There are dangerous signs Israel intends to escalate attacks on Lebanon and raise the stakes with Hezbollah. If it does, the risk of a regional war grows enormously. The only way out is to end the fighting in Gaza.
While the details of Joe Biden’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire remain vague it does make one outcome of the fighting clear: Israel and the United States lost.
The current American threats to sanction the ICC could spell the death of International Law. Whatever little hope people had for a just international system will disappear.
The Biden administration refuses to abandon the farcical cornerstone of its policy in the Middle East: a normalization deal between the Saudis and Israel.
Biden threatened Israel with pulling military aid if it invades Rafah, but Israel is attacking anyway. It won’t face consequences so long as Biden remains vague on what amounts to sufficient grounds for suspending military aid.
Antony Blinken claims that Hamas is blocking a ceasefire in Gaza, but it is Israel which has vowed to invade Rafah regardless of an agreement and is absolutely unwilling to declare an end to its genocidal operation.
The impending Rafah invasion will be even worse than anything we’ve seen so far. And the U.S. is just going to watch it happen.
Israel will likely use its limited attack on Iran to win a green light from the Biden administration to invade Rafah. While the muted response might have hopefully avoided a regional war, the price could be paid in Palestinian blood.
J Street is reportedly losing staff and support as they prioritize Israeli militarism over Palestinian rights. The Gaza genocide is revealing the tension between Zionism and liberal Jewish values, a divide which will only continue to grow more stark.