With Israel increasingly isolated internationally, Benjamin Netanyahu is backing down to avoid further compromising relations with President Joe Biden. While the American administration looks to the day after in Gaza, and preliminarily evaluates the options for stabilizing the Strip after the war. According to Politico sources, one of the hypotheses emerging is that the Pentagon will help finance a multinational force or a Palestinian peacekeeping team. However, the possibilities being considered would not include US troops on the ground, according to two Defense Department officials and two other US officials.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, has informed the War Cabinet that he will send a delegation to Washington next week, confirming what the White House announced on Wednesday. Sources from the Jewish State told the Ynet website that the prime minister “realized he was wrong” in initially canceling the sending of the delegation with the Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and the head of National Security Tzachi Hanegbi ( two of his loyalists) as a reaction to the US abstention on the resolution approved by the UN Security Council for the ceasefire in Gaza.
The visit to address the critical issues of the Israeli military operation in Rafah was requested by Biden in the last, problematic conversation he had with Netanyahu on March 18th. Some analysts have highlighted a possible link between the prime minister’s about-face and the presence in Washington of his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was keen to underline that “security relations with the United States are strong and will remain so”. And while Bibi warns that “Israel is preparing to enter Rafah”, explaining that only military pressure will ensure the release of the kidnapped, the US is increasingly distancing itself from its ally, in particular on a land attack in the most distant city south of the Strip, insisting on the risk of new civilian losses.
Also because Biden must face the indignation of international allies and considerable internal pressure with the risk of compromising, a few months before the elections, the support of two important groups of his supporters, American Muslims and young people. As a Gallup poll reveals, the majority of US citizens – 55% – disapprove of Israeli military action in Gaza: a percentage that marks an increase of 10 points compared to four months ago. And approval of Tel Aviv’s war fell across all three major party groups: by 18 points among both Democrats and independents, and by 7 points among Republicans.
Meanwhile, a new back-and-forth between Israel and the UN is underway: the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated in an interview with the BBC that the Jewish state has a significant responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and that elements have been gathered to define the suspicion that he is using hunger as a “weapon” as “plausible”. Which if recognized by an international tribunal, he added, would represent “a war crime”. And the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Israel to open further crossings to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
«Antonio Guterres look and be ashamed», Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on on October 7.
