Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, European Union Representative to the West Bank and Gaza, is given a tour of the ruins of al-Shouroq tower, destroyed by Israeli strikes during the recent confrontations between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City on June 1, 2021. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)
Upon the announcement of the ceasefire in Gaza on May 20, 2021, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and stressed the commitment of the United States to work with the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations to provide rapid humanitarian assistance and mobilize international support to rebuild the Gaza Strip. He also affirmed the U.S. administration’s commitment to the principle of the two-state solution. Six days later, Blinken announced that the U.S. will provide more than $360 million in urgent humanitarian support for the Palestinian people.
U.S. President Joe Biden says he wants “equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy” for Gaza. What steps can he take to achieve that in practice?
Biden Must Manage the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Biden administration does not want to be consumed by the Middle East, but it also needs to do enough to manage what is happening in the region to avoid being drawn in, in circumstances that offer worse options at higher costs.
The Middle East has a way of imposing itself on American presidents and their administrations. Just ask President Joe Biden. With six phone calls to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calls with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, he understood, whatever his hopes, that his personal involvement was necessary to help produce the ceasefire. And, while a trip to the Middle East had not been on his agenda at this time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken felt the need to go to the region to try to bolster the ceasefire, address humanitarian and reconstruction needs in Gaza, and establish a diplomatic track for managing Israeli-Palestinian re
Hamas’ strength is a result of several factors – including a misguided policy on Gaza that has run its course. Stumbling from war to war isn’t a policy option, it’s a policy failure.
The recent Israeli military operation on the Gaza Strip, the so-called Operation Guardian of the Walls, has created a new environment of destruction and family displacement. It has overloaded survivin.