After his tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a message to Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel this Tuesday: Despite the crisis, it has a “real chance” of being recognized by new Arab countries in the region, but it will only become a reality if it abandons its refusal to establish a Palestinian state and offers a credible horizon for peace in the Middle East.
“Virtually every country I have visited wants to move toward normalization [de relaciones con Israel]. Some have already taken decisive steps in this direction and others, I believe, are interested in doing the same. But it is equally clear that it will not replace or come at the expense of Palestinians' political rights or, ultimately, a Palestinian state. On the other hand. This peace must be part of any normalization effort. “That was part of my conversations on this tour, including in Saudi Arabia,” he said at a news conference in Tel Aviv late in the afternoon.
Israel, which already had diplomatic relations with Jordan and Egypt, achieved the recognition of three additional Arab countries (Morocco, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain) in 2020 without having to offer counterparts on the Palestinian dossier. Saudi Arabia was on the verge of joining this list when Hamas launched its attack that sparked the current war and halted the rapprochement. On the same Tuesday, the leader of the Islamist movement, Ismail Haniya, cited the normalization of relations “at the expense of the Palestinian cause” as the reasons for the attack, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hamas refuses to officially recognize Israel, although it has indicated it would de facto do so as part of a peace deal.
Blinken, who will conclude his regional tour in Egypt, wants to prevent Israel from seeking recognition of more Arab countries by ignoring the Palestinian issue – a move the Israeli prime minister bragged about just half a month before the attack. “For years it was rejected by the so-called experts; Well, they were wrong,” Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly.
Joe Biden's administration, on the other hand, is counting on Israel to take a sincere path to peace – something unimaginable under the current ruling coalition – that convinces various Arab countries not only to establish diplomatic relations but also to extend a helping hand. One way or another, when the war is over and they are needed for the unpopular role of engaging in a Gaza Strip in ruins while the Israeli army carries out whatever raids it deems necessary. “Many countries in the region are really ready to invest in different ways when the conflict ends in Gaza, in its reconstruction, in its security, by supporting the Palestinians to govern themselves… But it is for them important that there is also a “There is a clear path for the fulfillment of the political rights of the Palestinians,” emphasized Blinken.
The foreign minister has also noted that the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians must be able to “return to their homes as soon as conditions permit” and, without elaborating, has “an agreement with the United Nations under consideration.” announced how this should happen to do this. . Two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip are damaged and thousands of them are completely destroyed. He has also insisted that civilians in the Gaza Strip “should not be pressured to leave Gaza” as Israeli ministers openly advocate for the restoration of Jewish settlements that were evacuated there in 2005 on the orders of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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Blinken's words conveyed the sense that as 100 days of war approach, Netanyahu must now decide which path to take. At the press conference, he dodged a question about whether he had convinced him to support the creation of a Palestinian state. The meeting between the two was “tense,” according to national television channel 12. The prime minister's office did not, as usual, release a summary highlighting differences of opinion. The head of US diplomacy reiterated to his interlocutor the need to avoid further civilian deaths and “to protect the civilian infrastructure in Gaza,” according to his spokesman Matthew Miller.
Secret channel for dialogue with Netanyahu
According to Israeli TV Channel 12, Netanyahu has been maintaining a secret dialogue channel with the White House for weeks to revive negotiations with Riyadh, which governs the United States. It would be a remarkable personal victory for the Israeli prime minister at a time of serious political weakness, when he has been questioned over his previous Gaza policies and is declining in the polls. In addition, the Supreme Court last week annulled a key piece of legislation in its controversial judicial reform, which had divided the country for eight months and sparked the largest demonstrations in its 75-year history. The broad coalition government formed for the war is showing more and more signs of exhaustion.
Nor does Netanyahu contribute to the progress of the campaign in Gaza, which, despite the immense destruction (with a number of bombings unprecedented in almost eight decades) and the humanitarian crisis it leaves in its wake, continues to fail in its main objectives: almost the entire population is displaced and Israel is allowing only limited supplies after completely blocking access to water, food, fuel and electricity. The more than 23,000 dead Gazans (126 in the last 24 hours; almost double the previous day) represent 1% of the population and are mostly minors and women.
However, Palestinian militias are still holding at least 132 hostages in Gaza 25 of them lifeless. The number of hundreds returned was negotiated, with several military rescue attempts failing. Israel has also failed to topple Hamas' main leaders, but it is mourning the loss of nine soldiers this Tuesday, in one of the deadliest days since the ground offensive began in late October.
two speeches
Today, Israeli leaders are behaving in the way they accused historic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, of behaving: with a conciliatory speech in English to the international community and another, more inflammatory speech in their own language. . Netanyahu continues to promise his compatriots in Hebrew the complete destruction of Hamas in a war that will last as long as necessary without giving in to international pressure. But he reached out to two American media outlets for his Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant and Army chief spokesman Daniel Hagari to announce, shortly before Blinken's arrival, the transition to a third phase of the war, more focused on the central south of the Strip (where the displaced people are concentrated) and with lower intensity and fewer troops.
“We have been hearing about the destruction, defeat and extermination of Hamas for three months. Unfortunately, none of this corresponds to reality. […] Netanyahu has raised expectations that no one can fulfill, thereby condemning us to an endless war,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a political commentator for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Israel disbanded Hamas's armed wing in the devastated north of the Gaza Strip. The army has already reduced the intensity of its attacks in recent weeks and demobilized tens of thousands of reservists. The biggest concern is the contagion in Lebanon, where the number of selective assassinations is increasing against mid-level commanders of the Hezbollah militia, with which Hezbollah maintains daily measured confrontations. Particularly since the death of Hamas' number two, Saleh al Aruri, widely attributed to Israel, a week ago in one of Hezbollah's strongholds in Beirut.
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