U.S. can prevent Gaza disaster
Israel is poised to inflict the largest humanitarian catastrophe yet on desperate Palestinian civilians in Gaza as its planes strike and troops push into Rafah, the last urban refuge for families fleeing the fighting.
Roughly half of Gaza’s population is now trapped in the southern city up against the Egyptian border, having fled progressively south on Israeli military orders, and is now living in tents or rough on the streets. International aid agencies are frantic.
Yet even as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shuttles around the region trying to arrange a humanitarian cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages, neither Hamas nor Israel appear moved by civilian casualties.
Over and over, Blinken and President Joe Biden have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curb civilian casualties in Gaza and stop indiscriminate bombing. The Israeli leader has repeatedly stiffed them. With a Rafah disaster in the offing—which could sink the latest U.S. hostage release efforts—it is time for Blinken to abandon his cool with both sides.
On his fifth trip to the region and seventh trip to Israel since the horrific Hamas invasion of Oct. 7, Blinken has been rebuffed by both Hamas and Netanyahu in his latest efforts to get hostages home and godfather a regional Israel-Palestine-Arab peace deal.
There is no way Israel can accept future Hamas control of Gaza. But the Netanyahu government’s indifference to the deaths of Gazan civilians—even apart from simple morality, or the question of war crimes—makes Hamas’ survival more likely.
A civilian bloodbath in Rafah will further antagonize Israel’s moderate Arab partners and further turn global public opinion against Israel. It will reduce any chance that Arab nations or international forces would be willing to take over the civilian administration of Gaza once the war ends so Israel doesn’t have to. It will likely ensure that the Israeli military will have to fully reoccupy Gaza and face a continued Hamas insurgency that will sap defense forces. It will probably doom the remaining Israeli hostages.
Yet this appears to be the course Netanyahu has set.
In an astonishing news conference Wednesday, Blinken practically begged Israel not to doom more Gazan women and children to their deaths. That plea is likely to land on deaf ears in Jerusalem.
Blinken also revealed that in conversations with Netanyahu, he had “raised our profound concerns about actions and rhetoric, including from government officials, that inflame tensions that undercut international support, and place greater strains on Israel’s security.”
My translation: Washington is worried that Netanyahu’s extremist ministers want to drive Palestinians physically out of Gaza and the West Bank. Their efforts will undercut any hostage release or moderate Arab efforts to end the Gaza war without a victory by Hamas.