Tag: Palestine

US officials quietly backed Israel’s military push against Hezbollah

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.
Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah in order to convince the group to engage in diplomatic talks to end the conflict, the officials told POLITICO.

Not everyone in the administration was on board with Israel’s shift, despite support inside the White House, the officials said. The decision to focus on Hezbollah sparked division within the U.S. government, drawing opposition from people inside the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community who believed Israel’s move against the Iran-backed militia could drag American forces into yet another Middle East conflict.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/30/us-israel-military-hezbollah-00181797

The Israeli attacks in Lebanon could lead to the wider war we’ve been fearing

Posted on by Lone Candle

“A diplomatic solution, perhaps one in which Hezbollah agrees to remove its positions close to Lebanon’s southern border, is certainly possible. That would allow Israelis to move back to their homes in the north. Whatever the outcome, however, Israel will likely not be able to eliminate Hezbollah, just as it has failed at eliminating Hamas. And continued aggression could lead to more extreme outcomes in the future.”

https://www.vox.com/israel/373428/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-hamas-gaza

Why I No Longer Support the Two-State Solution for Israel and Palestine: Gadi Taub

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Eliminating the Jewish state is more important to them than their own lives. As you can see in the idea of a suicide bomber and the behavior of Palestinian leadership. Note that Gaza was never built as a home. No matter how much aid the international community..has been pouring into Gaza”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ-NEZP2GWc

Why The Gaza Pier Failed | Five Issues and the Ultimate Cause Why JLOTS Did Not Succeed

Posted on by Lone Candle

Why The Gaza Pier Failed | Five Issues and the Ultimate Cause Why JLOTS Did Not Succeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJgspVr2wpM

The US is confident in its cease-fire proposal. Hamas has issues with it.

Posted on by Lone Candle

“U.S. officials have in the past said that Israel and Hamas were in disagreement over just a handful of implementation issues, including the timing of a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Another flashpoint in the negotiations includes the status of the Philadelphi corridor, a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel has pushed to control the area in recent weeks as a security measure to deter future attacks into its territory from Hamas. The senior administration official said that the issue has been discussed with Egypt as part of recent talks and said it is “moving in the right way.”

Some Middle East analysts argued that Hamas’ reaction may not be a large setback in the grand scheme of peace talks. Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said in an interview that “nobody expected” a deal or anything remotely close to it coming out of this week’s cease-fire talks in Doha.

A bit more time, he added, might even be helpful, as neither side in his view is ready to close on a permanent cease-fire.

“At best, you’re talking about phase one, six weeks, because no one is prepared to go beyond that,” said Miller, who is now a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The region is still bracing for greater conflict, including a potential attack from Iran. And Israel ordered civilians today to evacuate areas in Gaza that had previously been considered to be “civilian safe zones,” alleging that Hamas militants were firing rockets from the civilian areas to fire rockets.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute think tank in Washington, said pressure is likely to build inside Iran to take action “if it takes too long and it becomes increasingly clear that this is an exercise to hold off attacks and retaliation, rather than actually securing a cease-fire.””

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/16/us-cease-fire-proposal-israel-hamas-00174460