Where is Washington regarding the future of Gaza?

The fall of the temporary Gaza truce was expected, although some who do not like to be convinced of the facts were optimistic about a near-miracle after the time of miracles had passed.

However, the glaring truth pointed from the beginning to the need for both sides of the unbalanced war for a “warrior’s rest,” in which both sides claimed tactical victories, recrystallized psychological targeting, strengthened logistical mobilization, and took advantage of the changes imposed on the ground... not to mention trying to give moderation a chance through prisoner and detainee exchange deals.

The Israeli side, which has historically enjoyed an amazing ability to dress up as the oppressed, was undoubtedly able to win the battle in the corridors of political decision-making in most of the world's influential capitals. His achievement was doubled with his victory in the war of financial and communication blackmail, the clearest evidence of which was the arrival of the global billionaire Elon Musk to Israel, humiliating and subservient to Benjamin Netanyahu, after the decision of a group of major international companies to boycott the advertising platform “X” (formerly Twitter), which he owns.

On the other hand, the explosion of global mass movements demanding an end to the Gaza war came as a reaction to the ferocity of the bombing and the horror of the tragedies, rather than because of the skill of Hamas leaders in managing the “public relations” battle regarding what happened on October 7 and what followed. Some of the statements of the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were disastrous, whether in terms of arrogant dealing with the humanitarian catastrophe throughout the Gaza Strip, or in terms of ignorance of the background and details of the war.

On the other hand, the Israeli propaganda “machine” continued to go far from transforming its declared goal of liquidating “Hamas” to the broader practical application of its permanent strategy based on the complete displacement of the Palestinian people, and the actual liquidation of an issue that is impossible to liquidate without eliminating its people. Indeed, even before the fall of the temporary truce, we witnessed a competition between the contents of the Israeli official statements and the threats, intimidation, provocations, fabrications, and gloating published by its electronic army on social media.

Even at the height of the process of exchanging prisoners and detainees, the uprooting and displacement plans were an “open secret,” and there was no doubt among those who were following the “advice” directed to the residents of the northern part of the Gaza Strip to leave it and head south... that the south - which in turn was targeted - was only a temporary stop. His turn will come later.

The words of Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant - and there is no need to dwell long on Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich - were clear and without ambiguity. Although the Arab countries continued to bet patiently on an American position that would rein in the Likud unruliness, the movements and positions of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken were not reassuring. Indeed, they confirmed time and time again that Washington, despite its tendency to be conservative about the outcome of the Israeli war and its results, stands completely behind Netanyahu and his government.

Of course, the ready-made pretext to justify American condemnations of Hamas began with the reference to the October 7 attack, and continued with Hamas keeping a number of hostages who could not be released during the first truce... and perhaps the last.

Of course, what contributed most to ensuring full coverage of American support for Netanyahu was the occurrence of individual operations, some of which Hamas announced it had claimed, in the West Bank. However, despite this, without shy denunciations of the violations of armed settlers, it can be said that Washington ignored the Israeli forces’ repeated violation of the temporary truce by launching killing and arrest operations in a number of areas of the West Bank, to the point that the number of Palestinian detainees, deaths and injuries during the truce period was greater than the number of prisoners released. 

Accordingly, what we are dealing with now is that Washington remains the incubating, supporting and sponsoring force of the Israeli plan, and it seems that it is determined to follow it until its conclusion. Here it explicitly supports the Israeli “dealing” with the residents of Gaza currently, and perhaps the residents of the West Bank in the future, without taking into account the concerns of most of its friends in the region.

It forgets, according to an Arab politician and diplomat familiar with Israeli-Arab relations, that the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank “have practically been living, for about 20 years, in a large prison besieged by Israel.” they are left to their suffering without any political horizon... which was not really a warning of a dangerous explosion to come.

Also, Washington still insists on monopolizing the file of Israeli-Arab relations, even though it has completely abandoned putting forward any peace initiative since 2014, during the days of former Secretary of State John Kerry. Hence, by its reluctance to undertake any serious political effort aimed at peace, it has turned the idea of a “two-state solution” into an absurd and useless distraction. Instead of objective, responsible work to encourage peaceful approaches and strengthen them by giving them political credibility, the region was thrown into the illusion of “Abrahamic understanding,” the benefit of which was to the benefit of one party.

Source: Alsharq alawsat