{"id":112150,"date":"2024-10-09T12:30:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T05:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=112150"},"modified":"2024-10-09T12:30:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T05:30:45","slug":"why-has-america-failed-to-broker-a-middle-east-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=112150","title":{"rendered":"Why has America failed to broker a Middle East ceasefire?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure>\n<div data-component=\"image-block\" class=\"sc-18fde0d6-0 EXUng\">\n<div data-testid=\"hero-image\" class=\"sc-a34861b-1 jxzoZC\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-a34861b-0 cOpVbP hide-when-no-script\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 240w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 320w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 480w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/640\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 640w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/800\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 800w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 1024w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1536\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp 1536w\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/bf55\/live\/57d29ee0-826a-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.png.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"BBC A treated image showing Benjamin Netanyahu in the foreground and Joe Biden in the background\" class=\"sc-a34861b-0 efFcac\"\/><span class=\"sc-a34861b-2 fxQYxK\">BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-18fde0d6-0 dlWCEZ\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">A year ago, after the October 7 attacks and the start of Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza, Joe Biden became the first US president to visit Israel at a time of war. I watched him fix his gaze at the TV cameras after meeting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet in Tel Aviv, and tell the country: \u201cYou are not alone\u201d. But he also urged its leadership not to repeat the mistakes an \u201cenraged\u201d America made after 9\/11.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In September this year at the United Nations in New York, President Biden led a global roll call of leaders urging restraint between Israel and Hezbollah. Netanyahu gave his response. The long arm of Israel, he said, could reach anywhere in the region.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Ninety minutes later, Israeli pilots fired American-supplied \u201cbunker buster\u201d bombs at buildings in southern Beirut. The strike killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It marked one of the most significant turning points in the year since Hamas unleashed its attack on Israel on 7 October.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Biden\u2019s diplomacy was being buried in the ruins of an Israeli airstrike using American-supplied bombs.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">I\u2019ve spent the best part of a year watching US diplomacy close up, travelling in the press pool with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on trips back to the Middle East, where I worked for seven years up until last December.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The single greatest goal for diplomacy as stated by the Biden administration has been to get a ceasefire for hostage release deal in Gaza. The stakes could barely be higher. A year on from Hamas smashing its way through the militarised perimeter fence into southern Israel where they killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped 250, scores of hostages &#8211; including seven US citizens &#8211; remain in captivity, with a significant number believed to be dead. In Gaza, Israel\u2019s massive retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, while the territory has been reduced to a moonscape of destruction, displacement and hunger.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Thousands more Palestinians are missing. The UN says record numbers of aid workers have been killed in Israeli strikes, while humanitarian groups have repeatedly accused Israel of blocking shipments &#8211; something its government has consistently denied. Meanwhile, the war has spread to the occupied West Bank and to Lebanon. Iran last week fired 180 missiles at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The conflict threatens to deepen and envelop the region.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h2 class=\"sc-518485e5-0 kRvAla\">Wins and losses<!-- --><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-18fde0d6-0 dlWCEZ\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Covering the US State Department, I have watched the Biden administration attempt to simultaneously support and restrain Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. But its goal of defusing the conflict and brokering a ceasefire has eluded the administration at every turn.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Biden officials claim US pressure changed the \u201cshape of their military operations\u201c, a likely reference to a belief within the administration that Israel\u2019s invasion of Rafah in Gaza\u2019s south was more limited than it otherwise would have been, even with much of the city now lying in ruins.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Before the Rafah invasion, Biden suspended a single consignment of 2,000lb and 500lb bombs as he tried to dissuade the Israelis from an all-out assault. But the president immediately faced a backlash from Republicans in Washington and from Netanyahu himself who appeared to compare it to an \u201carms embargo\u201d. Biden has since partially lifted the suspension and never repeated it.