As the tit-for-tat conflict between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah continues to escalate, a top US official said the White House hopes a ceasefire in Gaza will lead to an end to the fighting in northern Israel.
Deputy Assistant to the President Amos Hochstein said on Tuesday in Lebanon that Washington was trying to prevent the war between the IDF and Hezbollah from expanding. Fighting on Israel’s northern border started after the October 7 Hamas attack. The fighting has escalated in recent weeks as Israel assassinated a Hezbollah commander, while the Lebanese militant group launched hundreds of rockets into Israel.
The fighting has killed over 400 people in Lebanon, including scores of civilians. Israel has also suffered 27 fatalities, including 11 civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced on both sides of the border.
Hochstein said the White House hopes that a ceasefire in Gaza will bring an end to the hostilities. Hezbollah has stated it will cease operations against Israel once the onslaught in the Strip is brought to an end.
It is unclear if Israel will halt strikes in southern Lebanon should the fight in Gaza wind down. Tel Aviv wants all Hezbollah forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon to an area north of the Litani River. Additionally, some analysts say that Israeli leaders may see the end of fighting in Gaza as an opportunity to conduct a larger assault on Lebanon.
Hochstein’s trip to the Middle East coincided with a CBS News report that the White House is increasingly concerned that Israel will drag the US into a wider war in the region by attacking southern Lebanon. The US official noted the administration’s alarm, saying an end to the conflict “is both achievable and it is urgent.”
However, a ceasefire in Gaza does not appear imminent. In late May, Biden announced the framework of an agreement he presented as an Israeli proposal, though it was quickly dismissed by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Last week, Biden said he did not think there would be a ceasefire in Gaza soon.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
I am a firm believer in blessed ‘hope’, for everyone!
Having said that?…..Ahem.
Why not get off your lovely fat asses and make love, not more War!
Greetings from the Zionist Colony of America!
Well it seems Bibi the Butcher has laid down the law in his Zionist White House, other than sending Billions & Weapons, they're actions are strictly limited to expressing Concerns and Hopes.
Sounds like a country song
He will pontificate to a joint session of congress on July 24,2024.
Zionist colony? What an absurd thing to say.
The US has allies (Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Germany, etc.) and they support US interests. To suggest otherwise is false. The US acts in its own self-interest; Israel not only has advanced military and computer technology, they also have nuclear weapons. Clearly it would hurt US interests – especially in the Middle East – if Israel sided with Russia or China – which don't worry about civilian deaths. Look at Russia in Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine. Syria alone has had over 600,000 dead.
As for Netanyahu – tell me – what would be the appropriate response to a group killing 1,200 of your people? Clearly, they should be destroyed; and if those people use women and children as human shields (which they clearly do), then what then?
Notice how Putin is meeting with North Korea today – the most brutal regime on the planet. Yet, somehow only Israel is the problem.
Your remind me of Douglas Murray and Natasha Hausdorff on the Munk stage this week for the motion “Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism.” You missed some of the stock hasbara such as "the most moral army” and asking if I "condemn Hamas.” As well the the standard ad hominem accusing me of supporting Hamas and blood libeled me an anti-Semite because I oppose the Zionist project of creating an ethnocratic/ethnonationalist Jewish majority state through the "transfer," early eZionist leaders euphemism for expulsion, of Palestinians from their country.
Transfer's essential to the Zionist project as it's impossible to create a Jewish majority, particularly with the Palestinian birthrate, without removing the indigenous population. The pursuit of which has "dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution." (HRW, "A Threshold Crossed/Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution" 04.27.21)
As to the ever popular "what would you have done.." Obviously I’d have jumped into the DeLorean and prevented the Zionists’ exploitive and immoral settler colonialist project. No project, no Israeli domination and repression of Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, freedom and independence leaving only to the Palestinians their right under international law to resist and end that foreign domination “by all available means including armed struggle” bound by the rules of international humanitarian law.
Hoping instead of making it Happen…!?
Which we can do.
Hope is not a strategy.
Hope Joey Biden is gone soon.
Hope Demorats and RINOs are gone soon.
Hope I win the lottery, now that is more likely!
"Washington was trying to prevent the war between the IDF and Hezbollah from expanding"
No, it's not. And a "ceasefire" in Gaza is a pip dream. It's ridiculous to even contemplate it.
Well, if Hamas would surrender, give up their weapons, and release the hostages, there would be nothing to fight about.
White House Hopes Gaza Ceasefire Deal Will End Israel-Hezbollah Fighting
Israel Says No Ceasefire Deal, Military Ops Will Continue
So, is there a plan B or are they going to keep pretending?
Kabuki theater.
They are not close to an agreement because Israel does not want one. The crazed Messianic Zionists want to spill more blood to fulfill aspirations for a Jewish only state. The sacred cows have been selected. At the right time ( after all Palestinians are dead and gone), they will be sacrificed in a grand orgy. They will kill anyone in their way. Even Americans (U.S.S. Liberty, June 8, 1967).
Very unrealistic assessment.
"Crazed Messianic Zionists"? Nope.
The Israelis have a simple approach: If want to kill us, we will kill you. If you want peace, you get peace. That is neither "crazed" or "Messianic". However, it is Zionist, in that Zionists seek a homeland for the Jews.
Israel has peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt, because they don't try to kill Israelis. There was relative peace with Hamas, until Hamas spent two years and millions of dollars planning an attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and other nationalities (including Americans).
So, who is crazed?
Israel’s been more successful than some other ethno-supremacist projects (like the “Aryan Nations” ambition to build a “homeland for the whites” in the US Pacific Northwest, for example), but it’s the same dead-end path.