Dina Mahmoud (Washington, London)
Yesterday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and US envoy Amos Hockstein held discussions regarding moving to the “third phase” of the war on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Ministry of Defense said in a statement: “Defense Minister Gallant met with Amos Hochstein, senior advisor to US President Joe Biden, in Washington.”
Minister Gallant told Hockstein that “the transition to the third phase of the war in Gaza will have an impact on all sectors, and Israel is preparing for all military and political possibilities,” according to the statement.
American analytical circles have warned that time is running out for President Joe Biden’s administration to reach a permanent or temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
After the Biden administration sought, when the war broke out in October last year, to end it as soon as possible, and to prevent its flames from spreading to other regions in the Middle East, the scene now suggests that Washington’s hopes in this regard have not been fulfilled until this moment.
Analysts point out that the continuation of the battles for all these months makes it difficult for the White House to push its parties to reach a near settlement, or limit the dangerous repercussions of the war on the regional arena, which increases the pressure on President Biden, who is facing fierce electoral competition from his predecessor. His Republican rival, Donald Trump, is trying to return to the Oval Office by winning the November 5 elections.
Since late last year, all ceasefire efforts in Gaza have failed.
Over recent weeks, confrontations have escalated in the Lebanese-Israeli border area, in parallel with the outbreak of public disagreements between the US administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This complex scene increases, according to analysts, the current discrepancy between the military and political levels in Israel, regarding the course of the war in Gaza and its future course, which has reached the point of verbal debate in the media, against the backdrop of decisions related to how to manage operations on the ground, as happened when Netanyahu criticized The army announced a partial “tactical truce” in Rafah, to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.
In addition to all of this, there is the enormous financial pressure placed on the Palestinian Authority, due to Israel’s withholding of a significant portion of the tax funds it collects on its behalf, which threatens to undermine Washington’s hopes that the Authority will be able to play a tangible future role in the post-war period. .
In this context, American diplomat David Satterfield, who until last April was assigned by the White House to lead Washington’s humanitarian efforts in Gaza, confirmed that the obstacles to reaching a peace agreement in the Middle East have become the most complex in more than 4 decades, noting. Until both sides of the current confrontation consider it an issue related to the existence of each of them, nothing less.
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