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The State Department asserts that its pressure did get more aid flowing, despite the UN reporting famine-like conditions in Gaza earlier this year. \u201cIt\u2019s through the intervention and the involvement and the hard work of the United States that we\u2019ve been able to get humanitarian assistance into those in Gaza, which is not to say that this is\u2026 mission accomplished. It is very much not. It is an ongoing process,\u201d says department spokesman Matthew Miller.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In the region, much of Biden\u2019s work has been undertaken by his chief diplomat, Anthony Blinken. He has made ten trips to the Middle East since October in breakneck rounds of diplomacy, the visible side of an effort alongside the secretive work of the CIA at trying to close a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">But I have watched multiple attempts to close the deal being spiked. On Blinken\u2019s ninth visit, in August, as we flew in a C-17 US military transporter on a trip across the region, the Americans became increasingly exasperated. A visit that started with optimism that a deal could be within reach, ended with us arriving in Doha where Blinken was told that the Emir of Qatar &#8211; whose delegation is critical in communicating with Hamas &#8211; was ill and couldn\u2019t see him.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">A snub? We never knew for sure (officials say they later spoke by phone), but the trip felt like it was falling apart after Netanyahu claimed he had \u201cconvinced\u201d Blinken of the need to keep Israeli troops along Gaza\u2019s border with Egypt as part of the agreement. This was a deal breaker for Hamas and the Egyptians. A US official accused Netanyahu of effectively trying to sabotage the agreement. Blinken flew out of Doha without having got any further than the airport. The deal was going nowhere. We were going back to Washington.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">On his tenth trip to the region last month, Blinken did not visit Israel.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h2 class=\"sc-518485e5-0 kRvAla\">Superficial diplomacy?<!-- --><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-18fde0d6-0 dlWCEZ\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">For critics, including some former officials, the US call for an end to the war while supplying Israel with at least $3.8bn (\u00a32.9bn) of arms per year, plus granting supplemental requests since 7 October, has amounted either to a failure to apply leverage or an outright contradiction. They argue the current expansion of the war in fact marks a demonstration, rather than a failure, of US diplomatic policy.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cTo say [the administration] conducted diplomacy is true in the most superficial sense in that they conducted a lot of meetings. But they never made any reasonable effort to change behaviour of one of the main actors &#8211; Israel,\u201d says former intelligence officer Harrison J. Mann, a career US Army Major who worked in the Middle East and Africa section of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the time of the October 7th attacks. Mr Mann resigned earlier this year in protest at US support for Israel\u2019s assault in Gaza and the number of civilians being killed using American weapons.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Allies of Biden flat-out reject the criticism. They point, for example, to the fact that diplomacy with Egypt and Qatar mediating with Hamas resulted in last November\u2019s truce which saw more than 100 hostages released in Gaza in exchange for around 300 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. US officials also say the administration dissuaded the Israeli leadership from invading Lebanon much earlier in the Gaza conflict, despite cross border rocket fire between Hezbollah and Israel.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Senator Chris Coons, a Biden loyalist who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and who travelled to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia late last year, says it\u2019s critical to weigh Biden\u2019s diplomacy against the context of the last year.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cI think there&#8217;s responsibility on both sides for a refusal to close the distance, but we cannot ignore or forget that Hamas launched these attacks,\u201d he says.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cHe has been successful in preventing an escalation &#8211; despite repeated and aggressive provocation by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, by the Shia militias in Iraq &#8211; and has brought in a number of our regional partners,\u201d he says.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert says Biden\u2019s diplomacy has amounted to an unprecedented level of support, pointing to the huge US military deployment, including aircraft carrier strike groups and a nuclear power submarine, he ordered in the wake of October 7.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">But he believes Biden has been unable to overcome the resistance of Netanyahu.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cEvery time he came close to it, Netanyahu somehow found a reason not to comply, so the main reason for the failure of this diplomacy was the consistent opposition of Netanyahu,\u201d says Olmert.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Olmert says a stumbling block for a ceasefire deal has been Netanyahu\u2019s reliance on the \u201cmessianic\u201d ultranationalists in his cabinet who prop up his government. They are agitating for an even stronger military response in Gaza and Lebanon. Two far-right ministers this summer threatened to withdraw support for Netanyahu\u2019s government if he signed a ceasefire deal.