U.S. – Israel/Gaza August 2024 –

A New Policy advocates for U.S. policies toward the Middle East that advance American national interests and values.
A New Policy believes that U.S. policy toward the Middle East should:
Advance American National Security & Foreign Policy Interests, and should, as such, contribute to peace and prosperity for Americans.
Reflect American Political Ideals, including freedom, equality, and human rights, and should enhance the health, security, welfare, and prosperity of all peoples.
Comply with American Laws governing the provision of security assistance and the transfer of arms equally to all countries in the Middle East, including Israel.

19 February
Trump’s Gaza takeover won’t happen. But it has already changed the face of Israeli politics
Yair Wallach
The US president’s support for forcibly relocating Palestinians has laid the ground for Netanyahu’s ultimate fantasy
(The Guardian) In the whirlwind of the last four weeks, it is difficult to make sense of Trump’s approach to the Gaza Strip. On the one hand, the president is widely credited for pushing the parties to a ceasefire agreement, raising hopes among Israelis who want to see a return of the hostages and an end to the war. On the other, Trump embraced the hard-right Israeli vision of ethnically cleansing Gaza, through a forced “relocation” of its 2.2 million Palestinian residents, establishing a US real estate development that would turn the Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Some suspect this is merely a negotiation ploy that he hopes will pressure Arab states to take responsibility over Gaza, and to force Hamas into relinquishing control and influence. Even if this were the case, Trump’s rhetoric has already damaged international law. For the first time in many decades, the US has publicly proposed the forced displacement of millions of people as a geopolitical solution.
… even if many Israelis favourably view the fantasy plan of a depopulated Gaza, there’s no appetite for the total war that would be required to materialise that plan. Opinion polls showed that Israelis are resolutely opposed to an immediate return to hostilities. After 16 months of war, there is widespread fatigue. The malnourished condition of the hostages that returned most recently, and the reports of torture they faced, was deeply alarming. Two-thirds of Israelis believe the ceasefire agreement should be upheld, and the safe return of the hostages should take priority.
We can expect further ultimatums and confusion for the foreseeable future.

18 February
Egypt developing Gaza reconstruction plan to counter Trump’s ‘take over’
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, has confirmed Cairo is ‘actively developing’ a reconstruction plan for Gaza.

10-12 February
Egypt, Jordan, and the US aid game
Forced to choose between aid cuts and taking displaced Palestinians, Egypt and Jordan may look for aid elsewhere.
As Jordan’s King Abdullah meets Trump, can he resist US pressure on Gaza?
(Al Jazeera) Jordan’s King Abdullah II is set to meet with United States President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, amid the latter’s repeated insistence that the monarch accept Palestinians he would like to expel from Gaza so the US can take control of the enclave
Trump said US financial support for Jordan and Egypt would force their hand.
“If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” Trump said on Monday, the day before meeting King Abdullah.
Statement by Non-Governmental Organizations on President Trump’s Recent Statements Endorsing the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza
We, the undersigned organizations, decry and oppose any effort or initiative, and any calls for, the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and support the Joint Statement of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League that similarly rejected any such steps.

6 February
MBS torn between Trump and Saudi people on potential Israel deal
(Straits Times) At the White House on Feb 4, US President Donald Trump told reporters the US should “take over” and redevelop the Gaza Strip, with the help of Saudi Arabia, and Netanyahu said he believes a peace deal between the oil-rich kingdom and Israel is “going to happen.”
The Saudi response was swift – reiterating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s demands for an independent Palestinian state as part of any normalisation agreement and rejecting the “infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” or “attempts to displace” them from their land.
Mr Trump has signalled that a grand Middle East bargain is a top foreign-policy priority, and MBS, as Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader is known, sees the deal as an opportunity to get what he wants – namely a defence, technology and nuclear cooperation agreement with the US, according to people familiar with the situation.

