Biden preparing for a post-Netanyahu era in Israel, US media says

The growing anger at Israeli PM Netanyahu on Capitol Hill echoes the Biden administration’s mounting frustration . The Biden administration is preparing for a post-Netanyahu era in Israel, US media reported. Three pro Israel lawmakers told NBC News that the unpopular Netanyahu may be deliberately trying to prolong the war in order to remain in power. Former Israeli PM Olmert said Netanyahu was in a state of “nervous breakdown,” as he sought to avoid being thrown out of office for failing to safeguard national security

NBC  last week  quoted American officials as saying that divisions between the Biden administration and that of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “have only become more pronounced since [Secretary of State] Blinken’s visit to Israel.”

“The secretary of state returned to Washington, the officials said, having been rebuffed by Netanyahu on all but one of the administration’s asks: an understanding that Israel would not attack Hezbollah in Lebanon,” NBC reported.

It quoted American officials as saying that Blinken told Netanyahu that “ultimately there is no military solution to Hamas, and that the Israeli leader needs to recognise that, or history will repeat itself and violence will continue.” However, the officials said, Netanyahu was unmoved.

“The Biden administration is looking past Netanyahu to try to achieve its goals in the region,” one official told the news station. Netanyahu, US officials said, “will not be there forever”, noting that the Biden administration is trying to lay the groundwork with other Israeli and civil society leaders in anticipation of an eventual post-Netanyahu government.

Netanyahu said Saturday that he “will not compromise on full Israeli control” over Gaza and that “this is contrary to a Palestinian state,” rejecting U.S. President Biden’s suggestion that creative solutions could bridge wide gaps between the leaders’ views on Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu posted his statement on social media a day after his first conversation with Biden in nearly a month. Discussing his administration’s position Friday, Biden said “there are a number of types of two-state solutions” and, asked if a two-state solution was impossible with Netanyahu in office, Biden replied, “No, it’s not.”

After Netanyahu’s statement, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the United States to go further. “It is time for the United States to recognize the state of Palestine, not just talk about a two-state solution,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.” Speaking in Uganda, he said the refusal would “indefinitely prolong” the conflict.

Pro-Israel US lawmakers losing confidence in Netanyahu 

Pro-Israel hawks in both parties on Capitol Hill are sounding the alarm that they are losing confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the war against Hamas.

Yesterday Thousands protested across Israel against Netanyahu’s Government , demanded return of hostages and early elections They called Netanyahu the “Face of Evil”.

Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said Netanyahu was in a state of “nervous breakdown,” as he sought to avoid being thrown out of office for failing to safeguard national security

It is widely accepted that the most likely solution to the conflict is a “two-state solution”: in other words, the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

The idea, of “two-state solution which would see Israelis and Palestinians living in two separate sovereign nations, is “getting a new hearing”, The New York Times  reported. It’s “not just in foreign-policy circles” either, the paper added, but “among the combatants themselves”. That’s primarily due to the “lack of any other viable alternative”.

Best prospect of peace

The two-state solution is the “only possible road to peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, said Caroline De Gruyter, of the Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad, in an article published by Carnegie Europe. To come about, it needs “political will”, which has been “sorely lacking so far”.

The idea  ” remains far more conceivable” than the possibility of Israel opting for a one-state solution, which could spell the end of the majority Jewish state. wrote Erik Levitz in New York Magazine. Currently, he added, it is the “most likely to yield a modicum of peace and justice”.

News Agencies