As U.S. President Joe Biden faces growing
criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel groups about his and his
administration’s response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Jake
Sullivan, the U.S. national security advisor, defended his boss at the
American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum on Tuesday.
“On the core strategic objective—the
enduring defeat of the terrorist threats against the state of
Israel—there is absolutely no daylight between Joe Biden and Israel,”
Sullivan said on Tuesday morning. “None. Zero.”
“The debates are over not the ‘what,’ not
the objective, but rather over tactical issues, over operational issues,
over particular steps that we would like to see taken,” the U.S.
national security advisor said. “Because we think it’s not just in our
interest, but frankly, we think it is consistent with Israel’s interests
and values too.”
Biden laid out an Israeli ceasefire-for-hostages proposal
on May 31 that would see the release of all hostages in exchange for a
phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the release of a
yet-undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners and a permanent end to
hostilities.
“It’s time for this war to end,” Biden said at the time.
The terms of the deal that Biden outlined
neither required Hamas to surrender nor to leave the Gaza Strip, which
left the question open how the deal would be consistent with removing
the U.S.-designated terror organization from power.
Sullivan said on Tuesday that negotiations
between intervals of the three-phased deal would produce a new
Palestinian government in Gaza.
“If we get into a deal and we work through
the phases, we can end up with an interim security enterprise and
interim governance enterprise that can lead to a Gaza that is no longer a
platform for terror, and from which no attacks of the sort that we saw
on Oct. 7 can ever be conducted again against Israel,” Sullivan said at
the AJC event.
Sullivan added that Palestinians “can live
in dignity and security” in such a situation, and “the Israeli people
can know that Gaza will not be a platform for terror that can threaten
innocent people in Israel going forward.”
Hamas rejected the proposal on Thursday, and The Wall Street Journal reported
that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, believes that he is in a
strong negotiating position, per recent messages he sent to the
negotiators.
Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar said, “We have the Israelis right where we want them.”
“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Sinwar said in one message to Hamas officials.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
said at a humanitarian aid conference in Jordan on Tuesday that Hamas is
the “one—and only one” thing preventing the deal from going forward.
‘Not be under threat there’
On Tuesday, Sullivan described a series of
positive knock-on effects if the ceasefire deal goes through that he
said would be a “game-changer” in terms of opportunities for Israel,
including the return of Israelis to the evacuated strip of communities
along the Lebanese border that is currently under frequent rocket fire
from Hezbollah.
“If we get to a ceasefire in Gaza, we can
get to calm in Lebanon, and we can work out a diplomatic arrangement
where tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes
and know that they will not be under threat there,” Sullivan said.
“We can have a day after in Gaza where the
Arab states play a significant role in both stabilizing and
reconstructing Gaza, so that it is not that platform for terror that it
has been in the past,” he said. “We can begin down a pathway of Israel’s
full integration into the region, including normalization with
additional countries, including potentially Saudi Arabia.”
The Biden administration has been seeking a
package deal with Riyadh since before Oct. 7 that would include the
kingdom normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for a formal
U.S.-Saudi security pact.
The Saudis have also said in public
statements that they will not recognize Israel until the Jewish state
recognizes a Palestinian state. Sullivan said on Tuesday that the deal
is for “a credible pathway to a Palestinian state.”
The Biden administration remains committed
to a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
he added. He acknowledged Israeli critics of a two-state solution who
believe that an independent Palestine would be a haven for terrorism.
“I recognize that there are deep concerns
and worries, not just in the Israeli government but in the Israeli
public on this issue,” he said. “We have to acknowledge that and work to
address those concerns.”
“But I believe there’s nothing
inconsistent with a credible pathway to a Palestinian state and a
long-term secure future for Israel,” he added.
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