Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated on Sunday that his visit to Washington would be devoted in particular to maintaining Israel's
“military advantage”
in the Middle East, against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
“During my visit, I will focus on preserving Israel's qualitative military advantage, and on achieving our common goals: victory over Hamas and the return of hostages”
held in Gaza since attack of October 7, declared the minister on the airport tarmac, before taking off for the American capital.
This visit will aim
“to preserve the qualitative military advantage of the State of Israel, our ability to obtain”
certain weapons devices, he said.
It will also focus on maintaining
“essential ties with the United States, and the importance of achieving our objectives in Gaza (...) and ensuring Israel's security needs linked to the Gaza Strip and in Liban"
.
This trip at the invitation of his counterpart and
“friend”
Lloyd Austin,
“is a very important trip”
, said Yoav Gallant, who must also meet the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and the director of the CIA.
Read also Faced with the massacres in Gaza, Washington's radical turn towards Israel
Since the 1960s, the United States has maintained a policy of
“Qualitative military edge”
(QME), or
“qualitative military advantage”
, according to which Washington ensures that Israel has the best military equipment in the region.
At the initiative of Congress in 2018, this benefit became American law.
This visit will be Yoav Gallant's first to Washington since the start of the war between his country and Hamas.
It comes just after Antony Blinken's tour of the region, during which he warned that an Israeli ground offensive on the southern Gaza town of Rafah
"risks further isolating Israel in the global level”
.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed him that Israel was ready to carry out this offensive in Rafah, where 1.5 million Gazans are crowded, even without support from Washington.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel which left at least 1,160 dead, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel launched a military campaign that left 32,226 dead in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.