4-7 February
America’s annexation of Gaza won’t happen
Natan Sachs, Director – Center for Middle East Policy
(Brookings) The first thing that must be said about President Donald Trump’s proposal regarding Gaza is that forcibly removing 2 million people is immoral and illegal.
The plan also ignores the fundamental drivers of Palestinian politics. Gazans and Palestinians more broadly—much like Israelis—have shown for over the better part of a century that the pursuit of a better life for individuals is not the only motivation governing their choices. Palestinians are highly motivated by their national cause, as evidenced by all they’ve sacrificed for it individually over many decades. Viewed from the outside, it is easy to underestimate the power of nationalism in any setting—Palestinian, Israeli, and other. Steadfastness on the land in the face of adversity—“sumud”—is a foundational Palestinian value, especially with the memory of 1948 still alive in people’s minds. Palestinian political opposition to the plan is and will continue to be vehement.
The plan is also highly impractical. For one thing, it requires the active support of several Arab countries who would not, and could not, offer it. Arab polities held the Palestinian national cause above nearly all others for decades as a central element of their politics and collective narrative, often to the cynical benefit of their rulers. For Arab countries, assisting the removal of the Palestinians from Gaza and the transfer of the Gaza Strip to American “long-term” ownership would betray the very idea of Palestinian and Arab nationalism. It would not be a mere matter of a major diplomatic concession, such as Egypt or the Abraham Accord countries normalizing relations with Israel in 1979 and 2020, respectively. Instead, it undermines a central facet of Arab governments’ own core political legitimacy. For Jordan, it would also touch the most sensitive and long-standing third rail of domestic Jordanian society, the balance between “East Bankers” and those of Palestinian descent, with major demographic and political consequences. Hundreds of thousands of new Palestinian refugees could put new economic pressure on Jordan and threaten regime stability.
Arab support would also be necessary for Gaza’s reconstruction. Trump is correct that Gaza, as it currently stands, would need enormous efforts and funds to recover. This would almost necessarily require funds from Gulf partners, who, with the exception of Qatari aid to Hamas and the Hamas-led government prior to October 7, 2023, have shown little willingness in recent years to hand out funds to Palestinians
Ishaan Tharoor: Trump’s plan for Gaza is a nonstarter, but it reflects a stark reality
In his vision for Gaza, President Donald Trump is aligning with some of Israel’s most hard-line factions.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
(Truth Social) The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region. They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free. The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth. No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!
Trump is serious about shaking up the Middle East, even if his Gaza plan isn’t
(Atlantic Council) Tuesday night’s policy declaration is not part of a strategic master plan to get Hamas to agree to a deal with better terms for Israel and the United States. Nor is it a strategy to cajole Egypt or Jordan to be more accommodating to US preferences in the region, as some commentators have assessed.
The plan the president announced is about remaking the world and US interests in it in a fundamental way. Does the president truly believe his plan can ultimately be executed? Maybe, maybe not. If it cannot, then it could indeed serve as a starting point for negotiations over Gaza with Arab states, making the result the same regardless of whether he intended the plan to be a serious proposal or not.
Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip in shock announcement during Netanyahu visit
President’s plan, which is low on detail, would involve the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries
US president Donald Trump unveiled his surprise plan for the US to take over Gaza, without providing specifics, at a joint press conference with visiting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Donald Trump has vowed that the US would “take over” war ravaged Gaza and “own it”, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in an announcement shocking even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency.
Trump, who has previously threatened Greenland and Panama and suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, added Gaza to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East” and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.
“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,” the president told a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday evening. “It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.”
With Gaza Plan, an Unbound Trump Pushes an Improbable Idea
(NYT) Once a critic of nation building, the president now envisions taking over a Middle East enclave, driving out its Palestinian population and transforming it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
After President Trump said that the United States would take over Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that “it’s something that could change history” and that it was worth “pursuing this avenue,” without explicitly endorsing the idea.
“This is literally the most incomprehensible policy proposal I have ever heard from an American president,” said Andrew Miller, a former Middle East policy adviser under Presidents Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. …
Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East peace negotiator now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Mr. Trump’s Gaza proposal fundamentally contradicted his own aversion to nation building and could undermine his desire to broker a deal with Saudi Arabia establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. It would also provide Russia and China “a green light to take over territory as they see fit,” he said.
Mr. Netanyahu…came under no real public pressure to extend the cease-fire deal that took effect last month, leaving him a lot of latitude about how to proceed. “All of the hoopla on the U.S. taking over Gaza caused us to miss the real story from the meeting,” said Mr. Miller. “Bibi leaves the White House among the happiest humans on the planet. If there ever was a demonstration of no daylight between Israel and the U.S., this was it.”
Trump Officials Try to Walk Back Gaza Takeover Plan
Amid global alarm, top administration officials sought to soften elements of President Trump’s proposal to force Palestinians out of the territory and take it over. Experts said the plan would violate international law.
Trump’s suggestion that US ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip is rejected by allies and adversaries alike
(AP) Egypt, Jordan and other American allies in the Middle East have already rejected the idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere in the region. Following Trump’s remarks, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement stressing the need for rebuilding “without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.”
Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trump’s expanded idea to take over the Gaza Strip in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”
“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land,” the statement said.
The prime ministers of Australia and Ireland, foreign ministries from China, New Zealand and Germany, and a Kremlin spokesman all reiterated support for a two-state solution.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state-run Anadolu Agency that Trump’s proposal on “deportations from Gaza is not something that either the region or we would accept.”
In the U.S., opposition politicians quickly rejected Trump’s idea, with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons calling his comments “offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish.”

