Netanyahu's Comment on Post-War Gaza Draws Scrutiny from U.S.
Israeli prime minister appears afraid of his hardline coalition government, critics say
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that Israel could reoccupy Gaza at the end of the current conflict drew scrutiny from Washington, which said it “does not see reoccupation.”
Netanyahu has been unclear about his goals in Gaza, other than to wipe out Hamas. The U.S. has been asking: Then what?
The prime minister told ABC News: “Israel will — for an indefinite period — will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Tokyo, told reporters it is “clear that Israel cannot occupy Gaza.”
He continued: “It is imperative that the Palestinian people be central to governance in Gaza and in the West Bank as well, and that, again, we don’t see a reoccupation.”
Several diplomats from Western countries that have backed Israel in its war in Gaza have spoken out against rebuilding settlements in the Gaza Strip, which Haaretz noted were dismantled in 2005.
The Haaretz report noted that it is not just Netanyahu making the suggestion.
Amichai Eliyahu, Israel's Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister who said in an interview that a nuclear strike is an option for Gaza since there are no innocent civilians, also said Israeli settlements in Gaza should be reestablished after the war ends.
One of the diplomats told Haaretz that it appears Netanyahu is afraid to engage in a disagreement with his coalition, but if the trend continues, the diplomat’s country would be forced to be more assertive in its criticisms.
TRENDPOST: It is worth noting that a leaked Israeli document indicated that Israeli leadership is considering moving all 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula—as Israel played down the document as merely “initial thoughts” on the matter.