While meeting with top Lebanese officials last week, President Biden’s envoy warned Beirut that Washington could not stop Tel Aviv from ramping up its military operations in southern Lebanon. The White House is concerned that the tit-for-tat exchanges across the Israel-Lebanon border will soon escalate to a full-scale war.
During a trip to the Middle East last week, President Biden’s deputy Amos Hochstein told Lebanese leaders that Washington would be unable to constrain Tel Aviv. According to Axios, Hochstein warned, “The US won’t be able to hold Israel back if the situation on the border continues to escalate and that Hezbollah needs to indirectly negotiate with Israel instead of ratcheting up tensions.”
Hezbollah responded to the message by informing the US that it was prepared for a fight with Israel.
During a trip to Washington this week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Both American officials attempted to push Tel Aviv to avoid escalation along its northern border.
On Monday, Blinken met with Gallant and promised that the US would aid Israel’s military. “He also underscored the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows both Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,” a State Department press release said. “Secretary Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
After Gallant met with Austin on Tuesday, the two defense chiefs held a press conference where, again, the American defense secretary expressed his concern about the war expanding. “I am extremely concerned about the rise in rocket attacks on Israel’s north from Lebanese Hezbollah,” he said. “ Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war with terrible consequences for the Middle East, and so diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation.”
Gallant, for his part, used the meeting with Austin to focus on Iran. “The greatest threat to the future of the world and the future of our region is Iran, and time is running out,” he stated. “Now is the time to realize the commitment of the American administrations over the years to promise to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon.”
For years, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have claimed that Iran is on a quest to build nuclear weapons. However, the US intelligence community and international nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, continue to find that Tehran is not attempting to weaponize its civilian nuclear program.
The White House continues to insist it has little leverage over the Israeli government to bring a halt to the fighting in Gaza or Lebanon. However, as Secretary Austin noted in his presser with Gallant, Washington lavishes Tel Aviv with billions in military assistance each year. So far, President Biden has refused to condition that support on Israel’s conduct in any of the conflicts it is waging.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Well if they ran out of bombs somehow, maybe they wouldn't start a war.
And if Hezbollah was not supplied with a large number of offensive missiles, Hezbollah would not want to start a war with Israel. Of course, they other option Hezbollah has is to not fire rockets at Israel.
And if Israel wants to live in peace, perhaps they ought to stop the destruction of Palestine.
Don't worry folks. Biden still has plenty of time to destroy everything.
Gangster "diplomacy". The last hope of Western Civ once again lies with Russia.
"The last hope of Western Civ once again lies with Russia" LOL. Well Western Civ is been trouble if its future relies on Russia.
How would you and your type know?
Wow. A straight admission of the Israeli-US hierarchy.
USA can stop sending weapons.
Save millions of lives.
Save present and future taxpayer billions of dollars.
Oh, but we CAN control Israel- but only if certain players in Washington have the guts to do it. We can withhold financial and military support, first and foremost, we can refrain from using our veto power at the UN, we can divest from economic ties- there are a world of ways we can bring Israel to heel. For that matter, we could do all that AND start arming Hamas and Hezbollah to ensure Israel gets it good. But it all rests on our leaders (and I use that term extremely loosely) have the will to do it. Sure, it would cost them campaign funds- but I guarantee each and every one of them there are millions of Americans (voters, I might add) who would applaud them for bringing Israel to heel.
The Biden Netanyahu genocide of the hapless Palestinians is the biggest crime of the new millemnium. No good will cum from it and like the Nazis they will be hunted and destroyed!!!!!! Certainly not this week but eventually they will pay the price. It is not even a war but a straight up genocide. They have killed thousands more innocent women & children than Hamas fighters. Hubris precedes a great fall & the IDF is the one. They have nukes, but no strategic deapth!!! How many 30 megaton thermos would it take to close down their show for a very long time…???? Probably the answer is five or ten!!! They aren't really up to primetime in todays world.
I laughed out loud at this! It is good of the US to admit, it’s own complicity to the problem. One might occasionally ponder whether anyone can control the “chosen people”? ;-/
One could start with defunding, our friends, ahem…
Blinken: "We prefer you didn't escalate, but if you do, we'll give you all the weapons you need to eliminate Hezbollah." Now, that's some strategy! Biden's minions are as brain-dead as he is.
Interesting, how the narrative of Iran as the boogie man, the unreasonable barbarians who can't be trusted with nukes, are supposedly the greatest threat to the world. I'd say, that the u.s. is clearly the biggest threat to civilization, especially if you count their spoiled child Israel. These 2 psychotic nations are fully untrustworthy with nukes, they are both serial killers.
The Joke of the Week…!
Gallant, for his part, used the meeting with Austin to focus on Iran. “The greatest threat to the future of the world and the future of our region is Iran, and time is running out,” he stated. “Now is the time to realize the commitment of the American administrations over the years to promise to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon.”
If Austin had brains or balls….forget it.
Touché ole!
Brains, brawn and balls!
Every accusation Israel spout off applies to itself. It would be more true if the wordings were:
“The greatest threat to the future of the world and the future of the region is Israel, and time is running out”.
“Now is the time to realize the commitment of the American administrations over the years to promise to prevent Israel from using american weapons against defenseless civilians and using a nuclear weapon.”