2 February
Netanyahu heads for Trump talks in US amid uncertainty over Gaza truce
Negotiations on second phase of ceasefire likely to be put back until after two leaders meet on Tuesday
Benjamin Netanyahu has flown to Washington for Donald Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since his return to office.
The pair are due to meet on Tuesday, amid widespread uncertainty about the parameters of the encounter.
The Israeli prime minister will arrive at a potentially pivotal moment, with negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire supposedly due to begin on Monday. Should those talks fail, Israel could resume its offensive in early March.
Netanyahu has made a show of portraying the meeting as “a testimony to the strength of our personal friendship”. On Sunday, as he boarded his plane for Washington, he listed a series of familiar talking points, including “victory over Hamas”, reshaping the Middle East and countering the threat posed by Iran.
However, the messaging from the White House is that Netanyahu is seen as a junior partner, and the few details that have emerged from Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to the region last week suggest Trump is pushing for adherence to a Gaza ceasefire plan that will pose political problems for Netanyahu.

26 January
Trump’s Palestinian refugee idea falls flat with Arab allies and confounds a Republican senator
(AP) — President Donald Trump’s push to have Egypt and Jordan take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees from besieged Gaza fell flat with those countries’ governments and left a key congressional ally in Washington perplexed on Sunday.
Trump’s Gaza proposal rejected by allies and condemned as ethnic cleansing plan
US president has suggested Palestinians should leave Gaza for neighbouring countries to ‘just clean out’ whole strip
(The Guardian) Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists.
The US president said he would like hundreds of thousands of people to move to neighbouring countries, either “temporarily or could be long-term”. Destinations could include Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt, he added.
“I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say: ‘You know, it’s over.’”
Gaza’s population before the war was 2.3 million. Jordan, and Egypt have both made clear they will not take refugees from Gaza. On Sunday, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said his country’s rejection of any displacement of Palestinians was “firm and unwavering”.

