Their response appeared to come early Friday, delayed after numerous Western officials and diplomats advised Israel to exercise restraint. Reports indicate limited suspicion Israeli strikes near a major nuclear facility in the central Iranian province of Isfahan. The attack appeared to be intended as a warning to Iran of Israel’s reach and knowledge of the theocratic regime’s sensitive assets and military sites.
“Iran must understand that when it acts against us, we have the capacity to strike at any time and we can cause serious damage,” Eyal Hulata, a former Israeli national security adviser, said on Army Radio. “We have a very capable air force and the United States is at our side. »
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian downplayed the incident in an interview with NBC News, saying it “was not a strike” and “that they were more like toys that our children play with play – not drones.” He also adhered to Israel’s plausible deniability, stressing that it was not clear there was “a link” between the strike and Israel, and suggested that Iran would not have “further reactions » if there was no additional Israeli action.
In a feverish situation, this is good news. The long shadow war between the two countries is giving rise to numerous scenarios of miscalculations on both sides, and experts view last week as perhaps one of the riskiest moments yet. Israel and Iran have entered “a new equilibrium, not so different from the old one,” Arash Azizi, an assistant professor of political science and history at Clemson University, told my colleagues. “The immediate threat of escalation has been lifted.”
“We believe that Israel listened to our concerns and chose an action that the Iranians could live with,” an anonymous Western diplomat told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz shortly after the first reports of the strike were published. He added: “It is not yet possible to say with certainty that the danger is behind us, but it is permissible to be optimistic and cautious. »
But there is less reason for optimism when it comes to Gaza, the besieged territory in Israel’s crosshairs and the site of one of the world’s most staggering humanitarian disasters. The Palestinian death toll during more than six months of war between Israel and the militant group Hamas has exceeded 34,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says that the majority of the dead are women and children.
Earlier this month, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said it was “credible” to assess that famine was already underway in some areas of Gaza, particularly in the territory’s north. . Israel and Washington have said humanitarian aid flows have improved in recent days, as the Biden administration continues efforts to install a pier on the Gaza coast where United Nations agencies and other organizations can deliver supplies via the sea. But humanitarian groups say little has changed on the ground and a widespread food crisis persists.
The war is also in full swing. Israeli strikes on the town of Rafah in southern Gaza, home to more than a million Palestinians displaced by the conflict, killed 22 people, including 18 children, overnight, according to local authorities on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to launch a large-scale ground offensive on Rafah, despite the objections of many Israeli allies, including a worried Biden administration.
Netanyahu wants to prioritize eradicating Hamas battalions there, despite growing domestic clamor for a deal that would free remaining Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. Critics of Israel fear that such an offensive would put hundreds of thousands of civilians in the crossfire, push many Gazans out of Gaza – with bleak prospects of being able to return – and further delay the intermittent diplomatic cycles surrounding the dispute.
Late last week, U.S. and Israeli officials discussed Israeli war plans against Rafah. In a statement, the White House said U.S. officials at those talks “expressed concerns about the different courses of action at Rafah, and the Israeli participants agreed to take those concerns into account and continue discussions of follow up “.
None of these reservations have paralyzed the majority of American lawmakers in Congress. On Saturday, after months of political rancor, the House passed funding bills for military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. An overwhelming majority approved the $26 billion support measure for Israel, mostly in military aid. The package also includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid, some of which will be allocated to Gaza but cannot, under the terms of the bill, be provided through the main United Nations agency tasked with helping the Palestinians.
Netanyahu hailed the vote as a result that “demonstrates strong bipartisan support for Israel and defends Western civilization.” President Biden is expected to sign the bill once it passes the Senate.
Thirty-seven Democrats were among the 58 lawmakers who opposed the package for Israel. In a statement, 12 of those House Democrats said that while they “firmly” believe in Israel’s right to self-defense, they would not approve funding for “more offensive weapons” that would kill civilians. Palestinians. “We believe there is a moral imperative to find another path,” they said, rejecting the idea of providing more weapons for Netanyahu’s looming campaign against Rafah.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-W.A.), one of the dissenting lawmakers, said the vote was one of the first real opportunities for Congress to intervene in the war and for lawmakers to express concern about its trajectory. A recent poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters disapprove of Israel’s approach to war; just like the majority of independents.
“We are so far behind the American people,” Jayapal told me., referring to his congressional colleagues. And unlike Congress’s infamous vote to invade Iraq in 2003, she added, “in this situation, the public is not even with us.”
Not long ago, the idea of conditioning aid to Israel was “unthinkable” in Washington, Jayapal said, but it is now the subject of considerable debate in Congress. After growing pressure from activists and journalists, the Biden administration is expected to reveal its ‘determinations’ about whether some Israeli units that received US military assistance committed human rights abuses or possible crimes of war. Such control is required by U.S. law.
But progressive critics of the Biden administration say it has not done enough to hold Netanyahu’s government accountable, even as it privately warns Israeli officials about the conduct of the war. “I want my president to look strong and show the world that the United States means what it says,” Jayapal told me.
washingtonpost
