivan
stated that on Thursday, December 14, he met with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, the war cabinet, and military officers to discuss the
timing of the changeover to the second phase of the conflict in Gaza.
"There will be ongoing intense discussions between the United States and
Israel. The question is exactly when this will happen and under what
circumstances," he continued. However, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav
Galant swiftly refuted Sullivan's assertions, saying that he had informed Sullivan
that the conflict would go "for several months."
According
to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "I
told our American friends - our heroic fighters have not fallen in vain. From
the deep pain of their falling, we are more determined than ever to continue to
fight until Hamas is eliminated - until absolute victory". In addition,
Netanyahu said that Israel should continue to have "overall security
responsibility" over the Strip and that there is a
"disagreement" with Washington regarding how to run Gaza following
the war.
However,
according to a survey of Israelis done the day before Sullivan arrived, the
majority of respondents disapproved of the way Netanyahu handled US-Israeli
relations during the war. Approximately 43% of respondents to an online poll
conducted by "Maariv" and "The Jerusalem Post" disagree
with Netanyahu's treatment of Biden, while 36% support his actions.
Jake
Sullivan made an effort to correct the embarrassing situation that arose from
his remarks contradicting those made by the Netanyahu government. In an
interview with Israeli News Channel 12, he declared: "There is no
contradiction between stating that the fighting will take months and stating
that different stages will occur at different times during those months, such
as the shift from high-intensity operations to more targeted operations. Israel
will continue to commit military resources to the pursuit of Sinwar, Deif, and
Issa, three of the most prominent Hamas figures, for the foreseeable future,
but it is not known how long this will take.
When asked
if the US might "raise the stop signal," Sullivan responded, "I
am not here to lecture or dictate conditions". Israel is a collaborator
and friend. We converse, sit, and consult like friends. Speaking as a friend,
President Biden converses with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Our task involves
analysing the perceived benefits and drawbacks of different approaches from a
tactical and strategic standpoint.
For his
part, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reiterated that Washington
does not impose conditions on Israel and that Gallant's timing corresponds with
prior remarks made by Israeli officials. Sullivan nevertheless questioned
Israeli officials about the timing of their attack on the Gaza Strip while he
was in Israel. Jake Sullivan met with Palestine's president, Mahmoud Abbas,
after moving from Jerusalem to Ramallah, to discuss efforts to promote calm in
the West Bank. These included continuous measures to prevent terrorism and
incitement, as well as recent actions taken to counter excessive settler
violence against Palestinians.
Abbas, in
response, emphasised that "the Strip is an integral part of the
Palestinian state," calling for a stop to Israeli military operations in
Gaza "through an immediate ceasefire" and avoiding harm to people
during combat. Israel has been killing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for over
two months, killing roughly 20,000 of them—half of them were women and
children—and wounding over 50,000 more civilians. The Netanyahu government has
not kept any of the promises it made before the aggression began. It was unable
to liberate the hostages except through negotiation, and it was unable to kill
or arrest any of the leaders of the Islamic resistance in the Gaza Strip. On
the other hand, Israeli government representatives claimed to have killed 7,000
Hamas fighters, detained hundreds more, and taken precautions against civilian
casualties, such as issuing safe-area maps.
Nevertheless,
there is more to the tragedy than meets the eye, as noted by Philippe
Lazzarini, the director of UNRWA, who made this observation during a Geneva
press conference: "Everywhere you go, people feel despair, hunger, and
terror." We are on the verge of a potential collapse. We might be at our
limit. Why? because civic order is collapsing at an increasing rate. When
Lazzarini stated, "I did not hear about Hamas hijacking any trucks
belonging to the United Nations, or UNRWA, as Israel claims," he disproved
Israel's fabrications in an attempt to stop supplies from reaching Gaza.
But as head
of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA),
Philippe Lazzarini, noted during a Geneva press conference, there is more to
the tragedy than meets the eye:
“Everywhere
you look, is congested with makeshift shelters. Everywhere you go, people are
desperate, hungry and terrified. People
– and this is also something completely new – people are stopping aid trucks,
taking the food, and eating it right away. This is how desperate and hungry
they are. I witnessed this firsthand. Just to re-explain, because it is
difficult to comprehend, because of the immensity of the needs, and because of
the little aid trickling into Gaza. It is becoming more and more difficult to
reach our shelters, which are overcrowded, because outside you have tens of
thousands of people who are desperately in the same kind of need. They also
need to be supplied and assisted. This has nothing to do with aid diversion.
This has to do with a total despair that people are expressing in the Gaza
Strip. Hunger is something people in Gaza have never known before. But hunger
has now emerged over the last few weeks and we meet more and more people who
haven’t eaten for one, two or three days. And this is the reason why, we see
people stopping sometimes trucks, downloading and eating on the spot. Now, let
me say a few words on the safety in Gaza. As of today, we have 135 UNRWA staff
who have been killed since the beginning of the war. And you’ve heard me many
times say: no place has been spared, not even the places that normally should
be protected by the laws of war. I was
absolutely horrified yesterday when I saw a video circulating of a UNRWA school
being blown up in northern Gaza. Schools, medical and UN facilities are not and
should never, ever be a target. Unfortunately, in Gaza, they have quite often
become just that. We have, since the
beginning of the war, recorded when it comes to United Nations (UNRWA) premises
about 150 situations where our premises have been hit directly or indirectly.
This has led to the killing of more than 270 people, and the injury of more
than 1,000.”
(https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/remarks-unrwa-commissioner-general-philippe-lazzarini-geneva-press)
By saying,
"I did not hear about Hamas hijacking any trucks belonging to the United
Nations, or UNRWA, as Israel claims," Lazzarini refuted the lies that
Israel used to prevent supplies from getting to Gaza.
In a
related context, Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to
the UN, stated in a television interview that everyone is troubled by the
situation in Gaza and that we all want to put an end to the massacre and assist
the Gazan people. However, we are unable to make judgements through the UN,
which ought to have made Israel cease its activities. He emphasised,
nevertheless, that nobody is giving up and that we must keep pressuring
Americans and shaping public opinion. and this issue influenced our vote in the
UN General Assembly, where 153 nations took part in the cease-fire proposal.
Given that
this is a significant statement about American views on the ongoing conflict,
it will be challenging for them to ignore. Many commentators have pointed out
that the Americans feel more and more pressured because of their unrestrained
endorsement of the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza by the Netanyahu
regime. America will finally be forced to demand an immediate cessation of the
military operation, stop backing Israel's efforts, and put pressure on Israel
to hold negotiations. The two-state solution is the only option to escape the
terrible disaster that everyone is currently experiencing.
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Kaniz Fatma is a classic Islamic scholar and a
regular columnist for New Age Islam.
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-west/washington-tel-aviv-war-gaza/d/131338
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