21 January
A Disturbing Theme in Trump’s Executive Orders
By Fred Kaplan
(Slate) Among the most striking of President Donald Trump’s first-day executive orders, the ones that may augur an era of lawless thuggery, are his pardons or commutations for all of the Jan. 6 rioters and—less noted but hardly less ominous—the reversal of President Joe Biden’s sanctions against some of the most savage settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Trump is telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the far-right-wing members of his ruling coalition, and every settler in the West Bank that they can do whatever they want against innocent unarmed Palestinians.
It is worth emphasizing that the West Bank, the occupied territory along the Israel–Jordan border, is not controlled by Hamas and played no role in the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. Yet the most violent of Jewish settlers in the territory have used the attacks as an excuse to step up their decades-long campaign of burning, looting, and confiscating the land and houses of the Palestinians who live there—even killing more than 800 of them since the war began.
In November 2023, not quite a month after Hamas’ murderous invasion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel to clamp down on the settlers’ rampage, which even during that brief spell had killed more than 120 Palestinians, injured at least 2,000, and expelled more than 800 from their homes.
Netanyahu did nothing to suppress the violence; in fact, the Israeli government continued supplying many of the settlers with rifles, as it had been doing for many years. On Feb. 1, 2024, Biden signed a broad order imposing sanctions on violent West Bank settlers, a directive that was later applied to 17 individuals and 16 organizations. He noted that their violence “had reached intolerable levels” and constituted “a serious threat to the peace, security and stability of … the broader Middle East region” and to U.S. foreign policy.
The sanctions were meant to signal that Washington was making a distinction between defending the Israeli state from attack and tolerating Israeli citizens’ unprovoked acts of aggression. However, Netanyahu waved away the measure, taking no additional action against the settlers, and Biden himself did little to follow up his stern words with any penalties.
Still, Trump’s reversal of the sanctions marks an abandonment of even rhetorical criticism of Israeli policies—the end of Washington’s dissociation from Israel’s most extremist settlers and an implicit association with their cause. It also suggests that Trump agrees with Mike Huckabee, his nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, that there are no “Israel-occupied territories,” that the West Bank should be called by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, and that Israel should annex the whole area.
Israel Embarks on an ‘Extensive’ Military Operation in the West Bank
The announcement came shortly after President Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists raided Palestinian villages in protest against the cease-fire in Gaza.
(NYT) Israeli security forces on Tuesday embarked on a military operation in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Israel turned its focus to an area seen as a hotbed of militancy just days after a temporary cease-fire took hold in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement that the operation, the latest in a string of West Bank raids over the past year, was aimed at “eradicating terrorism” and would be “extensive and significant.” The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reported that eight people had been killed and at least 35 injured during the first hours of the operation.
For Mr. Netanyahu, the operation in the West Bank could serve as a distraction from Gaza, where Hamas gunmen paraded through the streets even before the cease-fire started on Sunday, a show of force signaling that it had survived the 15-month war despite Mr. Netanyahu’s vows to destroy it.

18 January
Jeffrey Sachs On Netanyahu, Syria and Israel (YouTube)
(Piers Morgan Uncensored) Jeffrey Sachs argues that the wars and conflicts in which America has involved itself over the last few decades have one common factor between them; Benjamin Netanyahu.

How Antony Blinken, America’s Top Diplomat, Became the Secretary of War
President Biden’s longtime aide rallied scores of nations to defend Ukraine, but then became a villain to the many critics of U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
(NYT) Over four years and more than one million flight miles logged, Mr. Blinken was the face of America’s deep involvement in two wars, one in Ukraine and the other in Israel and Gaza. The first, the defense of Ukraine against Russia, was a popular cause marked by Ukrainian flags flying from American porches, and Mr. Blinken basked in accolades as he invoked the highest principles of international law and human rights.
But the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ignited by Palestinian terrorist attacks became a political and moral nightmare for the Biden administration as Israeli strikes with American-supplied weapons killed an estimated 46,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.
While President Biden set the policy, Mr. Blinken, his decades-long aide and surrogate son, presented it to the public. The diplomat was accused of gutting the very principles he had championed in Ukraine, and became the target of vitriol rarely directed at a U.S. secretary of state.
… Mr. Blinken would make a dozen wartime trips to the Middle East. They were grim affairs, in contrast to the European tours where he was hailed as a savior of Ukraine. Israeli officials complained about pressure from Washington on one day while Arab monarchs fumed on the next that Israel was out of control.
Again he immersed himself in military matters. Meeting with Israel’s war cabinet, he would study maps of Gaza and discuss details of strategy. On one visit, they scrambled into a bunker when Tel Aviv came under rocket attack.
He beseeched the Israelis to let in more humanitarian aid and limit civilian casualties as they pummeled Gaza, turning hospitals, schools and mosques to dust. Some State Department officials argued in vain that Israel was intentionally withholding food and medicine from desperate Palestinians. For months, Mr. Blinken has said the department was “assessing” reports of Israeli war crimes.
Over time, Mr. Blinken’s visits with Mr. Netanyahu seemed to become less and less effective. Sometimes the Israeli leader would publicly undermine his American guest’s positions hours after hosting him.

