Islam Times - Amman Summit Revealed US ‘War, Peace’ Policy on Gaza Is Doomed

Islam Times - Amid rise of the number of the death toll of the Palestinian civilians beyond 10,000 and the injuries to hundreds of thousands, the anti-Israeli global protests are also blaming the US for its support for the Israeli war on Gaza. Meanwhile, attacks on the American bases in Iraq and Syria are on the rise, and several Israeli attempts for ground encroachment into Gaza have met sturdy resistance of Palestinian fighters. Also, since the resolved speech of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last week, the confrontation on the northern front with Israeli regime is followed more intensive than ever. In such a difficult situation, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the region on Sunday to negotiate with the Arab countries that have collectively expressed their opposition to the Israeli barbarism against defenseless civilians.

One of the most important events of the visit was his summit with foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Qatar in the Jordanian capital Amman.

A look at the positions of Blinken and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi in the press conference demonstrates that the meeting started with disagreement and ended without an agreement, showing that the American push to turn the political tide in favor of Tel Aviv went nowhere.

An immediate ceasefire is one of the key sticking points between the Americans and other countries which are, by the way, not small in number as they showed their political weight when 120 countries overwhelmingly voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution drafted by Arab states condemning the Israeli atrocities and calling for a truce.

During the meeting, according to the CNN Arabic, the Arab countries called for halting Israeli attacks on the civilians, a demand al-Safadi insisted on in the press conference, saying that Arab countries want an immediate ceasefire and stop of Israeli war.

While the top US politician spoke at the press conference about his country upholding Israel’s “right to defend itself” and considered the ceasefire providing an opportunity for Hamas to repeat the October 7 attack, the Jordanian FM rejected describing war as self-defense and emphasized that “this is a war that kills civilians and destroys schools, churches, houses and mosques, and it is not justifiable and does not bring them security, and it must stop.”

Certainly, the internal situation of the Biden government is going very unfavorable in the current war. On the one hand, the president is facing pressure from the Israeli lobby and also the tough positions of the rightists in the rival party who accuse him of not firmly supporting Tel Aviv.

For example, after the Republican-controlled Congress demanded more military aid to Israel, Donald Trump, Biden’s main electoral rival in the upcoming elections, said in his latest remarks to his supporters that the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is due to the decision of Biden administration to release $6 billion in the frozen Iranian assets, adding that the US and Israel in current situation need close cooperation between their leaders.

“In the absence of strong leaders, it doesn’t matter how many tanks you have,” Trump said, adding that his successor “betrayed Israel” by allowing the current conflict. He at the end said that if he was the president, he would have not allow conflicts in Ukraine and Israel.

On the other hand, Biden is under pressure by his fellow party members and American public opinion to stop slaughter of the civilians in the airstrikes.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been protesting in the streets every week since the beginning of the Israeli regime’s blind airstrikes against the civilians of Gaza, and the protest against Washington’s support for Tel Aviv even made its way to Congress hearing hosting Blinken. Also, Biden’s fellow party members, including the leaders of the Democratic Party in states with high decisive potential in the elections such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, in an open letter entitled “2023 Ceasefire Ultimatum” pledged to mobilize Muslim voters to “withhold endorsement, support, or votes for any candidate who endorses the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people.”

Additionally, complication of differences with the Arab countries over Gaza war is costly for Biden administration that over the past few months has been actively seeking to pave the way for Saudi-Israeli normalization to promote it as a political triumph in the next year presidential elections. Add to this the concerns about Israeli loss in the war and expansion of the war which will bring about highly negative consequences to the internal Israeli conditions and prompt attacks on the American bases in Iraq and Syria.

In the meantime, the unsuccessful meeting of Amman proved that the efforts of the Biden administration to convince the Arab countries to condemn Hamas and sow division in the Arab world, which unanimously demands an immediate ceasefire and stop of the aggression of the Israeli regime, went nowhere.

The Monday remarks by Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh revealed another part of the American agenda behind gathering the Arab countries with influence in Palestinian developments. Khasawneh said that any efforts preparing the ground for relocation of the Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank is a “red line” and Amman will regard it a “declaration of war.”

It seems that Washington sets its eyes on Arab advocacy to execution of an evil Israeli plan for a Hamas-free future for Gaza that can displace more hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The concerns are now not just about Gaza fate, but also the Israeli attacks, arrests, and killing of the Palestinian in the West Bank, especially in Jenin and Nablus, pose threat of a similar fate for the West Bank.

Containing the Arab world conditions and blocking practical and determining supports to the Palestinian nation is another demand of Washington from its Arab allies. Indeed, so far, the Arab League had failed to take serious measures like full boycott of the Israeli regime, adopting punitive measures against pro-normalization members, opening Rafah border crossing, and even providing military aids to Gaza to meet the expectations of the Arab public and the Palestinians despite having such effective and powerful levers as oil.