Blinken signals no immediate US press for Mideast cease-fire
Source: Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signaled Monday the U.S. would not join growing calls for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers as fighting entered its second week, with more than 200 people dead, most of them Palestinians in Gaza.
Blinkens stand comes despite growing pressure from the United States U.N. Security Council partners, some Democrats and others for President Joe Bidens administration and other international leaders to wade more deeply into diplomacy to end the worst Israel-Palestinian violence in years and revive long-collapsed mediation for a lasting peace there
...
At least 200 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes as of Monday, including 59 children and 35 women, with 1,300 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Eight people in Israel have been killed in rocket attacks launched from Gaza, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.
Blinken also said he had asked Israel for any evidence for its claim that Hamas was operating in an Gaza office building housing The Associated Press and Al Jazeera news bureaus that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend. But he that he personally has not seen any information provided.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-conflict-blinken-4aba5c0a3d4aeb07934b1993b62cc3fc?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP
Interesting article.
Walleye
(30,996 posts)Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)But this is Israel, they are exempt.
Walleye
(30,996 posts)totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)legitimate targets.
Walleye
(30,996 posts)The building hasnt attacked anyone. I hate wanton destruction. A lot of people worked to put that building up.
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)of the conflict. That's probably the last thing we need right now.
Walleye
(30,996 posts)PortTack
(32,750 posts)IronLionZion
(45,403 posts)but it feels like staying out of it really means support for Israel's actions. No one is going to support the Palestinians in Gaza because they don't want to be seen as supporting Hamas.
karynnj
(59,500 posts)Blinken's comments are more balanced than many previous Secretaries of State. (other than Kerry) As a Senator, Sanders has much more latitude in his oped - and he, like Blinken and Biden, speaks of Israel's right to defend itself.
The biggest problem is that compared to any past time, pushing for a cease fire that would then lead to a serious process to achieve a fair resolution - such as the two state solution - is pretty unlikely. Israel's elections have elected progressively more right wing members of Knesset in each of the last 4 elections that all seemed to have failed to create a government. The large block of ultraorthodox and the large block of right wing, nationalist MKs, either for or against Netanyahu, are by far the majority in the Knesset.
The problem with getting the 61 (out of 120) MKs needed to form a government is NOT because there are too few MKs who are right wing or ultraorthodox - many to the right of Netanyahu, it is that they are divided as some feel that Netanyahu is too corrupt to continue as Prime Minister. The last election even brought the Kahanist party into the Knesset -- and Netanyahu would have brought them into his government. Netanyahu was a few short of the 61 needed. The change faction looked like it might possibly pull off a win toppling Netanyahu as PM before the violence started. Lapid, who had the mandate to form that government would have had votes ranging from some on the far right, where Bennet led what is a settlers' party, to Meretz (the party DU might most agree with) to some Arabs, possibly supporting "from the outside". Bennet stopped talks when the attacks began. However, given how diverse it would have been, it is hard to imagine it having the ability to negotiate anything on teh Palestinian issue without blowing up.
While a ceasefire needs to happen, any "next steps" are tricky if not impossible as neither Israel or the Palestinians have a current government that is not just a caretaker government. This makes Biden's and Blinken's role far harder - even behind the scenes. Consider that if they deal wit just Netanyahu, it could be seen as giving him support over alternatives.
As to US diplomatic comments on Israel, remember how much flak John Kerry took when he said to an American Jewish audience, which did not disagree, that IF Israel continued on the path it was going, it COULD become an apartheid nation. Many in Europe and on the left here would have not used the two (capitalized) conditional words. Obviously the Trump/Kushner actions made the situation worse. For decades, liberal Jews and US policy may have used the goal of two states to avoid an obvious question. In the most of the rest of the world US policy is to push for Democratic governments that protect the rights of the minorities. Yugoslavia is a counterexample where a country was decomposed into new more homogeneous countries. However, in Israel, an additional plan is that Israel wants an ever increasing portion of the land.
Beyond Kerry, Blinken and even Sanders, I was very surprised to read an oped written by a young, American Jewish pundit, Peter Beinart that endorses the Palestinian right to return and implicitly a one state solution. https://jewishcurrents.org/teshuvah-a-jewish-case-for-palestinian-refugee-return/
Others know the Israeli parties better than I do, but I would guess that of the Jewish parties, only Meretz would even consider an idea like this.
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)them agree that one state would mean the end of the Jewish state. That is very obvious.
karynnj
(59,500 posts)pretty depressing.
JI7
(89,244 posts)is mostly becsuse he is seen as corrupt ? Otherwise most of them still learn towards the right politically ?
karynnj
(59,500 posts)Some, like Yesh Ativ, Lapid's party, Labor, Mertz, blue and white and at least most of the Arab MKs are ideologically against Netanyahu and are considered the left or center left. This election, they have been joined by Bennet's party and New Hope, a party created by someone from Netanyahu s party who left because he thinks Netanyahu not fit.
Since the fighting, Bennet has left the talks of the change party meaning they don't have the numbers. All and all it is depressing.
Lonestarblue
(9,959 posts)Israels firepower is far greater than that of Hamas and they are using it to rain destruction on civilians and militants alike. The US gives Israel a lot of their arsenal. The current US stance of wait and see what happens disregards all the deaths of Palestinians, as if those people have no importance. How many people have to get killed before the US is willing to say enough?
Thomas Friedman has an excellent piece in the NYT about Netanyahu and his use of this conflict to blow up any chance of a new government being formed that would include Israeli Arabs for the first time and would cause him to lose his position. Netanyahu doesnt care how many Palestinians he kills because he is power hungry and knows he can now stay in power until another election can be called.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/opinion/israel-netanyahu-hamas.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Mosby
(16,295 posts)Seems like showing concern for civilians.
BuddhaGirl
(3,600 posts)to evacuate...that's some real concern
Jedi Guy
(3,183 posts)Mysterian
(4,574 posts)Just wondering.
Jedi Guy
(3,183 posts)If they'd blown up a building full of journalists, that'd be something entirely different. But that's not what happened. When Hamas hides behind women and children, I have no trouble imagining that they'd hide behind foreign journalists.
OneCrazyDiamond
(2,031 posts)ripcord
(5,311 posts)Seems that many people have forgotten that Hamas launched first.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Here's a rough timeline:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/world/middleeast/jerusalem-protests-aqsa-palestinians.html
EX500rider
(10,829 posts)I read the article there's no specific mention of any warning to any specific locality
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)it seems to be a pattern with you, always an excuse for the oppressor, but the oppressed have to be on their best behavior, whether its black people here in the States or Palestinians over there.
EX500rider
(10,829 posts)Is Israel suppose to evacuate the whole country?
It seems to be a pattern with you, always an excuse for the terrorist group know as Hamas.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Why the two different standards? Even with Israel's vaunted "warnings", innocent people are getting killed by the hundreds, unless you think they are all Hamas. Is the only good Palestinian in your world a dead one?
ripcord
(5,311 posts)Why are they launching first strikes knowing what is going to happen to the Palestinian women and children they are cowardly hiding behind?
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)It would go against US policy for the last 70 years.
IMHO, the less involvement the US has, the better.