2024

3 December
“WHY Are We Doing Netanyahu’s Bidding?” Jeffrey Sachs On Syria, Assad & Putin
(Piers Morgan Uncensored) The most shocking development over recent days has been the rapid advance of Syrian rebel troops and their capture of the City of Aleppo. Sachs tries to explain that the conflict is extremely complicated, but that the main culprit is none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He argues that Netanyahu has managed to drag the US military into wars against Israel’s adversaries, and that the fighting in Syria is just one part of his ongoing strategy. In Sachs’ mind, the world would be a better place if America just didn’t get involved.

18 November
US sanctions group that builds illegal West Bank settlements, with close ties to Israeli government
(AP) — The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on organizations and firms involved in illegal settlement development in the occupied West Bank, including a well-established decades-old group that has close ties with Israeli leadership.
Treasury sanctioned Amana, the largest organization involved in illegal settlement development in the West Bank, and its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd. Already sanctioned by Britain and Canada, Amana is one of the major funders and supporters of unauthorized settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Peace Now, a settlement tracking group, says its assets are valued at around 600 million Israeli shekels, or about $160 million, and that it has a yearly budget stretching into tens of millions of shekels.
Amana, which is based in the West Bank and has no known connection to the U.S. appliance maker, over the past few years has underwritten loans, signed contracts, bought equipment and funded infrastructure projects for new settlements, according to Peace Now. The settlements, small farming outposts, have become some of the primary drivers of violence and displacement of Palestinians living in the West Bank.

The Real Reason Trump Picked Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel
And what it means for the future of Palestinians and Israelis
By Yair Rosenberg
(The Atlantic) Huckabee’s appointment has one salutary effect: It makes clear whom Trump’s Israel policy is meant to serve. Far from the product of some clandestine Jewish cabal, as anti-Semites might allege, it is a transaction meant to reward evangelical Christians, who are among the president-elect’s most ardent non-Jewish supporters. -14 November

11-13 November
Israel’s West Bank settlers hope Trump’s return will pave the way for major settlement expansion
(AP) — As Donald Trump’s victory became apparent in last week’s U.S. elections, Jewish West Bank settlement advocates popped bottles of champagne and danced to the Bee Gees at a winery in the heart of the occupied territory, according to a post on Instagram. The winery said it was rolling out a special edition red named for the president-elect.
Settlement supporters believe they have plenty of reasons to celebrate. Not only did the expansion of housing for Jews in the West Bank soar past previous records during Trump’s first term, but his administration took unprecedented steps to support Israel’s territorial claims, including recognizing Jerusalem as its capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there, and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights.
This time around, as Israel is embroiled in a multifront war, settlement advocates believe Trump’s history of fervent support could translate into their supreme goal: Israeli annexation of the West Bank — a move that critics say would smother any remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood. Some are even gunning for resettling Gaza under a Trump administration.

Trump picks former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel
(AP) … Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”
Trump picks hardliner Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel
Huckabee, evangelical Christian,…says Israel has rightful claim to West Bank
Noting that “Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law”, Al Jazeera states that Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel signals more about his potential policy towards the US ally in his second term, with many expecting him to go even further than current President Joe Biden in his support for Israel as it wages war on Gaza and Lebanon” adding “Last week, days after Trump was again elected president, Israel tapped Yechiel Leiter, a staunch supporter of settlements in the West Bank, as ambassador to the US.”
Trump win means ‘time has come’ to annex parts of West Bank, Israeli minister says
(WaPo) Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory Monday, saying that “the time has come” to extend full Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.
He made the comment a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded statement that he has spoken three times with Trump since the election and that they “see eye to eye on the Iranian threat.”
Israel’s conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon are set to dominate meetings in the Middle East and at the White House this week, after deadly Israeli airstrikes over the weekend highlighted the increasingly brutal toll.
Israel’s strategic affairs minister to meet Blinken as Gaza deadline nears
(Reuters) – Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday in Washington as a deadline set by Washington to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza nears.
Hopes for a truce in Israel’s war in Gaza suffered a setback, with Qatar suspending its role as a mediator in negotiations. Israel separately said on Monday there was progress in talks about a ceasefire in its war in Lebanon.

