{"id":270968,"date":"2024-08-05T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=270968"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:38:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:38:34","slug":"despite-tough-talk-on-netanyahu-us-enforces-israeli-aggression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/08\/despite-tough-talk-on-netanyahu-us-enforces-israeli-aggression\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite ‘Tough’ Talk on Netanyahu, US Enforces Israeli Aggression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blocking multiple diplomatic opportunities, the US and Israel threaten new regional escalation. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4 Aug 2024 <\/em>– As the world awaits an expected retaliation from Iran and its allies to Israel\u2019s latest escalations \u2013 most provocatively, the assassination of Hamas political leader and chief negotiator Ismael Haniyeh in Tehran — the White House is claiming to be upset with Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> anonymous US officials<\/a>, President Biden told Netanyahu, in a \u201ctough\u201d and \u201cheated\u201d phone call Thursday [1 Aug], that Israel needs to \u201cstop escalating tensions in the region and move immediately toward a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.\u201d Biden also purportedly complained that the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran\u2019s capital \u201ccould trigger the wider regional war that he has been trying to avert.\u201d In their Oval Office meeting days earlier, Biden is said to have \u201craised his voice\u201d and demanded that Netanyahu reach a Gaza deal within a week to two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden realized that Netanyahu was lying to him about the hostages,\u201d a senior US official told Haaretz<\/a>. \u201cHe’s not saying it publicly yet, but in the meeting between them, he specifically told him, ‘Stop bullshitting me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

While now claiming to be taking a hard line, the Biden team\u2019s effort to distance itself from Netanyahu is nothing new: throughout more than 300 days of Israel\u2019s mass murder campaign in Gaza, the White House has repeatedly claimed frustration with him all while continuing to arm his military and block calls for a ceasefire. Netanyahu has now become so bellicose that he has forced the White House to abandon another ruse: in claiming that it pressed the Israeli leader to finalize a ceasefire deal, US officials are tacitly admitting that their claim that Hamas is the sole obstacle<\/a> to one is a complete lie.<\/p>\n

Israeli officials are more forthright in acknowledging Netanyahu\u2019s intransigence. A top member of Israel\u2019s negotiating team tells Haaretz<\/a> that Israeli defense chiefs do not believe that Netanyahu is interested in a ceasefire and hostage agreement. \u201cThere is a deal on the table,\u201d Mossad chief David Barnea was quoted as telling the Israeli leader. \u201cIf we delay, we could miss the opportunity. We have to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Netanyahu has every reason to feel emboldened.<\/p>\n

In Washington last month, a bipartisan Congressional chamber treated him to dozens of standing ovations. When it comes to his critics, only one lawmaker, Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, had the courage to protest him in person. And despite claiming to have reprimanded him in private, the Biden administration is only offering public encouragement.<\/p>\n

The White House readout<\/a> of Biden and Netanyahu\u2019s Thursday phone call did not even include a token mention of a ceasefire. It instead announced that Biden had pledged \u201cnew defensive U.S. military deployments\u201d to the Middle East as part of his \u201ccommitment to Israel\u2019s security against all threats from Iran.\u201d Those deployments have come in the form of new US warships, fighter jets, and an aircraft carrier, to complement the previous US military assets that Biden has sent to defend Israel from regional retaliation.<\/p>\n

As US officials have quietly acknowledged<\/a>, the US is not defending Israel from any serious threats, but Israel\u2019s right to threaten everyone else \u2013 what the New York Times described as Israel\u2019s \u201caura of power.\u201d According to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, the Israeli military \u201cis betting the response\u201d from Iran and its allies \u201cwill be manageable\u2014and that it is more important to win the fear of its adversaries after the security failure on Oct. 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser, has newly explained Israel\u2019s mentality. \u201cWe live in a region where no one appreciates anything but military force and the willingness to use it,\u201d Eiland said<\/a>. Therefore, assassinations such as Haniyeh\u2019s \u201chelp Israel to regain not only self-confidence but also some abilities to deter our enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eiland has previously advised that Palestinians in Gaza should be deprived of water by all means possible. \u201cIsrael, as I understand, closed the water supply to Gaza,\u201d Eiland told Israeli army radio in October<\/a>. \u201cBut there are many wells in Gaza, which contain water which they treat locally, since originally they contain salt. If the energy shortage in Gaza makes it so that they stop pumping out water, that’s good. Otherwise we have to attack these water treatment plants in order to create a situation of thirst and hunger.\u201d Perhaps he sees creating thirst and hunger as another way to boost Israeli \u201cself-confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eiland\u2019s dictate that the Middle East region only understands \u201cmilitary force and the willingness to use it\u201d evokes Noam Chomsky\u2019s observation that the US-led order, in which Israel is a central proxy, operates as a Mafia racket. Outside of its confines, Israel\u2019s neighbors, including Hamas, have long offered alternatives to military force. In 2002, the\u00a0Arab League offered Israel<\/a>\u00a0full normalization in return for a withdrawal from all Arab territories (Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian) that it occupied in 1967; the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital; and a \u201cjust resolution\u201d to the refugee issue. The initiative was subsequently endorsed by Iran, which\u00a0signed on<\/a>\u00a0to a\u00a0December 2017 declaration<\/a>\u00a0calling for a \u201ctwo-state solution with east Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top Hamas officials have long<\/a> voiced a willingness<\/a> to accept this position<\/a> \u2013 a massive compromise for Palestinians, as their proposed state would comprise just 22% of their historic homeland. Those willing to entertain this compromise include the now assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. \u201cWe are ready for political negotiations for a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine,\u201d Haniyeh said in October<\/a>, adding only two conditions: an immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.<\/p>\n

Just as it had<\/a> with all previous overtures<\/a>, Israel ignored this diplomatic opportunity out of an overriding commitment to using military force and instilling \u201cfear\u201d in its neighbors. Despite the Biden administration\u2019s latest round of tough talk toward Netanyahu, the US remains committed to Israeli aggression and hegemony, no matter the ever-increasing risks of greater regional disaster.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Aaron Mat\u00e9 is a journalist with<\/em> The Grayzone, where he hosts<\/em> \u201cPushback.\u201d He is also a contributor to<\/em> Real Clear Investigations and the temporary co-host of<\/em> \u201cUseful Idiots.\u201d In 2019, Mat\u00e9 won the\u00a0Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media for Russiagate coverage in<\/em> The Nation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 aaronmate.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 Aug 2024 – As US officials have quietly acknowledged, the US is not defending Israel from any threats, but Israel\u2019s right to threaten everyone else \u2013 what the New York Times described as Israel\u2019s \u201caura of power.\u201d Blocking multiple diplomatic opportunities, the US and Israel threaten new regional escalation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":251975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[101,100,87,865,742,88,2097,767,427,818,2159,99,1759,70],"class_list":["post-270968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-proxy-war","tag-rogue-states","tag-structural-violence","tag-targeted-assassination","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270969,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270968\/revisions\/270969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}