The United States will propose to Israel alternatives to the ground offensive in Rafah

After the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant spoke on the phone almost daily for weeks.

Austin met with Gallant in Tel Aviv the week after the attack with a closed message of support.

He visited Israel again in December, stressing even then the need to reduce the intensity of the offensive, protect the civilian population and facilitate humanitarian aid.

Austin receives Gallant at the Pentagon this Tuesday in an almost desperate attempt to dissuade Israel from carrying out a ground offensive in the Rafah area, in the south of the Strip and on the border with Egypt.

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The Secretary of Defense will propose alternatives to defeat Hamas that do not have such disastrous consequences for the civilian population as those that would arise from a new large-scale military operation in Rafah, where almost a million and a half people are concentrated.

Gallant, for his part, will ask for guarantees that Washington will not heed the voices calling for reducing arms deliveries to Israel.

This Sunday, before boarding the plane to the United States, Gallant declared that he will “focus” his visit, among other topics, on “the ability to obtain systems and ammunition” and on “the preservation of the qualitative military advantage,” as stated. knows Washington's commitment for decades to always provide Israel with the best weapons and technology in the Middle East.

That same day, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, was asked in an interview on ABC if the invasion of Rafah would have “consequences” for her country.

“I'm not ruling anything out,” responded President Joe Biden's number two.

The visit of Gallant and other senior Israeli officials to Washington is the result of the telephone conversation that Biden and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, had last Monday, at the moment of greatest distance between both leaders.

In addition to the conviction that the offensive is not a good idea, the US president is aware of the cost in popularity and votes that his support for Israel in the first phase of the war has entailed, which has been accentuated as the The situation of the civilian population of Gaza was worsening and the number of victims was skyrocketing.

The Gallup polling firm published a poll last week showing that only 27% of Americans approve of the way Biden is handling the situation in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians.

Washington does not want another operation in Rafah like those that took place in Gaza City and Khan Younis.

In the border area with Egypt, it is estimated that there are 1.4 million Palestinians, among them many who fled there from other places in the Strip due to the war following Israel's instructions.

The Netanyahu government has suggested the idea of ​​creating “humanitarian islands” where the population can go, something that seems unfeasible to Washington.

“Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps.

“Those people have nowhere to go,” Harris said in the interview, in which he considered that “any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake.”

Viable plan

The Biden administration believes that Israel has not presented a viable plan for how or where to move civilians safely, how to feed and house them, and ensure access to basic things like sanitation, the National Security Adviser explained last week. of the White House, Jake Sullivan, at a press conference.

Furthermore, he emphasizes that Rafah is the main entry point for humanitarian aid to Gaza from Egypt and Israel and that an invasion would close it or at least put it in serious danger at a time when it is most needed.

Biden is also aware that Egypt has expressed alarm over a major military operation along its border and has even raised questions about its future relationship with Israel (both countries have had a peace agreement since 1979) as a consequence of any military operation. draft.

The White House rejects the supposed premise that opposing the operation is questioning the need to defeat Hamas, something Sullivan called “nonsense.”

“Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else.

But a major ground operation there would be a mistake.

It would cause more deaths of innocent civilians, worsen the already serious humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan said, explaining the content of the call between Biden and Netanyahu.

To show opposition to the operation in a constructive way, Washington ensures that the key objectives that Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be achieved by other means.

For this reason, Biden asked Netanyahu to send a high-level delegation to Washington made up of military, intelligence services and humanitarian personnel.

The idea, Sullivan said, is not only for them to listen to US concerns about Israel's plans in the southern Strip, but also to "present an alternative approach that targets key Hamas elements in Rafah and secures the Egyptian-Egyptian border." and Gaza without a major ground invasion.”

Guarantee

Given the evident lack of harmony between Biden and Netanyahu, the most technical dialogue will be in the hands of two soldiers: a retired four-star general (Austin) and a commanding general (Gallant).

The Israeli Defense Minister wants to ensure that American weapons will continue to flow as in these almost six months of war in Gaza, despite differences of opinion, and will increase if the daily skirmishes between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia end up leading to a open war in the north, according to Israeli media.

Among the issues he will address during his visit, Gallant mentioned “ensuring Israel's security needs related to the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.”

Last December, Netanyahu said in a private meeting with local representatives: “We need three things from the United States: ammunition, ammunition and ammunition,” the newspaper

Israel Hayom

reported at the time .

Gallant is a member of the party led by Netanyahu (Likud) and is considered a hawk regarding the need to also open the Lebanese front, as the only way for the around 80,000 Israelis evacuated from border towns to return to their homes.

But, as the White House does not forget, a year ago he was also the only minister to publicly distance himself from Netanyahu's controversial judicial reform that fractured Israel—Biden called it “divisive”—and generated the largest demonstrations in the history of the country.

Netanyahu announced his dismissal, but - under pressure from the street - he did not carry it out and ended up keeping him in office.

In another possible rift with his prime minister, Gallant announced this Sunday his opposition to a law - promoted by Netanyahu - to maintain the exemption from compulsory military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

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