The Biden administration is frustrated with the prime minister’s refusal to accept a Palestinian state ruling Gaza after the war.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
The U.S. has begun looking for other Israeli leaders to implement its vision of the “day after” the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, NBC News reported Wednesday.
American officials told the TV channel that the Biden administration was frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to accept its proposal to have the Palestinian Authority (PA) rule Gaza after the war. According to the report, “three senior officials” said that Washington is now “looking past Netanyahu to try to achieve its goals in the region.”
While formally saying that the current Palestinian Authority (PA) must first be “revitalized” by changing out at least part of the old guard that is seen as inherently weak and corrupt, President Joe Biden wants to implement the “two-state solution” after Hamas is thrown out if not destroyed, with the country of “Palestine” running both the Gaza Strip and its territory in Judea and Samaria, as well as eastern Jerusalem.
The idea has found support among Arab countries, chief of them Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince told Secretary of State Antony Blinken in meetings this week that he would help rebuild Gaza and even normalize relations with Israel if Jerusalem would agree to paving the way to a Palestinian state.
The prime minister turned the idea down again when Blinken met with him following his visits to Arab capitals, said the officials, as he has done every time it has been suggested by Washington since the war began.
“In an attempt to work around Netanyahu,” said the report, Blinken met privately with ministers of the small War Cabinet, which includes former defense minister and head of the National Unity party Benny Gantz, who is currently leading in the polls by a wide margin if elections were to be held today.
He also met with Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who briefly served as prime minister in 2023 and refused to join a national unity government after Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7, 2023 following its surprise invasion when its terrorists massacred 1,200 people and took some 250 hostage.
While the officials correctly noted that Netanyahu “will not be there forever,” it is not at all a sure thing that the more centrist and leftist leaders would agree to the Biden plan, at least not in the near future, even if it came with diplomatic relations with Riyadh, a long-held dream for Israel.
Israelis are sickened by the PA’s support for terrorism, as evidenced by its “pay for slay” policy of financially supporting terrorists jailed for attacking Israelis or their families in cases where the terrorists were killed in their attempt. In addition, President Mahmoud Abbas not only failed to condemn the Hamas rampage, he blamed Israel for it. Meanwhile, some of his underlings showered praise on the Islamist extremists for their successful assault, and 83% of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria endorsed the Hamas massacres in a November poll.
A Gallup poll of Israelis taken between October 17 and December 3 showed that a large majority of 65% opposed the existence of an independent Palestinians state, with only 25% supporting it. A whopping 74% do not expect that a permanent peace is even possible with the Palestinians.