Onviously Austin is not any bright light of intelligence & reason!!!! When asked why the Ukraine war, he replied to weaken Russia. I think it is rather obvious to most observers that Russia is not much weakened and it's shotgun alliance with China, North Korea and Iran make their alliance of the two bidggest and best armed States on the globe the preminent alliance on planet Earth & NATO IS REALLY a flock of chickens with only two nuclear bomb states and would be so quicklt devistated bu The Russia, China & North Korea Iran alliance that it would be all over in a day or two. Those with no nuke bombs are nobodies in todays thermonuclear world. Their hypersonic missiles & super nukes with 4000 times the blast of U.S. & NATO ones deployed. It's not even close
Obsession with Iran.
Howdy John Smith! Ya know something?…. I was once a Smith. Then I married my husband, who is a Volatile and got to keep the name in my divorce, lol.
Not surprising that you are divorced. Too much drug use?
I like Donna Smith better…!
I can’t control my dog from biting you, but if you try to harm my dog while biting you, I will have to hurt you. Anyone else has a dog like that?
It really is a chillingly accurate analogy. Right down to lying about the frequency and severity of attacks.
That dog, as you put it, is defending its house that it lives in as well as the people living there. I will give you an A for trying, but a D for your logic.
Have the Jews or Palestinians been there longer, and which of the two have been there for more than 200 were there in greater numbers??? Not that it makes a bit of difference who it was. A lot of Jews went to Europe. Did as many Palestinians as Jews leave for Europe? Were the numb uf Jews & Palestinians close to equal???
Nothing beyond 1967 border is that dog’s house.
What the US should be telling Hezbollah is they continue down this path of war with Israel, is that the USA will not bail out Hezbollah and/or Lebanon.
Checkout the USA House of Representatives and Senators on AIPAC contributions list, and you will know why Israel gets protection.
Check out the dual nationality Israelis in Bidens's National Security Council (5 out of 11) and those in the Biden Administration (11 according to the times of Israel) and you will understand why Biden is powerless. He is being advised by Israel
Poor powerless America and cult o victimhood Israel find themselves cornered with no choice but to start another massive pointless war. Strange how we've elevated to an art form limiting our own options to only terrible ones, like Biden and Trump. Democracy itself certainly must be defended, because no one could like the way we practice it.
Blinken is a courtier who failed upwards. In the old days they had guys like him who went to finishing schools to put some respectability to what is essentially a carrier solely based on being connected to the power players. The man is not dumb but lacks intellectual heft to operate at the highest level. he thinks he can privately tell Israel not to go in and publicly show support for Israel so hizb doesn't escalate. By doing this he only makes it easier for Israel to try to drag the US in the war. Pentagon realizes this but can't do much because blinken is probably the one running the show with Biden being a vegetable.
Israel is such a psychotic country it can preemptively use nukes in Lebanon so Iran needs to get the nuke asap
This is not the old times. If the US joins the Israeli war against hizb with air strikes US troops in Iraq and Syria will return in bodybags.
Another Biden lie. Why does anyone bother even discussing anything that comes out of his mouth?
Austin is lying about Lebanon as well. Another non-stop liar.
Of course Gallant is pushing the US about Iran. That's the ENTIRE POINT (along with Palestinian genocide) of this conflict in Gaza: bring in the US to destroy Hezbollah and then "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." This has been the goal for decades (since the Iranian revolution) and especially in the last 25 years since Israel got pushed out of Lebanon.
I've been saying this for so damn long I could do it in my sleep. It should be the main topic of every discussion of the Middle East. Yet when was the last time some article on Gaza mentioned this as "The Big Picture"? Did you read this here at Antiwar.com? Hell, no. The ONLY person who has even come close to discussing this is Alastair Crooke. Even analysts like Ritter and Macgregor, while warning about widening the war and speculating on where that could go, don't really emphasize that this has been the goal for decades by the US and Israel.
" But I give them the money and ammunitions that they need . I also support whatever targets they chose . I offer them diplomatic supports. I used to think that we should and have leverage. Then neocons on CNN Fox and NYPost told us that Israel is an independent country , Israel not dependent on anyone. Neocons told that America had no leverage on Israel. I like others belived it then and belive itnow . By the way we give free money to others at a low amount . If they dont follow what Israel wants them do, we threaten and cut aid to Egypt, Jordan,and other ".Biden.
95% of neocons are Israelis w/ dual nationality
Any source for that claim? Seems unlikely.
" But I give them the money and ammunitions that they need . I also support whatever targets they chose . I offer them diplomatic supports. I used to think that we should and have leverage. Then neocons on CNN Fox and NYPost told us that Israel is an independent country , Israel not dependent on anyone. Neocons told that America had no leverage on Israel. I like others belived it then and belive itnow . By the way we give free money to others at a low amount . If they dont follow what Israel wants them do, we threaten and cut aid to Egypt, Jordan,and other ".Biden.
The Democratic party giving Hell indigestion.
Of course he can. Israel depends on US for its oown luvelihood today. Income decimated, spending through the roof. US steady supply of weapins, maintenance, parts.
He does not want to. No US politician wants to. US=Israel, Israel= US. Lebanon may be the point of no return. One more committment. Politicians are constantly showing charts with Social Security and Medicare topping the list of spending, with defence and debt service clise to equal. Such isiocy. Why not pull out all defence related costs from ALL departnnents, like fromtge department of energy and many, many others. Why hide how much is actially being spent as we issue a new trillion of debt each 100 days.
How much if that goes to wars, bases, and ocean going force projection world wide. How much is spent on all “security” reated programs? This includes NSA, DARPA, CIA, good portion of FBI, and State Department, foreign “aid”, NGOs, etc etc etc. There is no accountng as to where these new trillions every three months are actually going.
Lebanon may prove costly to us. And I mean very costly.
But we know where it is coming from.
The US cannot control Israel to go into war but it willingly goes into war to defend Israel? WHAT IS GOING ON?