American President Joe Biden has given a mandate to his staff, from the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken to that of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, to support Israel by all means. The statement with which he opened the short speech – less than 3 minutes – with which the US leader reiterated his unshakable and unconditional support for the Jewish State from the White House, are more than a manifestation of alignment. In Washington the news of the chaos generated by Hamas militiamen arrived at 2.30 on Saturday morning, at 7 Sullivan, National Security Advisor, had spoken with his counterparts and therefore Biden had been informed in detail. The Secretary of State has had conversations with regional allies and partners – there was one call with Antonio Tajani – and at every level of the Administration there have been contacts with Israel. The message was univocal, with Israel and against the Hamas terrorists. However, support also comes from concrete moves and this morning, according to what a senior Administration official explained, “details on the aid could arrive”. Military of course. In 2021, the US had sent Patriot and other systems to strengthen Israel’s defense. The effort will certainly not be trivial, in line with the Jerusalem Declaration which was signed in July 2022 and which strengthened the harmony between Biden and the Jewish State.
With the paralysis in Congress – the Chamber is without Speaker after the no-confidence vote against McCarthy – we need to find a way to facilitate the possible allocation. It is an issue which, the senior White House official admitted, has been discussed in “discussions between us”.
In Washington the spotlight is kept on not only on aid – and Austin will be the one to convey the requests and deliveries – but also on the involvement of foreign actors in the blitz, Iran first and foremost, and on the possible extension of the conflict to the West Bank. As for Tehran, the US official specified that “it is too early to say” whether there was a role but it is known that “Hamas takes weapons from Iran”. And sanctions are in force against the Islamic Republic also for this military “business”. This aspect is also linked to concerns about the northern front, i.e. the border between Lebanon and Israel where Hezbollah groups are active. There are no particular movements recorded – Israeli sources say – at the moment.
Secondly there is the West Bank aspect. In Washington it is repeatedly pointed out that the attack was carried out by Hamas, a terrorist group, and “not by the Palestinians”. To those who pointed out whether what happened on Saturday cast doubt on the Aqaba summit of the spring in which Israel and the PNA had decided to resume dialogue, the official replied that “Hamas was never part of that agreement”. This is why the Americans believe it is essential to separate the chaos in Gaza from the West Bank to prevent what is happening – with the hypothesis of a ground operation taking off – from having devastating repercussions on the ANP and the Palestinians of the Territories.
In all this there is the architecture of the new Middle East that is shaky even before being fully designed. Normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem is the great objective of this Administration, “we are committed to continuing the process”, explains the US source who seeks to once again detach Hamas from the context in which dialogue and negotiations take place.
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