Netanyahu cancels an Israeli delegation to the US on account of its abstention on the UN on the ceasefire in Gaza | International | EUROtoday

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has fulfilled his risk ―launched earlier than the vote within the UN Security Council― and this Monday canceled the go to to Washington of two of his closest advisors as a result of abstention of United States that has allowed the approval of the primary ceasefire decision in Gaza in virtually six months of conflict. “This is a clear change from his constant position on the Security Council since the beginning of the war,” Netanyahu's workplace criticized. In an announcement issued minutes after the vote, he assures that Washington's abstention “gives Hamas hope that international pressure will force Israel to accept a ceasefire without the release of the hostages,” thus “damaging the efforts both warlike and to free the hostages.”

The now canceled delegation was to be led by National Security Advisor Tzaji Hanegbi and Minister of Strategic Affairs and former ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer. Both are part of Netanyahu's closest circle and were scheduled to travel to Washington this week to listen to alternatives to the invasion of the Rafah area, in southern Gaza. The idea arose from the telephone conversation between Netanyahu and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in which they disagreed about the need to invade Rafah (border with Egypt and where more than half of the 2.3 million Gazans are concentrated). to fulfill the objective shared by both allies of ending Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attack. It was the first time they had spoken in a month and it showed that they were going through their moment of greatest estrangement since the war began.

The decision does not affect another visit to Washington, the one made by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. His American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, will receive him this Tuesday at the Pentagon, already with the added pressure of abstention, which has allowed the Security Council to approve a resolution demanding an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

The Secretary of Defense and the other senior officials of the Biden Administration who will meet with Gallant will propose alternatives to defeat Hamas that do not have such disastrous consequences for the civilian population as those that would arise from a new large-scale military operation in Rafah. The Israeli minister, for his part, will ask for guarantees that Washington will not pay attention to the voices asking it to reduce arms deliveries.

Gallant is scheduled to meet with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the director of the CIA, William Burns. This Monday, before meeting with Sullivan, he issued a statement in which he stressed that he would convey to his interlocutors that the Israeli army “will function towards Hamas all over the place.” “Including in places where we have not been yet,” he added, to emphasize the allusion to Rafah, the only area of ​​Gaza in which the Armed Forces have not launched a ground offensive.

War with Hezbollah

“We do not have the moral right to stop the war when there are still hostages in Gaza. The absence of a decisive victory in Gaza could bring us closer to a war in the north [la frontera con Líbano]”, has added. Gallant is considered a hawk regarding the need to also open the Lebanese front, as the only way for the around 80,000 Israelis evacuated from the border towns to return to their homes. In fact, according to Israeli media, one of the objectives of his visit is to ensure not only that the United States will maintain its flow of weapons to Israel, despite differences of opinion, but that it will increase it if the daily skirmishes with the Lebanese militia of Hezbollah ends up leading to open war. Last December, Netanyahu said in a private meeting with local representatives: “We need three things from the United States: ammunition, ammunition and ammunition,” the newspaper reported then. Israel Hayom.

This Sunday, earlier than boarding the aircraft close to Tel Aviv, Gallant declared that he’ll “focus” his go to, amongst different matters, on “the ability to obtain systems and ammunition” and on “the preservation of the qualitative military advantage,” as said. is aware of Washington's dedication for many years to all the time present Israel with the most effective weapons and know-how within the Middle East. That identical day, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, was requested in an interview on ABC if the invasion of Rafah would have “consequences” for her nation. “I'm not ruling anything out,” Biden's quantity two responded.

Given the evident lack of concord between Biden and Netanyahu and after the cancellation of the delegation's go to, Gallant will perform the dialogue head to head. He is a member of the social gathering led by the prime minister (Likud), however – as they don’t overlook within the White House – he was additionally a 12 months in the past the one minister who publicly distanced himself from the controversial judicial reform that was fracturing Israel – Biden known as it “divisive.” ”—and generated probably the most large demonstrations within the historical past of the nation. Netanyahu introduced his dismissal, however – underneath stress from the road – he didn’t carry it out and ended up retaining him in workplace.

Popularity and votes

In addition to the conviction that the offensive shouldn’t be a good suggestion, the US president is conscious of the associated fee in recognition and votes that his assist for Israel within the first section of the conflict has entailed, which has been accentuated because the The state of affairs of the civilian inhabitants of Gaza was worsening and the variety of victims was skyrocketing. The Gallup polling agency revealed a ballot final week displaying that solely 27% of Americans approve of the way in which Biden is dealing with the state of affairs within the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians.

Washington doesn’t need one other operation in Rafah like people who came about in Gaza City and Khan Younis. In the border space with Egypt, it’s estimated that there are 1.4 million Palestinians, primarily displaced from different locations within the Strip following the directions of Israel. The Netanyahu authorities has steered creating “humanitarian islands” for the inhabitants to go to, one thing that appears unfeasible to Washington. “Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. “Those people have nowhere to go,” Harris mentioned within the interview, by which he thought-about that “any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake.”

Plan viable

The Biden Administration believes that Israel has not introduced a viable plan on how or the place to maneuver civilians safely, feed and home them, and assure their entry to basic items like sanitation, Jake Sullivan defined in a briefing final week. of press.

Furthermore, he emphasizes that Rafah is the primary entry level for humanitarian assist to Gaza from Egypt and Israel and that an invasion would shut it or at the very least put it in critical hazard at a time when it’s most wanted. Biden can also be conscious that Egypt has expressed alarm over a serious army operation alongside its border and has even raised questions on its future relationship with Israel (each nations have had a peace settlement since 1979) as a consequence of any army operation. draft.

The White House rejects the supposed premise that opposing the operation is questioning the necessity to defeat Hamas, one thing Sullivan known as “nonsense.” “Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else. But a major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would cause more deaths of innocent civilians, worsen the already serious humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan mentioned, explaining the content material of the decision between Biden and Netanyahu.

To present opposition to the operation in a constructive method, Washington ensures that the important thing goals that Israel desires to realize in Rafah could be achieved by different means. For this cause, Biden requested Netanyahu to ship the now canceled delegation to Washington. The thought, Sullivan mentioned, was to “present” the Israelis with “an alternative approach that targets key Hamas elements in Rafah and secures the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”

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