24 October
President Biden Would Very Much Like Israel to Stop Shooting at Blue Helmets in Lebanon
If not, UNIFIL may collapse — and that would be very bad
(Global Dispatches) One of the recurring themes of US-Israel relations since October 7 is the frequency with which the Biden administration—including President Biden himself—issues public rebukes of Israeli actions that Israel subsequently ignores. For the most part, this falls under the remit of the complicated and longstanding bilateral relationship between the United States and Israel. But when it comes to attacks on UN peacekeepers, the disconnect between the Biden administration’s words and Israel’s actions can no longer be confined to the give-and-take of bilateral diplomacy. Rather, this becomes a multilateral issue that impacts the United States’ relationship with the United Nations as a whole.
… When UNIFIL was revamped in 2006 following a prior conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the Bush administration was an eager champion. … Since then, UNIFIL’s mandate has been renewed on an annual basis through a vote in the Security Council. Four separate U.S. administrations have supported the continued deployment of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. This includes the Biden administration, which just two months ago voted to renew UNIFIL’s mandate.
Israel, meanwhile, is trying to undermine this mission. The attacks against UNIFIL positions have not been accidents or collateral damage. Rather, Israel is deliberately and directly attacking peacekeeping outposts—using bulldozers and tanks. Netanyahu himself has said as much and called for its withdrawal.
The United States cannot both support the continued deployment of UNIFIL and support Israel’s war aims in Lebanon, which apparently include fomenting the collapse of UNIFIL. Should UNIFIL collapse, it would be because troop-contributing countries lack confidence that U.S. pressure can prevent Israel from attacking their soldiers. They will want to pull their troops from harm’s way, and the mission would dissolve from within.

22 October
Blinken presses Israel’s Netanyahu on dire conditions in northern Gaza
(WaPo) Blinken questioned the Israeli leader about a plan backed by some officials to gain control of the north by starving out or killing Palestinians currently there.
Blinken Urges Netanyahu to Seek Truces in Gaza and Lebanon
The U.S. secretary of state, visiting Israel, said the killing of Hamas’s leader last week could create an opening for peace, and he pushed the Israeli prime minister to allow more aid into Gaza.

9 October
Biden and Netanyahu discuss Israel’s response to Iran missile strike
Talks were ‘direct and very productive,’ While House says
Strike on Iran will be ‘lethal, precise and surprising’, Israeli defence minister says
Hezbollah claims to push back Israeli forces along Lebanon border
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday about potential Israeli retaliation against Iran while Lebanon’s Hezbollah said its fighters pushed back advancing Israeli forces along the border.
The ground clashes, which are spreading along southern Lebanon’s mountainous frontier with Israel, took place with the Gaza war still raging and the Middle East on high alert awaiting Israel’s response to Iran’s missile strike last week.
Biden and Netanyahu Speak for the First Time in Months as Mideast Crisis Deepens …a terse account of the conversation issued by the White House hours later said Mr. Biden “condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on Oct. 1,” but made no reference to discussions on how to respond — which was the purpose of the call.
Biden speaks with Netanyahu, pledges ‘ironclad’ support for Israel
(Al Jazeera) The call between the two leaders on Wednesday lasted 30 minutes and was their first publicly announced conversation since August.
Biden and Netanyahu speak as Gallant warns of ‘deadly’ surprise attack on Iran
Netanyahu’s defence minister issued the warning in a video message on Israeli media on Wednesday night, broadcast after he postponed a scheduled trip to Washington.
Gallant said that the Iranian missile attack on Israel on 1 October had been a failure but would be avenged.
“Whoever attacks us will be hurt and will pay a price. Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results,” the Israeli defence minister said.
Gallant’s video message was broadcast a few hours after the conversation between Netanyahu and Biden, their first in seven weeks, which was joined by the vice-president, Kamala Harris, whose presidential campaign could be upset by the widening hostilities in the Middle East and any consequent spike in oil prices. It also emerged on Wednesday that Netanyahu last week spoke with Harris’s opponent, Donald Trump.
The timing and scope of the Israeli retaliation is still unclear, and a miscalculation could propel Iran and Israel into a full-scale war, which neither side says it wants. The US, Israel’s staunch ally, is wary of being drawn into the fighting, and of oil price shocks.

