WhatsappUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel today and met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Blinken’s mission was said to be focused on holding together the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. However, as can be seen in the above video, Blinken appears to be well out of his league when it comes to dealing with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The Prime Minister said the following:
“We discussed, also, how to improve the lives and conditions of the Palestinians, the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, including the question of our return of our MIAs and two civilians who are there, as well as building economic growth for Judea and Samaria – the West Bank – with international cooperation and participation.”
“As for a formal peace with the Palestinians, I think President Biden was absolutely correct when he said that ‘You’re not going to get peace until Israel is recognized as an independent Jewish state.’ I couldn’t agree more.”
Once again, America is finding it hard to manage the new Middle East formed during the Trump presidency. While Israel is still sensitive to the current American government’s criticism, in past year’s the argument for “evenhandedness” was the need to appease the Gulf States. Today there is no need for such symmetry. With both the UAE an Bahrain firmly in Israel’s corner, less emphasis is being put on the need to achieve a final peace deal. Economic solutions have finally become the main stream talking point – even for the Biden administration.