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cEnding the war as part of an agreement for the release of hostages means a major threat to Netanyahu and he&#8217;s not prepared to accept it, so he\u2019s violating it, he\u2019s screwing it all the time,\u201d he says.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly rejected claims he blocked the deal, insisting he was in favour of the American-backed plans and sought only \u201cclarifications\u201d, while Hamas continually changed its demands.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h2 class=\"sc-518485e5-0 kRvAla\">A question of leverage<!-- --><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-18fde0d6-0 dlWCEZ\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">But whatever the shuttle diplomacy, much has turned on the relationship between the US president and Netanyahu. The men have known each other for decades, the dynamics have been often bitter, dysfunctional even, but Biden\u2019s positions predate even his relationship with the Israeli prime minister.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Passionately pro-Israel, he often speaks of visiting the country as a young Senator in the early 1970s. Supporters and critics alike point to Biden\u2019s unerring support for the Jewish state &#8211; some citing it as a liability, others as an asset.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Ultimately, for President Biden\u2019s critics, his biggest failure to use leverage over Israel has been over the scale of bloodshed in Gaza. In the final year of his only term, thousands of protesters, many of them Democrats, have taken to American streets and university campuses denouncing his policies, holding \u201cGenocide Joe\u201d banners.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Biden\u2019s mindset, which underpins the administration\u2019s position, was shaped at a time when the nascent Israeli state was seen as being in immediate existential peril, says Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cAmerican diplomacy has basically been, \u2018whatever Israel&#8217;s war demands and requires we will give them to fight it\u2019,\u201d says Prof Khalidi.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cThat means, given that this [Israeli] government wants an apparently unending war, because they&#8217;ve set war aims that are unattainable &#8211; [including] destroying Hamas &#8211; the United States is a cart attached to an Israeli horse,\u201d he says.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">He argues Biden\u2019s approach to the current conflict was shaped by an outdated conception of the balance of state forces in the region and neglects the experience of stateless Palestinians.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cI think that Biden is stuck in a much longer-term time warp. He just cannot see things such as\u2026 57 years of occupation, the slaughter in Gaza, except through an Israeli lens,\u201d he says.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Today, says Prof Khalidi, a generation of young Americans has witnessed scenes from Gaza on social media and many have a radically different outlook. \u201cThey know what the people putting stuff on Instagram and TikTok in Gaza have shown them,\u201d he says.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Kamala Harris, 59, Biden\u2019s successor as Democratic candidate in next month\u2019s presidential election against Donald Trump, 78, doesn\u2019t come with the same generational baggage.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">However, neither Harris nor Trump has set out any specific plans beyond what is already in process for how they would reach a deal. The election may yet prove the next turning point in this sharply escalating crisis, but quite how is not yet apparent.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\"><i id=\"lead-image-credit:-getty\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kKcaog\">Lead image credit: Getty <!-- --><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-18fde0d6-0 dlWCEZ\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\"><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/bbcindepth\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\"><i id=\"bbc-indepth\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kKcaog\">BBC InDepth<!-- --><\/i><\/a><i id=\"is-the-new-home-on-the-website-and-app-for-the-best-analysis-and-expertise-from-our-top-journalists.-under-a-distinctive-new-brand,-we\u2019ll-bring-you-fresh-perspectives-that-challenge-assumptions,-and-deep-reporting-on-the-biggest-issues-to-help-you-make-sense-of-a-complex-world.-and-we\u2019ll-be-showcasing-thought-provoking-content-from-across-bbc-sounds-and-iplayer-too.-we\u2019re-starting-small-but-thinking-big,-and-we-want-to-know-what-you-think---you-can-send-us-your-feedback-by-clicking-on-the-button-below.\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kKcaog\"> is the new home on the website and app for the best analysis and expertise from our top journalists. Under a distinctive new brand, we\u2019ll bring you fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions, and deep reporting on the biggest issues to help you make sense of a complex world. And we\u2019ll be showcasing thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. We\u2019re starting small but thinking big, and we want to know what you think &#8211; you can send us your feedback by clicking on the button below.<!-- --><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--$!--><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cew1jkgd7n8o\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC A year ago, after the October 7 attacks and the start of Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza, Joe Biden became the first US president to visit Israel at a time &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=112150\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}