For several weeks, the US has been trying to direct the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) conflict with the murderous terror group Hamas. During a recent trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, where he reportedly received an agreement that the Kingdom would help re-construct the Gaza strip when the conflict is over. Several offered assistance predicated on a road map to a Palestinian state solution, or the two-state solution as it’s more commonly known. Some commentators read into the itinerary and decided that, by going to the Arab countries first, Blinken was trying to go around Netanyahu and gather support from neighboring states to bully Israel into supporting a Palestinian state.
Israel Rejects Palestinian Statehood
Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Why would the Israeli government be in favor of Palestinian statehood when Palestinians support the destruction of Israel? A recent poll from The Palestinian Center for Policy Survey and Research found that “Fifty-two percent of Gazans and 85% of West Bank respondents – or 72% of Palestinian respondents overall – voiced satisfaction with the role of Hamas in the war. Only 11% of Palestinians voiced satisfaction with PA [Palestinian Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas,” Reuters reported. You might remember these are the same folks who cheered and danced in the streets when the US was attacked on September 11, 2001. Is it any wonder then that supporting a sovereign Palestinian state bent on the destruction of Israel would feel like national suicide to Netanyahu?
At the crux of the Biden administration’s persistence in pushing Israel to agree to a Palestinian state is the conviction that Israel cannot win in ridding Gaza of Hamas terrorists. Understand this is the same US government that covered itself with glory in retreating from Afghanistan, has failed to move the ball toward a solution in the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, and has allowed more than 130 attacks by Iran-supported proxies against US military bases and outposts without an effective response against Iran. Furthermore, the Biden national security team has been incapable of stopping Iran-backed Houthi terrorists from attacking merchant vessels in the Red Sea. Why should President Netanyahu take counsel from the US when the Biden administration has proven itself feckless in dealing with its own demonstrably dedicated enemies?
It is safe to say Israel disagrees with the defeatist Biden position. In a press briefing on January 17, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said:
“Paratroopers conducted an operation in the area, located and destroyed thirty rocket launcher barrels that were hidden underground, loaded with additional rockets for further launch and ready to be fired…We have completed the destruction of the weapon production infrastructure of Hamas’s Central Camps Brigade, a brigade that controlled the center of the Gaza Strip.”
In an interview with NBC News, Blinken told correspondent Andrea Mitchell what he feels the US position should be: “It’s vital that Israel be able to do everything possible to ensure that October 7 never happens again, and it’s made good progress toward that – towards that objective.” Deviations from that point of view give Hamas the idea it can survive.
Blinken Pals Around with Globalists
Meanwhile, at the World Economic Forum (WEF), an elite globalist conclave in Davos, Switzerland, Secretary Blinken discussed the US thinking on the Israel-Hamas war with moderator Thomas Friedman, a political, foreign affairs, and economic issues commentator. Blinken’s words were revealing. “But you also have an absolute conviction by those countries, one that we share, that this has to include a pathway to a Palestinian state, because you’re not going to get the genuine integration you need, you’re not going to get the genuine security you need, absent that,” Blinken told the WEF audience. “But if you take a regional approach, and if you pursue integration with security, with a Palestinian state, all of a sudden you have a region that’s come together in ways that answer the most profound questions that Israel has tried to answer for years,” he continued.
What is Blinken talking about? What does “integration” mean with Israel surrounded by its most vicious enemies? A “regional approach” is tough to grasp when Hezbollah to the North and the remnant of Hamas to the South persistently lob missiles at Israel’s major cities and population centers. It is also an elusive concept when terrorist attacks occur daily from the folks with whom Israel is supposed to “integrate.”
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