3 September
Thomas Friedman: How Netanyahu Is Trying to Save Himself, Elect Trump and Defeat Harris
If President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris needed any reminder that Benjamin Netanyahu is not their friend, not America’s friend and, most shamefully, not the friend of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, the murder by Hamas of six Israeli souls while Netanyahu dragged out negotiations should make that clear. Netanyahu has one interest: his own immediate political survival, even if it undermines Israel’s long-term survival. …
In his phone calls, Netanyahu has been whispering to America’s leaders in English that he is interested in a cease-fire and a hostage deal and is considering the necessary precursors for what I call the Biden Doctrine. But as soon as he hangs up, in Hebrew, he says things to his base that expressly contradict the Biden Doctrine, because it threatens the Bibi Doctrine.
So, what is the Biden Doctrine, and what is the Bibi Doctrine, and why do they matter?
[31 January
A Biden Doctrine for the Middle East Is Forming. And It’s Big.]
…the Bibi Doctrine…centers on doing everything possible to avoid any political process with the Palestinians that may require a territorial compromise in the West Bank that would break Netanyahu’s political alliance with the Israeli far right.
To that end, Bibi has made sure for years that Palestinians remain divided and unable to have a unified position. He ensured that Hamas remained a viable governing entity in Gaza by, among other things, arranging for Qatar to send Hamas more than $1 billion for humanitarian aid, fuel and government salaries from 2012 to 2018. At the same time, Netanyahu did everything he could to discredit and humiliate the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, who has recognized Israel, embraced the Oslo peace process and partnered with Israel’s security services to try to keep the peace in the West Bank for nearly three decades.

28 August
US imposes sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in West Bank
Targeting of government-funded group active in Hebron hills brings punitive measures closer to Israeli cabinet
The US has announced new sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank who are funded by the Israeli government, as Washington steps up its attempt to rein in worsening settler violence.
The new measures drew a sharp response from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said it viewed them “with utmost severity” and that the issue was under “pointed discussion” with Washington.
The sanctions target one organisation and one individual with long involvement in the intimidation of Palestinians with the aim of seizing their land. The US Treasury has made them “specially designated nationals”, which means their assets are blocked and US citizens and companies are prohibited from dealing with them.

23 August
What’s blocking a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza?
After rejecting the idea for months, US officials are now arguing that a ceasefire agreement should be signed.
(Al Jazeera) US officials estimate that Israel has achieved all it can militarily in the Gaza Strip, but Israel’s leadership is divided on ending the war, argues Joost Hiltermann, the programme director for the Middle East at the International Crisis Group.
Hiltermann tells host Steve Clemons that Israel’s military believes Hamas has been weakened enough for now, while its politicians argue that the war should be open-ended, allowing for a resumption after Israeli captives are released.
The question remains: is the United States content to allow the internal Israeli debate to run its course, even if that means endless war on Gaza?

