The US extracts minimal concessions from Israel in six months of war

Israel fell into official silence immediately after the call between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, in which the US president warned the Israeli prime minister of changes in his support for the war in Gaza if he did not take immediate steps to protect the civilians and humanitarian aid. It is not usual: the president who has been in power the longest in the Jewish State usually boasts of his handshakes with foreign leaders, as in his 2019 election campaign, which he illustrated with the phrase: “Netanyahu, in another league.” . In a matter of hours, however, he bowed to that pressure that weeks before he had promised to resist in Parliament.

The Government announced that it will open the Erez border crossing with northern Gaza and that the port of Ashdod, in Israel, will once again channel humanitarian aid. It was his first major concession to the White House in the six months of war, which ends on Sunday, at the end of a week in which Netanyahu has opted for a low profile. Biden has welcomed the measures; His office maintains that the threat remains pending to see if Israel keeps its word, if real steps are taken to protect civilians and if the agreement for an immediate truce that is being negotiated these days in Cairo is closed. .

The announcement was also added on Friday to the conclusion of the internal investigation in which the Israeli Armed Forces admit “serious errors” in the attack in which seven aid workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK, founded by chef Spanish-American José Andrés). Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari has indicated that they assume “full responsibility” for the bombing and two military commanders have been suspended for decisions such as assuming that there was an armed man in one of the cars they had seen before in another vehicle or taking a guard who stayed in a warehouse as a Hamas militiaman. The investigation does not clarify how the troops “did not understand” that the three bombed vehicles belonged to the NGO if they had the logo and had notified the Armed Forces of the route, nor why they continued to launch missiles at the vehicles when it could be seen that the survivors Those who were trying to save their lives by changing from one to another were not armed. WCK has called for an independent investigation.

Washington's initial reaction has been one of initial satisfaction, although very nuanced. “I asked them [a los israelíes] to do what they are doing,” Biden made clear to reporters at the White House before embarking on a trip to Baltimore to visit the collapsed bridge last week.

At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated in a telephone conversation with reporters: “We welcome these initial announcements of additional border crossings and greater humanitarian aid. We also welcome the publication of his research,” and he expressed Washington's willingness to collaborate as much as possible to accelerate the distribution of humanitarian aid. But he also clarified that the United States will carefully examine the content of the Israeli report and decide what the next steps are based on what it finds in it. He has no plans to develop his own investigation.

“We are going to take our time to review it carefully. Of course, we will discuss their findings, and our own, with Israeli officials and humanitarian organizations in the coming days,” Kirby noted. “What really matters to us are two things: that something like this [el ataque contra los trabajadores de WCK] “does not happen again and that there are concrete, verifiable and sustainable changes in their methods in this type of missions, so that the safety of civilians and aid workers is the main thing.” The senior official also added to the demands of the United States that of an immediate ceasefire linked to an exchange of hostages for prisoners, like the one that took place at the beginning of November.

“It is very important that Israel assumes full responsibility for this incident,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared on Friday, touring Europe. “It is also important to be seen to take steps to hold those responsible accountable.” Israel must “adopt further changes to its procedures” to ensure the protection of aid workers and civilians, and the United States, he assured, “will examine very carefully what those changes are.” As he argued, “military operations should be designed around the protection (of civilians), not the other way around.”

The American emphasis on seeing how the situation develops on the ground in the coming days makes clear the fundamental shift that the attack on WCK has brought to mind in Washington. Earlier this week, Kirby himself insisted that the United States maintained its support for Israel in the war.

Months ago, the announcement of the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the south of the Strip, had been received in the US capital with all kinds of uproar. The current one comes when the Biden Administration accumulates months of frustration about Israeli methods in Gaza and the obstacles to the entry of humanitarian aid. The political cost for Democrats is being felt in the escalation of blank votes in the primaries and in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that accompany any public event by Biden outside the White House.

Even some of the most pro-Israel politicians in the ruling party openly call for imposing conditions on military aid, without which Israel would be sold out, even more so if its assassination on Monday of a high-ranking Iranian military commander in the ambassador's residence in Damascus ends triggering an open war with Tehran or with Hezbollah, its allied militia in Lebanon. There is no other country to which the United States provides more military aid: 3.8 billion dollars (about 3.52 billion euros) annually. In fact, despite differences over war strategy, the convenience of invading Rafah or humanitarian aid, the Government has recently been quietly authorizing the delivery to Israel of 1,800 900 kilo bombs, 500 227 bombs and 25 F-fighter bombers. 35, according to the newspaper Washington Post.

“We cannot approve the sale of weapons to a country that violates our own laws” on the protection of civilians, Senator Elizabeth Warren declared to CNN on Thursday, who assures that she will try to block the sale of F fighters in the Upper House. -16 Americans to the great ally in the Middle East. “It is a moral question, also a legal question. Congress has a responsibility in this, and I am willing to accept that responsibility.”

But Israeli concessions may come too late and be too little. “The Biden Administration is taking, rather late, some steps to exert pressure to make humanitarian aid to the Palestinians a higher priority than it was at the beginning of the war. It remains to be seen whether these measures and the new open corridors will be enough to solve the increasingly dire humanitarian security situation in Gaza,” says analyst Brian Katulis, an expert on US foreign policy at the Middle East Institute think tank, based in Washington

Former President Donald Trump himself, the current Republican presidential candidate who broke, when he was in power, with decades of United States foreign policy and with the international consensus by recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, considers that Israel is losing the battle of relations and must end the war as soon as possible.

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