Four days after the United States again shielded Israel from a binding U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire, differences between the two allies over the war in Gaza are as evident as ever. This happened not in closed-door conversations, not through journalistic leaks or encrypted messages, but publicly, by both United States President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This Tuesday in Washington, Biden assured that Netanyahu must change his coalition, which includes the extreme right, because “it is the most conservative in the history” of the country and “it has been very difficult for him to move since then.” “He doesn’t want a two-state solution” in the Middle East conflict. “You cannot say no to a Palestinian state. “That will be the hard part,” he added. He has also warned that Israel is “starting to lose support” because of its “indiscriminate” bombings that have killed more than 18,000 people in Gaza, more than two-thirds of them children and women.
“Israel’s security cannot depend on the United States. But right now it has more than the United States. “They have the European Union, Europe, the majority of the world… But they are starting to lose that support because of the indiscriminate bombings,” he said at a fundraiser for his re-election, where he improvised some statements.
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These are by far his harshest words about the Israeli campaign in Gaza. So far he has limited himself to affirming that Israel has the “right and duty” to put an end to Hamas to ensure that it does not suffer a new attack on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were kidnapped. A solidarity that stood in contrast to the tensions that both heads of state and government had maintained, especially because of the controversial judicial reform.
Netanyahu has also brought the differences clearly to light. Shortly before Biden spoke, he made an unprecedented statement in which he openly acknowledged for the first time “disagreements” with Washington over the famous “day after” the war, that is, over who should fill the power vacuum left by the fall of Hamas had. “I want to make my position clear: I will not allow Israel to repeat the Oslo mistake,” he said, referring to the agreements signed 30 years ago (the first between Israelis and Palestinians) that created the Palestinian Authority (PNA). Sovereignty is now limited to part of the West Bank, without ending the military occupation.
A repeat of the “Oslo mistake” would be to leave the administration of Gaza in the hands of the ANP, which it would be responsible for under these agreements and continues to do so in West Bank cities. Netanyahu opposed Oslo at the time but eventually signed agreements to implement it after winning the 1996 election, a year after a radical Israeli ultra-nationalist assassinated Isaac Rabin, the prime minister who sealed the pact with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
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The ANP has not been in the Gaza Strip since 2007. It was driven out by Hamas forces at a time of particular rivalry with Al Fatah, the faction that forms the backbone of the ANP government in the West Bank and is led by President Mahmoud Abbas. The Islamists accused her of being part of an international conspiracy to overturn the results of her election victory a year earlier. Since then, there have been parallel governments in the two territories, each claiming to be legitimate and signing its documents as ANP. The international community boycotted the Gaza agreement and maintained the Abbas agreement in the West Bank as a valid interlocutor.
Now the White House wants to bring the ANP back there after the war. Netanyahu is against it. “After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow those who educate, support and finance terrorism to enter Gaza,” he said. This is a very widespread idea in the camp most opposed to a peace agreement: Palestinian violence has nothing to do with the Israeli military occupation, but is caused by schooling in the ANP, which is based on Jew-hatred, as well as financial support, which it grants nourishes the families of the martyrs (those killed in connection with the conflict with Israel, whether they attacked or not) and motivates others to commit attacks.
Netanyahu concludes the statement with another idea – “Gaza will be neither Hamas-Stan nor Fatah-Stan” – that his far-right coalition partners often defend: minimizing differences between the two factions. Its main representative, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has assured in the past that Hamas is “an asset” and the ANP “a liability,” because no one expects Israel to negotiate peace with the former, but with the latter. The United States and the rest of the international community instead advocate strengthening moderate forces like Abbas against extremists (Hamas). When Biden complained about the Israeli government, he actually mentioned by name another controversial ultranationalist minister: Itamar Ben Gvir, who holds the portfolio that includes police and prisons.
The altercation occurred on the eve of a trip to the area by Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan. In a forum organized by the Wall Street Journal this Tuesday, he assured that in his meetings with the Israeli authorities he would address how long the conflict could last. “The question of how [el Gobierno israelí] “Look at the calendar of this war, it will certainly be on the agenda of my meeting,” he explained.
“On the verge of disintegration”
Israel believes that Hamas is almost liquidated, but at the same time points out that the current phase of the war, with intense attacks on land, sea and air, will continue for at least several more weeks. “Hamas is on the verge of dissolution,” its defense minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday evening, ending most of the Islamist militia’s fiefdoms even as heavy fighting continues on fronts across the Gaza Strip. The southern town of Khan Yunis is currently the scene of a fierce battle that will keep troops busy for another three to four weeks, according to a senior defense official quoted by the local press. Furthermore, they add, it would take a similar amount of time to complete the war against Hamas.
Gaza is currently home to tens of thousands of Israeli army soldiers. Spokesmen announce daily small successes in the form of the destruction of tunnels, weapons and ammunition depots or the deaths of Hamas members, but not the heads of a top official, despite the intensity of the bombings for 67 days.
Israel announced on Tuesday that 13 of its soldiers were killed by friendly fire in Gaza. That is more than 10% of the 104 casualties since the ground attack began in late October. Guillermo Pulido, defense security analyst for Ejercitos magazine, believes Israel suffered few casualties among its ranks given the intensity of the operation over more than two months.
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