Divisions between US and Israel deepening
Tensions rose sharply between the US and Israel yesterday, as Tel Aviv abruptly cancelled a high-level visit to Washington after the Biden Administration’s decision to permit passage of a United Nations resolution demanding an unconditional halt to fighting in Gaza.
The US Administration, facing mounting global pressure over US support for Israel’s military operation against Hamas militants, abstained in a vote on a UN Security Council measure calling for an immediate cease-fire, the first of its kind that Washington has not vetoed.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by calling off this week’s planned visit by a senior delegation whom US officials had invited to discuss plans for an expected operation into the southern city of Rafah. Israeli officials have described it as a necessary final step in disabling Hamas, but critics have warned that such a push would be a perilous blow to civilians trapped amid the fighting and beset by hunger and disease.
Yesterday’s episode underscores the extent to which Israel’s campaign against Hamas has plunged historic allies into crisis and worsened underlying divisions between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has rejected with increasing defiance the long-standing US goal of a securing a two-state solution to the long-running Palestinian conflict.
The US abstention on the resolution, which also called for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” held in Gaza, marked a significant shift for the Administration. Since the beginning of hostilities in October, the US has repeatedly provided diplomatic cover for Israel at the UN, where Israeli officials have argued that a cease-fire would allow Hamas time to regroup.
Conditions in the Palestinian enclave have become catastrophic – a crisis aid officials describe as unparalleled in decades. As the UN warns of imminent famine, local health authorities say that more than 30,000 people have died since Israel began its military response to Hamas’ crossed border attack October 7 that killed at least 1200 and resulted in the taking of 253 hostages.
Analysts say Netanyahu’s bellicose rhetoric is aimed in large part at his domestic constituency. Biden has his own political concerns as he accelerates his campaign to secure a second term and attempts to manage growing dissatisfaction among Democrats with his handling of the war.
Despite the delegation’s cancellation, previously scheduled talks went ahead yesterday with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who was due to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The Gaza crisis has left the US, which has sent more than 100 weapons deliveries to Israel since the war began, increasingly isolated on the world stage.
That has been particularly apparent at the UN, where the US has vetoed three previous cease-fire resolutions and failed to secure passage of its own that tied a stop to the fighting to the release of hostages.
In Gaza’s north, where the hunger crisis is most acute, fighting raged for a seventh day around al-Shifa Hospital.
The Israel Defence Forces has cast that mission as advancing its goal of destroying Hamas, reporting that more than 150 people the IDF said were terrorists have been killed and that hundreds of suspects have been detained since the operation began. In a statement, the IDF said that fighting was taking place within the hospital buildings and that “many weapons” had been discovered inside the maternity ward. The claims could not immediately be verified.
But global health officials have voiced horror at the conditions faced by medics and patients trapped inside the facility.
But despite the harsher rhetoric from US leaders, they appear unwilling to use the most direct leverage they have, which would involve imposing conditions on the supply of US military equipment to Israel. During a visit on Saturday to Tel Aviv, Blinken was asked repeatedly whether the US might halt or slow aid to Israel if it invades Rafah or if the conflict continues, and each time he said he would not speculate about hypotheticals.
Despite the harsher rhetoric from US leaders, they appear unwilling to use the most direct leverage they have, which would involve imposing conditions on the supply of US military equipment to Israel.