GAZA WARU.S. Middle East Vision Emerges as Biden Focuses Beyond Gaza War
An American vision for a post-Gaza War Middle East is emerging as the Biden administration is exerting an increasing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war Cabinet to scale back Israel’s 10-week-old campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza amid mounting civilian casualties.
An American vision for the Middle East is emerging as the Biden administration presses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war Cabinet to scale back its 10-week-old campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza amid mounting civilian casualties.
President Joe Biden this week issued his harshest public rebuke of Netanyahu’s government. Speaking to Democratic Party donors, he said Israel risks losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” and that Netanyahu’s government must rid itself of its most extreme elements.
While the U.S. and Israel disagree on how Netanyahu’s war Cabinet should pursue its military objectives and who will oversee postwar Gaza, Biden seems to be setting his gaze beyond the conflict’s horizon.
Behind his sharp words lie clues to his assessment of the elements needed to move toward a two-state solution — the establishment an independent Palestinian state in exchange for a permanent end to hostilities. Peace in the Middle East is a decades-old goal that has eluded American presidents since Jimmy Carter.
Below are the key points based on his remarks Tuesday.
A Moderate Israeli Coalition
While the main goal is to support Israel’s drive to destroy Hamas, Biden said his second priority is to “work toward bringing Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of option — an option of a two-state solution.”
He singled out Israel’s national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, and other hard-liners in Netanyahu’s government who reject any two-state solution and whose only goal, he said, is to achieve “retribution.”
Ben Gvir and other members of Israel’s religious and far-right parties enabled Netanyahu to return to power last year, forming the most hard-line government in the country’s 74-year history.
The government has expanded settlements in the West Bank and forced sweeping reform on the Israeli judicial system that resulted in the further stripping of Palestinian rights.
Netanyahu must change his government, Biden said, because it’s “making it very difficult for him to move.” Some see this as a nod toward moderates such as Benny Gantz, a popular opposition politician more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause who joined Netanyahu’s war Cabinet following October 7.
“The only hope for peace is that Netanyahu chooses Gantz and the war Cabinet over his other partners and realizes that a two-state solution is the only long-term strategy to prevent future October 7s,” said Michael Brenner, director of American University’s Center for Israel Studies.
