US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to discuss the coming offensive in south Gaza, where Hamas leadership is now holed up.
Blinken told the Israelis that they must not operate in the south as they did in the north, and indicated that the U.S. would only support a campaign of several weeks, rather than months, for the IDF to destroy Hamas.
“You can’t operate in southern Gaza in the way you did in the north. There are two million Palestinians there,” Blinken said in leaked remarks to the Israelis. “You need to evacuate fewer people from their homes, be more accurate in the attacks, not hit UN facilities, and ensure that there are enough protected areas [for civilians]. And if not? Then not to attack where there is a civilian population. What is your system of operation?”
Halevi responded, saying, “We follow a number of principles — proportionality, distinction, and the laws of war. There were instances where we attacked on the basis of those principles, and instances where we decided not to attack, because we waited for a better opportunity.”
Gallant added: “The entire Israeli society is united behind the goal of dismantling Hamas, even if it takes months.”
“I don’t think you have the credit for that,” Blinken reportedly shot back.
Addressing a post-Hamas Gaza Strip, Blinken said, “You don’t want the Palestinian Authority on the day after. We understand that. The best way to kill an idea is to bring a better idea. The other states in the region need to know what you are planning.”
Bibi responded to that, saying, “As long as I’m sitting in this chair, the Palestinian Authority, which supports, educates and finances terror, will not rule Gaza on the day after Hamas.”
Following the meeting, Blinken said at a joint press conference that he acknowledges the challenges Israel faces, particularly Hamas’s tactic of using human shields, but he insisted that Israel still bears the responsibility to minimize civilian harm. “The way Israel defends itself matters,” Blinken stated.
At the outset of the press conference, Blinken expressed the Biden administration’s commitment to extending the pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, to facilitate the safe exit of hostages from Gaza and ensure the flow of aid into the Strip. “We will not stop working until we get every hostage back home with their families and loved ones,” he said.
Blinken reiterated the US’s support for Israel’s goal of dismantling Hamas’s control in Gaza. He condemned Hamas for the October 7th attack, highlighting the group’s claim of responsibility and celebration of the perpetrators as ‘heroic’.
“I made clear that before Israel resumes major military operations, it must put in place humanitarian, civilian protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent Palestinians,” Blinken said. “That means taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire.”
Additionally, Israel must work to “avoid damage to life-critical infrastructure like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities. And it means giving civilians who’ve been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement.”
“Hamas intentionally embeds within civilians — within and below, schools, apartment buildings, refugee camps,” Blinken said, but insisted that the IDF “is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by Hamas, while minimizing harm to innocent men, women and children. And it has an obligation to do so.”
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22 Responses
so we are basically all alone ! us will not back us
bh
we have a great father in heaven
we say everyday in davening
all the nations are nothing to him
Well, Mr. Biden, now you understand more the world being quiet during the holocaust.
Blinken is being a realist…thousands of more deaths in Gaza will turn the entire world against EY. There has to be some greater level of precision in destroying the remnants of Hamas and their infrastructure. And yes, I believe EY cannot risk losing U.S. support
Bibi –
Stop putting the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Look Up to HaShem. He’s waiting for you to come home. Doesn’t everyone know by now that we have nobody to hope for other than our Father in Heaven? How many more korbonos does HaShem have to take from us before we wake up and cry out to Him?
After all these decades, why hasn’t Israel developed its on munitions factories for everything it needs?
Please Hashem, give Netanyahu וחבריו the gevuras hanefesh to do what is right and destroy the enemy and not succumb to pressure from anyone!
YOSSIES
100%
Lets return to the reality of 1967; send all those Palestinians back to Jordan. That land belonged to us and the 2 state solution has failed. Those arab gypsies were Jordan’s problem and there was never any true peace with their small militia on our land!!
Biden has to get reelected and needs the support of the Muslims and the leftists who are not happy with him and so the Jews can be sacrificed as usual… As soon as Netanyahu ran to Biden for “support” I knew it was a matter of time it will end this way. Ein oid milvadoi, as Jews only Hashem can deliver us from our enemies and only to Him should we turn to.
Hey Tony!
What’s your idea?
A country that had trouble shooting down a balloon is going to tell others how to operate in battlezones.
No, GHD, there’s already too much precision. Let the “world” go to Hell. Israel needs to stop worrying about this so-called “world” and its opinions; they are irrelevant. Every time a soldier is lost because the government wanted to appease the “world”, his blood is on the government’s hands and they will never be forgiven. The Torah says we must not care about “world opinion”. It’s the first halacha in Shulchan Aruch. Al yevosh mipnei hamal’igim. What is that but defiance of others’ opinion?
Gadolhadorah:
“There has to be some greater level of precision in destroying the remnants of Hamas and their infrastructure.”
