Moshe Hazan lives in Kiryat Shmona, in a small house at the foot of the mountain that forms the border between Israel and Lebanon. He is retired. And he explains, with a smile on his face, calm and while his wife approaches him with a pair of socks in her hand, that “everyone [in Kiryat Shmona] is outside, evacuated to hotels paid for by the Government. We only return home three or four hours to pick up and leave things there.” “It seems that it will be prolonged”, he concludes.
Are you referring to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah? In the Gaza war? To the tension that floods the Middle East? Hazan, a Jew who was born in Morocco and has been an Israeli for 60 years, nods and does not answer, but for now the facts seem to bear him out.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met yesterday in Tel-Aviv with the top brass of the Jewish State, from the president, Isaac Herzog, to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, through the war cabinet of national unity, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and even the leader of the opposition. He arrived there with the intention of “pressuring” Israel and at the meetings he urged Israeli leaders to protect civilians in the Gaza war and to set the course for a solution, which would involve a Palestinian state.
No immediate consequences are expected. And it is likely that many leaders in the Middle East are asking themselves right now whether the US voice is being heard and heard, and whether it is as influential today as it was in the past. Because in war nothing changes.
Israel announced last week that the offensive in the strip was entering a “more selective” phase, more in line with the United States’ request to protect civilians. Also that they would withdraw some troops. But yesterday, at the same time as Blinken’s meetings in Tel-Aviv, the Israeli army attacked Khan Iunis, in southern Gaza, killing at least 40 people who Israel identifies as Hamas militants.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also informed Blinken that Israel will intensify its offensive in the area until the leaders are found. And he reiterated to him that “an increase in pressure on Iran is fundamental and can prevent regional escalation in more territories”. Almost a few hours after Blinken arrived in Israel, Hizbullah in turn attacked with drones a major Israeli base, the headquarters of the northern commando in Safed, about 14 kilometers from the border of Lebanon, without causing casualties. It was the response to Monday’s assassination of a commander of its special forces, Uissam al-Tauil. And Israeli forces killed three pro-Iranian militiamen in Lebanese territory in retaliation. Climbing is fun. He finds no respite. And the interim prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Miqati, has his voice, who on Tuesday did not hesitate to express himself: “We want permanent stability and we ask for a lasting peaceful solution, but in return we receive warnings of a war against Lebanon.”
Blinken also expressed interest yesterday in dealing with Netanyahu from the Hamas post in Gaza; of the post-war strip. And there is not much agreement here either. The United States always reiterates that the Palestinian National Authority should be involved. Israel disputes this, because the Authority is vetoed by a part of the Cabinet, the same part that proposes “voluntary” relocations of Gazans outside the enclave and whom Blinken called “irresponsible” before arriving in Israel.
It is not possible to lower the tension in Gaza. Not in the West Bank (last night Israeli forces killed a Palestinian near Ramallah, its de facto capital), not in Lebanon, not in Syria, not in Iraq or in the Red Sea because of the attacks on ships of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Not in Iran.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, the country’s leader in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is credited with this phrase: “If the Arabs lay down their arms, there will be peace; but if Israel lays down its arms, there will be no Israel”. The idea seems to continue to condition the conflict in Gaza and the seven fronts that Israel claims to be fighting.
The Gaza Ministry of Health, meanwhile, has raised the death toll from the war to more than 23,000. Gaza has already entered the fourth month of war.
