state blinken met with prime minister netanyahu and his war cabinet yesterday to discuss the future of territory. blinken s plans, urged israeli officials to allow for a revamped palestinian authority to play a role in gaza, he also explained that ending the war would allow israel to improve its relations with arab nations. they want to see a serious path toward creaing a palestinian state. but netanyahu and his far-right cabinet are flatly rejecting those calls. israel s finance minister opposed giving the palestinian authority the tax revenue israel has been collecting saying it will, quote, go to the families of nazis in gaza. following this blinken had this to say.
singlecare is amazing. even though i have insurance, it can t beat the pricing i get on my medication through singlecare. before i submit any prescriptions, i always check singlecare first! just go to singlecare.com, search for your prescription and show the coupon to your pharmacist. millions of people on medicare, just like me, use singlecare every month, and you can too! visit singlecare.com and start saving today. the united states and israel are disagreeing on plans for post-war gaza, secretary of
and of course, secretary of state blinken is in the region, in large part, trying to prevent an escalation. we have reporting that u.s. officials are telling israel, this is not in their interests. the u.s. does not have interest in being directly pulled into a broader war with hehezbollah, a hezbollah is a much more competent military group than hamas is. israel is already stretched pretty thin with forces and resources in gaza. hezbollah is a much more formidable enemy to take on, and they re just not equipped. u.s. officials do not believe that israel is well equipped to take on a full-scale war with hezbollah. yasmin, it doesn t seem like the white house is getting very much from israel. they keep asking for, you know, reduce the attacks or make them more targeted in gaza, be careful not to attack the lebanese armed forces, because those are u.s.-backed forces, and go for even in terms of the political stuff, there s got to be a two-state solution, you have to revamp palestinia
so this plan in many ways is a plan that envisions a change of leadership or could only be accepted by a change of leadership in both israel and in gaza. nbc s richard engel, thank you very much for your reporting. joining us now here in washington, white house reporter for the washington post, yasmin abutalib. what s your reporting on all of this, as there are of course concerns of a wider war breaking out? the biden administration is hugely concerned about the risk of escalation, particularly in southern lebanon right now, where israel and hezbollah have been exchanging some sort of low-level fire for since october 7th. but that has escalated quite a bit in the last two weeks. u.s. officials said israel was responsible for a strike last week that killed a hamas commander just outside of beirut. you know, it s believed that israel killed a hezbollah commander this week in southern lebanon.
chance to get the hostages back, more than prisoner swaps. so, you actually have the israeli people agreeing with benjamin netanyahu, that this war should continue. at the same time, only 15% want him to remain on as a prime minister after it s over. that s why the biden administration needs to be doing what they re doing, looking over the horizon, figuring out with allies in the middle east, who they re working on that right now, who can come in, who can help with peace-keeping in gaza. who can help bring order to the west bank. what new slate of palestinian leaders can step up and do it, instead of the tired, old, and corrupt guard right now that s in the palestinian authority. and of course, the murderous tyrants and the terrorists in gaza. this is a decision that has to be made, but it doesn t need to be made with benjamin netanyahu, if you believe most israelis.