18-21 August
Biden speaks with Netanyahu as US prods Israel and Hamas to come to agreement on cease-fire deal
(AP) Hamas and Israel have signaled that challenges remain amid significant differences over the presence of Israeli troops in two strategic corridors in Gaza and other issues, dimming Biden’s hopes that a deal can soon be reached. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is in Chicago this week to accept her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention, also joined the call.
Biden “stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure,” the White House said in a statement. The two leaders also discussed using high-level talks in Cairo this week between mediators from the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar to work through “remaining obstacles” to an agreement.
But by Tuesday, Biden was notably more muted about the prospects of the two sides coming to an agreement soon. He told reporters after delivering an address at the Democratic convention that “Hamas was now backing off,” but that the U.S. is “going to keep pushing” to land a cease-fire deal.
The call came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met this week with officials in Israel, Egypt, and Qatar and ahead of the new round of talks in Cairo later this week.
“This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken said after meeting with Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv on Monday.
Officials in Egypt told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Hamas won’t agree to the bridging proposal for a number of reasons — ones in addition to the long-held wariness over whether a deal would truly remove Israeli forces from Gaza and end the war.
Key mediator Egypt expresses skepticism about the Gaza cease-fire proposal as more details emerge
Key mediator Egypt expressed skepticism Wednesday about the proposal meant to bridge gaps in cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas as more details emerged a day before negotiations were expected to resume in Cairo.
The challenges around the so-called bridging proposal appeared to undermine the optimism for an imminent agreement that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken carried into his latest Mideast visit this week.
Diplomatic efforts have redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation.
Blinken says Israel OKs a plan to break the cease-fire impasse and urges Hamas to do the same
(AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, and he called on Hamas to do the same, without saying whether concerns cited by the militant group had been addressed.
The high-stakes negotiations have gained urgency in recent days as diplomats hope an agreement will deter Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah from avenging the targeted killings of two top militants that were blamed on Israel. The escalating tensions have raised fears of an even more destructive regional war.
Blinken spoke after holding a 2 1/2 hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, and will travel to Egypt and Qatar for further negotiations. The three mediators have spent months trying to end the war in Gaza, with the talks repeatedly stalling.
… He added, however, that even if Hamas accepts the proposal, negotiators will spend the coming days working on “clear understandings on implementing the agreement.” He said there are still “complex issues” requiring “hard decisions by the leaders,” without offering specifics.
Hamas has said it is losing faith in the U.S. as a mediator, accusing American negotiators of siding with Israel as it makes new demands that the militant group rejects. Blinken did not say whether the proposal addressed Israel’s demand for control over two strategic corridors inside Gaza — which Hamas has said is a nonstarter — or other issues that have long bedeviled the negotiations.
Blinken warns Israel, Hamas of last chance to end Gaza war
By Humeyra Pamuk and Nidal Al-Mughrabi
‘Decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity’
Negotiations to resume this week based on US ‘bridging proposal’
(Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Monday that the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was probably the best and possibly last opportunity, urging Israel and Hamas towards an elusive agreement. …
Months of on-off talks have circled the same issues, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent, and not a temporary, ceasefire.
There are disagreements over Israel’s continued military presence inside Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, over the free movement of Palestinians inside the territory, and over the identity and number of prisoners to be freed in a swap.

Blinken visits Israel, but Hamas, Netanyahu far apart on Gaza truce
US, Qatar, Egypt are mediating to secure a ceasefire and captive swap deal as the death toll in Gaza rises to more than 40,000.
(Al Jazeera) Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday, days after the US put forward proposals that it and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe would close gaps between Israel and Hamas.

16 August
U.S. puts new proposal on table to try to close Gaza deal gaps
(Axios) The U.S. presented a new bridging proposal to Israel and Hamas on Friday in an effort to close the remaining gaps in the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt said in a joint statement.
The U.S. with support from Egypt and Qatar, presented to both parties a bridging proposal that is consistent with the principles laid out by President Biden on May 31, 2024 and Security Council Resolution No. 2735,” they said.
“This proposal builds on areas of agreement over the past week, and bridges remaining gaps in the manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal.”
A source with knowledge of the talks told Axios: “We got more progress over the last two days than the last six weeks combined.”

Max Boot: Biden’s failure to hold Netanyahu to account creates a moral hazard
Netanyahu acts recklessly, as war risks rise, confident of Biden’s backing
In economics, “moral hazard” is a term for what happens when one party has an incentive to engage in risky behavior because some other actor will protect it from the consequences of its own actions. We are now seeing how moral hazard works in the Israel-U.S. alliance as the Middle East stands poised on the brink of a major conflict between Israel and Iran.
Clearly neither Iran nor Israel is eager for a full-blown war. Why is that possibility looming again?
… With the possibility of another war threatening to break out, President Joe Biden has scrambled the U.S. military to deter an Iranian attack and to defend Israel should it occur. The United States has deployed a formidable naval and air armada to the region, including an aircraft carrier strike group and an amphibious assault ship, along with multiple destroyers and at least one guided-missile submarine. The massive U.S. response has at least made the mullahs think hard about how they will respond to Israel’s assassinations to avoid a war with Washington.