Behind the scenes of the US national security adviser's visit to Tel Aviv and the region amid a dispute with the Israelis over the war
The Wall Street Journal US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is due to arrive in Israel on Thursday in the latest attempt of high-stakes diplomacy in the Middle East of the Biden administration, amid growing disagreements between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The trip comes just days after Biden delivered his most pointed criticism of the Israeli government since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. The president called the Israeli government the most conservative in the history of the state, warned that the country is losing support on the world stage and seems to oppose what he called its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza.
At the same time, the president is facing a backlash at home for his support of the Israeli government, as young voters, progressives and some in the US government are pressuring Biden to support a ceasefire. Some leaders on the left have gone so far as to say that Biden's support for Israel threatens his re-election. Biden rejected calls for a general ceasefire, although he called for a "truce" to facilitate the release of hostages and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The uproar over Biden's support for Israel reached his administration on Wednesday night when a group of staff held a Gaza vigil outside the White House where they called for a cease-fire.
The United States has provided billions of dollars of weapons to Israel over the years, including an increase of nearly 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells since shortly after the Hamas attacks that started the war. Washington also provided diplomatic cover in the face of overwhelming international condemnation of Israel's conduct in the war, notably by vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on Friday that would have demanded an immediate ceasefire.
On Wednesday, the White House reiterated that US support for Israel is undiminished, and despite Biden's repeated insistence that the US will unconditionally support Israel, the two countries are at odds over the future of the region. The United States said that Gaza after the war should be administered by the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank, and that discussions on a comprehensive peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians should be resumed.
Netanyahu has rejected the US plan and is betting his political survival on opposing the PA's role in post-war Gaza and preventing the emergence of any Palestinian state.
"These are very serious talks and we hope they will be constructive,"National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.
It may be difficult for the United States to exert pressure on Israel.
The Biden administration has said it does not place any special conditions on Israel's use of U.S. weapons and has given no indication that it will use future sales as leverage to force a change in Israel's conduct of the war or diplomatic policies. However, Israeli government officials note the criticism of progressive Democrats for the high number of civilian deaths, and they fear that they will lose the overwhelming support of the American public. One of the officials also said that for weeks Israeli leaders had expressed fears that the Biden administration would publicly break with them.
U.S. officials privately acknowledge that the Israeli government is often reluctant to accept Washington's advice on its operations. But they said that Israel has resolved a number of issues, including the need to reconfigure its military operations to avoid civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, allow a greater flow of humanitarian aid to the enclave, stop fighting for the release of Hamas hostages, and more.
Officials said that this is partly why the Biden administration has been conducting almost weekly shuttle diplomacy since the beginning of the war, sending many officials to the region to work with the Israeli war government and meet with leaders in Arab countries.
"We have been absolutely clear for some time that there are steps that we believe Israel needs to take,"State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday. "I've seen the Israeli government come out and say it's not ready to take [those steps], and I've seen that sometimes we have overcome those differences."
Miller referred "in particular" to the disagreement over the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
"The issue that we have presented to them in private and will continue to announce to them and to other countries in the region and around the world is that there can be no lasting peace and security in the region without meeting the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people,"he said.
In Washington on Wednesday, US officials rejected the idea that Biden's statements about the Israeli leader - " he must change ... This government in Israel makes it very difficult for him to move" - it can harm the relationship of the two countries.
"It is not for us to dictate conditions to a sovereign foreign government,"Kirby told reporters. "Israel is a democracy."The Israeli people decide what that government looks like, and they have done that and we respect that."
Kirby reiterated that Biden has been "very vocal about some concerns" about Israeli government policy.
As the White House national security adviser, Sullivan often has a bigger hand in the development and implementation of the president's foreign policy than the secretaries of state and defense. His two-day trip will include meetings with Netanyahu, Netanyahu's war cabinet and Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Kirby said Sullivan is expected to make other stops in the region during this trip.
This will be Sullivan's first visit to Israel since the attacks. US officials said that Washington's new ambassador to Israel, Jacob Liu, and Biden's special envoy for humanitarian issues in the Middle East, David Satterfield, will join him.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to travel to the Middle East next week to meet with leaders in Bahrain, Qatar and Israel, according to the Pentagon. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other administration officials have made multiple trips to the region.
On Tuesday, Sullivan told The Wall Street Journal that he would press Israel on a timetable for its operations in Gaza, amid a global outcry over the rising civilian death toll and the concern of the head of the UN refugee mission in Gaza that the tiny territory had become "uninhabitable" for Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are crammed into small" non-engagement zones " designated by the Israeli army that are also under attack.
Sullivan said he would also press Netanyahu's government over the prime minister's recent comments that his army would need to remain in Gaza long after Hamas was defeated, something the U.S. has publicly objected to as an occupation.
"We have been clear, we think reoccupying Gaza is a bad idea."That shouldn't be happening,"Sullivan said on Tuesday.
Israel and the United States maintain that Hamas embeds itself among civilians to avoid being targeted, but international organizations have pointed to Israel's targeting of refugee camps and hospitals as possible violations of international law.
Asked if Biden's remarks about the "indiscriminate bombing" were an indication that the United States believes that Israel is not being careful, Kirby said: "sometimes in war, your best plans, the best execution of those plans, do not always go the way you expect". He said that the United States has "every expectation that Israel will continue to do what they say they are doing" in terms of protecting civilians. "It is important that the results match this intention,"he added.
U.S. officials said Sullivan would talk with Israeli officials about progress on the battlefield, while encouraging Israel to minimize civilian casualties. He will also discuss efforts to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas
