Gaza War: U.S. takes distances and Israel continues pounding

For the first time they received their distances regarding the Gaza war and the question arises whether Israel hears the warning not to proceed to a large-scale land attack in Rafa. The US chose abstention Monday, during the vote held at the UN Security Council, thus allowing for the first time the adoption in the theory of a legally binding decision requiring immediate cease-fire in its Strip. Firing the wrath of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Benjamin Netanyahu, who canceled the visit of an Israeli delegation to Washington to discuss exactly the American concerns about the attack on Rafa, at the southern end of Gaza, much of which was turned into debris from the war. A senior American official said however yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s services informed that “they would like a new date agreed” to organize these talks. Washington has publicly and repeatedly opposed Israeli plans for the attack on Rafa, where it has sheltered most of the Gazans, who abandoned to be saved from bombings and fighting other Gazan sectors, especially in the north. Already in an uncomfortable position as the account of the victims in the Gaza Strip has surpassed the 32,000 dead, who were largely civilians, the US insists on warning against new mass casualties of the civilian lives and Israel’s further isolation and propose “alternative” in the land attack on Rafa, the Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “last fort”. “The kind of mission we could support is a limited campaign, much more targeted that would nevertheless achieve the same goals, but without causing massive harm to the civilian population,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said yesterday. However Netanyahu warned that he would order an operation in Rafa with or without US political support, while American Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken was in Tel Aviv. For Stephen Werthheim, an investigator of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the U.S. “trying to limit the damage that such an operation would cause” in Rafa, already heavily bombed here for days. ‘No tangible impact’ The U.S. government strongly and without any deviations Israel from the beginning of the war, a trigger of which was an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern areas of its territory, and continues to supply the Israeli army with weapons and ammunition. But, because of the huge number of casualties in the civilian population and the dramatic humanitarian situation, it increased pressure on Israel, calling in particular to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered. In addition, Washington raised the tone and recently imposed sanctions on some settlers accused of violent incidents on the West Bank, Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation since 1967. “The Biden government increasingly seeks to take its distance from Israel and above all Netanyahu”, according to Michael Sig of the Washington Institute. But American President Joe Biden has said clearly and repeatedly that he will not use the main pressure lever in his hands – military aid. The Security Council decision “sends a signal, but has no tangible impact on Israel’s ability to continue” this war, Sig stressed, while imposing restrictions on equipment “would have a much higher cost” at strategic and political level. Democratic President Biden’s government has chaotic differences of opinion from that of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, described as “the most right-wing” in Israel’s history. There will be no “change” Beyond the way the war is fought, the two governments also fundamentally disagree about the next day of the war. The Biden government wants to see a process begin towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Netanyahu is not prepared to even discuss such a possibility. The leader of the majority of Democrats in the Senate Chuck Schumer, a dedicated supporter of Israel, a close associate of President Biden, caused a scandal by personally blaming Netanyahu and calling for elections to be held in Israel during an intervention that the American president described as a “good speech”. American officials rushed to assure that Chuck Schumer was not voiced on behalf of the government. However, the question remains to be answered whether he simply said aloud what is said lowly to the Biden government. Some months before the November presidential election, Joe Biden is increasingly under political pressure, not only from the American Muslim and Arab population, but also from the new voters and from the left wing of his party. According to a Gallup institute poll released yesterday, only 36% of Americans approve of how Israel acts, from 50% in November. James Ryan, executive director of the Middle East Research and Information Project, expects “crisis to become tougher”, however in no case major turn, “change” of the US in terms of their support for Israel.