Netanyahu cancels an Israeli delegation to the US due to its abstention at the UN on the ceasefire in Gaza

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has fulfilled his threat ―launched before the vote in the UN Security Council― and this Monday canceled the visit to Washington of two of his closest advisors due to the abstention of United States that has allowed the approval of the first ceasefire resolution in Gaza in almost six months of war. “This is a clear change from his constant position on the Security Council since the beginning of the war,” Netanyahu’s office criticized. In a statement issued minutes after the vote, he assures that Washington’s abstention “gives Hamas hope that international pressure will force Israel to accept a ceasefire without the release of the hostages,” thus “damaging the efforts both warlike and to free the hostages.”

The now canceled delegation was to be led by National Security Advisor Tzaji Hanegbi and Minister of Strategic Affairs and former ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer. Both are part of Netanyahu’s closest circle and were scheduled to travel to Washington this week to listen to alternatives to the invasion of the Rafah area, in southern Gaza. The idea arose from the telephone conversation between Netanyahu and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in which they disagreed about the need to invade Rafah (border with Egypt and where more than half of the 2.3 million Gazans are concentrated). to fulfill the objective shared by both allies of ending Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attack. It was the first time they had spoken in a month and it showed that they were going through their moment of greatest estrangement since the war began.

The decision does not affect another visit to Washington, the one made by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. His American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, will receive him this Tuesday at the Pentagon, already with the added pressure of abstention, which has allowed the Security Council to approve a resolution demanding an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

The Secretary of Defense and the other senior officials of the Biden Administration who will meet with Gallant will propose alternatives to defeat Hamas that do not have such disastrous consequences for the civilian population as those that would arise from a new large-scale military operation in Rafah. The Israeli minister, for his part, will ask for guarantees that Washington will not pay attention to the voices asking it to reduce arms deliveries.

Gallant is scheduled to meet with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the director of the CIA, William Burns. This Monday, before meeting with Sullivan, he issued a statement in which he stressed that he would convey to his interlocutors that the Israeli army “will operate against Hamas everywhere.” “Including in places where we have not been yet,” he added, to emphasize the allusion to Rafah, the only area of ​​Gaza in which the Armed Forces have not launched a ground offensive.

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War with Hezbollah

“We do not have the moral right to stop the war when there are still hostages in Gaza. The absence of a decisive victory in Gaza can bring us closer to a war in the north (the border with Lebanon), ”he added. Gallant is considered a hawk regarding the need to also open the Lebanese front, as the only way for the around 80,000 Israelis evacuated from the border towns to return to their homes. In fact, according to Israeli media, one of the objectives of his visit is to ensure not only that the United States will maintain its flow of weapons to Israel, despite differences of opinion, but that it will increase it if the daily skirmishes with the Lebanese militia of Hezbollah ends up leading to open war. Last December, Netanyahu said in a private meeting with local representatives: “We need three things from the United States: ammunition, ammunition and ammunition,” the newspaper reported then. Israel Hayom.

This Sunday, before boarding the plane near Tel Aviv, Gallant declared that he will “focus” his visit, among other topics, on “the ability to obtain systems and ammunition” and on “the preservation of the qualitative military advantage,” as stated. knows Washington’s commitment for decades to always provide Israel with the best weapons and technology in the Middle East. That same day, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, was asked in an interview on ABC if the invasion of Rafah would have “consequences” for her country. “I’m not ruling anything out,” Biden’s number two responded.

Given the evident lack of harmony between Biden and Netanyahu and after the cancellation of the delegation’s visit, Gallant will carry out the dialogue face to face. He is a member of the party led by the prime minister (Likud), but – as they do not forget in the White House – he was also a year ago the only minister who publicly distanced himself from the controversial judicial reform that was fracturing Israel – Biden called it “divisive.” ”—and generated the most massive demonstrations in the history of the country. Netanyahu announced his dismissal, but – under pressure from the street – he did not carry it out and ended up keeping him in office.

Popularity and votes

In addition to the conviction that the offensive is not a good idea, the US president is aware of the cost in popularity and votes that his support for Israel in the first phase of the war has entailed, which has been accentuated as the The situation of the civilian population of Gaza was worsening and the number of victims was skyrocketing. The Gallup polling firm published a poll last week showing that only 27% of Americans approve of the way Biden is handling the situation in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians.

Washington does not want another operation in Rafah like those that took place in Gaza City and Khan Younis. In the border area with Egypt, it is estimated that there are 1.4 million Palestinians, mainly displaced from other places in the Strip following the instructions of Israel. The Netanyahu government has suggested creating “humanitarian islands” for the population to go to, something that seems unfeasible to Washington. “Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. “Those people have nowhere to go,” Harris said in the interview, in which he considered that “any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake.”

Plan viable

The Biden Administration believes that Israel has not presented a viable plan on how or where to move civilians safely, how to feed and house them, and guarantee their access to basic things like sanitation, Jake Sullivan explained in a briefing last week. of press.

Furthermore, he emphasizes that Rafah is the main entry point for humanitarian aid to Gaza from Egypt and Israel and that an invasion would close it or at least put it in serious danger at a time when it is most needed. Biden is also aware that Egypt has expressed alarm over a major military operation along its border and has even raised questions about its future relationship with Israel (both countries have had a peace agreement since 1979) as a consequence of any military operation. draft.

The White House rejects the supposed premise that opposing the operation is questioning the need to defeat Hamas, something Sullivan called “nonsense.” “Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else. But a major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would cause more deaths of innocent civilians, worsen the already serious humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan said, explaining the content of the call between Biden and Netanyahu.

To show opposition to the operation in a constructive way, Washington ensures that the key objectives that Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be achieved by other means. For this reason, Biden asked Netanyahu to send the now canceled delegation to Washington. The idea, Sullivan said, was to “present” the Israelis with “an alternative approach that targets key Hamas elements in Rafah and secures the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”