Yes, there is. That would be Israeli troops fighting door to door and tunnel to tunnel. And that would cost many, many thousands of Israeli lives.
Is that what you’d like to see happen?
I seem to remember that during WW2 the U.S. preferred to drop a couple atomic bombs on Japan, killing over 300,000, rather than risking more U.S. soldiers. So maybe there’s no leg to stand on there.
Ignore the pressure and destroy Hamas! Do whatever it takes to those jackals and rattlesnakes.
America dropped 2 atom bombs on an already defeated country and killed 200,000 civilians. Yet they are now lecturing Israel on how to defend itself.
Mr Blinken, please impress on the Hamas organization the need to be more careful regarding civilian Israeli casualties when they indiscriminately launch thousands of missiles at Israeli civilian populations. When Hamas murderers storm across the border to murder Jewish civilians, they need to be careful not to harm Jewish civilians. I believe that Black Lives Matter. However, isn’t it true that Jewish lives matter also?
By the way, regarding the 15,000 +/- Palestinian civilians that have been killed in the Israeli counterattack …
1) Are the deceased Hamas fighters being counted in that figure as civilians? I have not seen the number reported of deceased Hamas fighters.
2) Are the reported 500 Palestinians who died when Israel bombed and destroyed the hospital (which is still standing) also counted in the 15,000 figure since they did not die?
Esav sonei la’yaakov. Blinken became angry when he heard Israeli society doesn’t want to live with Hamas and wants them destroyed
They responded too defensively. They should have told him we are following the plan that the Americans followed in Iraq against Sadaam Hussein and against Isis, and against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, except they are going to be even more humane then them. And if they have any complaints, they should stand next to an American soldier and look in the mirror.
And Mr. Blinken should examine his tongue and see if it is forked, because that is not the message that he expressed to the public after he emerged from the talks.
Chanauz, what do you mean by “send them back to Jordan”? They were never in Jordan. You’re not the first person I’ve come across that seems to have this bizarre idea that these people once lived in Jordan and still belong there. I can’t think where you could have got it. Those whose families were not living in Eretz Yisroel for centuries, their great-grandparents immigrated from all kinds of places: Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Bosnia, Arabia, etc., but none or very very few from what’s now called Jordan.
Yussel, Japan was not already defeated when we dropped the two bombs. On the contrary, without those bombs Japan would have fought on for years, and hundreds of thousands of US soldiers would have had to die, not to mention millions of Japanese. It was only the shock of the bombs that allowed the Emperor to seize control from the government and order the army to surrender.
YOSSIES:
No, “we” are not alone at all. The Zionist “State” is, of course, the ultimate galus Jew and must listen to the nations. That’s the price of admission that the nations charge the Zionists to play in their club of nations. But people still drink the Zionist Kool-Aid.
Israeli leadership lacks clear messaging and clear strategy.
That has always been the case since David Ben Gurion.
Our people suffer from this greatly.
But the future strategy and related messaging is relatively simple and clear, in my view.
A) There are should be 2 states: Israel and Judea.
That’s the two-state solution.
Both are Jewish states.
Judea fully surrounds the territory of Israel.
B) Israel should be a Theocracy. Governed by a blend
of Constitution and Torah.
C) Judea should be a Constitutional Republic (basically inheriting US-like constitution with its first 13 amendments, ensuring right for free speech and bear arms).
D) The Constitution of Judea should also spell clearly (eg a 14th amendment) what would happen to territories from which it is attacked. In those instances the territories from which an attach happen become Judea. People residing on those territories (after they become Judea) will have an option to emigrate, or to stay. If they decide to stay, they will get a sort-of-Green-card. Meaning they can stay, but cannot vote in political elections but can participate in census.
In essence, spelling this out in Judea’s constitution will make remove the optionality, and will remove division within the Jewish nation, and will warn its enemies that they will loose what they value the most.
E) Aliyah should allow to chose a family to go to Judea or Israel. Going to Israel, would, obviously, imply compliance with the laws and traditions of the Theocratic state.
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The above addresses the geopolitical and religious dualities of the Jewish nation, in my view. And will allow for incremental, but organized and focused preparation for Mashiach’s arrival.
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With regards to today’s conflict, with grief, it reminds me of science fiction stories, where remote wealthy adults pay to create their clones, living on an island as unware and brain-washed organ donors.
Gaza is that island created by Arafat/Hamas and their ilk.
It is the duty of the world to destroy those organizations and release the people from the ‘island’, provide them with opportunity to see how they were zombified into organ donors for the wealthy Muslim Arabs that benefit from this horrific plot.
It is also the duty of the Jewish nation to bring that land into its borders, just like the Israelites did for the lands of Molech, stopping the atrocities of sacrificing children.