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U.S. Making Demands Israel Can't Meet
(Times of Israel) Lazar Berman - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was back in Israel this week. Despite ongoing support from the White House, disagreements over core issues were at the center of discussions. President Biden would like to see the war in Gaza wind down, and is adamant that the humanitarian situation must change dramatically. The White House wants Palestinian civilians to return to their homes in northern Gaza, and wants the war to lead to a political process toward a Palestinian state. Israel's war cabinet see things differently. They talk about the continuation of the fight until Hamas is toppled. Some Israeli leaders reportedly told Blinken that there would be no return for Gazans to the north until Hamas agrees to another hostage deal. And there is absolutely no capacity right now among the Israeli public to consider the creation of a Palestinian state. "He came out with a long list of expectations and demands of Israel, of which, to my mind, very few can be met," said Michael Oren, a former ambassador to Washington. "I don't believe that the army is going to let refugees in any significant numbers back into the north....We can't let them back yet. They come back, Hamas is going to be with them, and it's going to get soldiers killed." The Biden Administration approach - publicly pushing Israel - could come with dangerous unintended consequences. "The message to the region is that the U.S. relationship with Israel is conditional and strained," said Oren. "They're going about it in the way best guaranteed to actually make [a broader war] happen. Think about it like this: If you are Iranian, Russian or Chinese and you're listening to America's messaging that a) it's not standing foursquare behind Israel, and b) it's afraid of regional war, is that going to make you less likely or more likely to escalate?"