US holds firm against calls for ceasefire
Unlike the revolution in Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 satirical song and poem, the Israeli siege of Gaza is being televised. And streamed. And tweeted.
For many Arabs and Muslims under 35, this is not your parents’ Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is now theirs, a defining moment for a cohort that finds itself in solidarity with much if not most of the global south, as well as kindred spirits in the West, where pro-Palestinian politicians and protests have rattled US and European politics.
The war has already taken over 11,000 lives in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. US Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf said this week that the casualties may be even more than reported.
Around 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
Arab governments, for their part, have rallied with a collective diplomatic vigor on the issue probably not seen since the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative in 2002.
Saudi Arabia is hosting an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab Summit Saturday in Riyadh, including, among others, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The unity in calls for a ceasefire is not an outlier in global opinion; it is more the consensus. It is the United States and Israel, for now, who are on the outside.
The blowback from US Arab partners, on full display during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s most recent shuttle diplomacy in the region, has led the Biden administration to press for humanitarian pauses and hold out the prospect of a two-state solution as part of the endgame.
Blinken added this week that “far too many” Palestinians have died in the conflict, as Elizabeth Hagedorn reports.
Last month we wrote here that the scale of what is required post-war should be modeled along the lines of the 1991 Madrid Conference, focused on a vision of regional integration, not isolation, for Gaza and the Palestinians. The Biden administration has made regional economic integration a pillar of its approach to the Middle East, so the pieces are there. The endgame needs to be bigger and bolder than just talk of a two-state solution, the possible role of the Palestinian Authority, and whether or not there are UN or Arab peacekeeping forces — all of course necessary, but not sufficient, to chart a new course for Israel, the Palestinians and the region after this war.
Israel fears US ‘rearguard action’
In Israel, the end can’t come fast enough. Although the IDF has made rapid advances in its ground operations in Gaza, “commanders concede that Hamas, while suffering heavy casualties and destruction of infrastructure in northern Gaza, does not appear to be anywhere near a breaking point,” Ben Caspit reports.
“Israel’s vision of a knockout victory over Hamas is simple,” writes Caspit, “assassinating or capturing the organization’s entire military and political leadership, killing all the planners and perpetrators of the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, eliminating all Hamas arsenals and firepower, and denying the organization any ability to run the Gaza Strip or maintain its sovereignty there.”
Meanwhile, Israeli leaders see the United States waging a “rearguard action against strong pro-Palestinian sentiment and domestic political pressure in the United States, increasing pressure on the Israeli war cabinet,” writes Caspit.
No strings attached for US military assistance
That pressure does not seem to have effected US military support to Israel.
“The Biden administration has been unequivocal: Israel gets to decide when victory is achieved in Gaza,” writes Jared Szuba. “Until then, US weaponry will continue to flow with no strings attached.”
“US officials have continued coaching the Israelis on methods to slow the avalanche of civilian deaths while continuing to degrade Hamas — including by encouraging Israel's air force to use smaller bombs when targeting Hamas infrastructure, The New York Times reported,” writes Szuba. “The extent to which the IDF is abiding by that advice, American officials won’t quite say. But the campaign shows no sign of slowing as the Israeli military encircles Gaza City ahead of an anticipated block-by-block hunt through the tunnels for Hamas military and bureaucratic officials.”
West Bank violence escalates
“Amid an absence of media attention, Israeli troops have stepped up brutal raids in the Jenin refugee camp and have continued their extrajudicial killings” in the West Bank, writes Daoud Kuttab.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militant group members linked to the Oct. 7 attack.
“Since the beginning of 2023, at least 371 Palestinians have lost their lives to Israeli bullets in the West Bank, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. The New York Times has quoted UN officials as saying that in addition to the deaths, over 2,000 Palestinians have been injured and 1,000 displaced in the West Bank since Oct. 7,” writes Kuttab.
In case you missed it
University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami and Al-Monitor associate editor Rina Bassist discussed the conflict's latest developments on Al-Monitor’s weekly webinar on the Israel-Hamas war.
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