Blinken presses for pause in Gaza fighting on visit to Israel amid fears war could widen
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00:00 Philip Turrell, hello to you, Philip.
00:02 Blinken, under some pressure to condemn these Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the growing
00:07 casualties in the strip, but will he be changing his message?
00:12 Well, I think the word that is being generally used is a nuance.
00:16 That means there's a shift, as you were saying, from the original message, which was, yes,
00:20 we support Israel.
00:21 Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself.
00:23 That is still the message from the United States.
00:26 And it's under the laws of the rules of international law.
00:31 And Israel has got to be very careful not to incur more Palestinian casualties and also
00:37 to launch a pause in the fighting to let in more humanitarian aid.
00:42 That is new on the agenda as far as Antony Blinken is concerned.
00:45 Now, remember, you were saying this is the third visit by Antony Blinken to Israel.
00:51 And he hasn't managed to obtain very much in the last visits.
00:54 The first one, he was hoping to obtain a coalition of partners in the region to fight against
01:00 Hamas.
01:01 That didn't come about.
01:02 He was also then followed by Joe Biden, who wasn't able to meet with regional leaders
01:06 in Amman following the bombing of a hospital in Gaza.
01:10 So this is another attempt by the U.S. to try to make Israel become a bit more reasonable
01:17 in its attacks against civilian areas, principally because I think in the United States there's
01:22 concern that this is going to undermine Joe Biden's position in the upcoming election
01:26 polls for next year's presidential elections in the U.S., which are taking place in exactly
01:32 a year's time.
01:33 There's a fall in support amongst young people, amongst Arab Americans.
01:37 And Joe Biden is concerned about that.
01:39 That's why they want to see more leniency, if you like, on the part of the Israelis going
01:47 a bit more in the favor of what the U.S. wants and not turning their back on these U.S. demands.
01:52 Unfortunately, it doesn't look that way, because if you look at what Benjamin Netanyahu has
01:56 been saying over the past few hours, he says the war has just started.
01:59 So it doesn't look as though there's going to be any let up in the bombings taking place
02:04 there.
02:05 And even Benny Gantz, who is the opposition leader who's part of this war cabinet in Israel,
02:10 has said that what Israel will do is to fight a war which will be in accordance with what
02:14 Israel wants.
02:15 So no sign really there of him changing a position either.
02:18 And the other point, which is a little bit worrying for the U.S., is that they want to
02:23 they're calling for a two state solution in Israel and between Israel and the Palestinians.
02:30 It doesn't look as though that's on the agenda right now.
02:32 And even calls for an interim force to go into Gaza once and if Hamas is got rid of
02:38 that doesn't look any like it's going to come about any time soon.
02:42 And even the U.S. doesn't want to get involved in any force like that, because that would
02:45 lead to attacks against U.S. soldiers.
02:48 And that's something the United States doesn't want to take on board right now.
02:51 So what does the U.S. think is the right way forward?
02:54 Well, I think that what the U.S. wants is for the Palestinian Authority to take control
03:01 of Gaza in the long run, just like it did before Hamas took power back in 2007.
03:07 But even that, unfortunately, is a long shot.
03:09 Antony Blinken, for the first time, has actually come out in a quote and said that what would
03:15 be what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian
03:19 Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.
03:24 The problem here is that the Palestinian Authority is lacking in support, even in the West Bank.
03:31 It's seen as a corrupt organization.
03:33 There have been no elections there for nearly 18 years.
03:39 Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is 88 years old.
03:43 And the organization is deemed as being really in cahoots with Israel and doing what Israel
03:47 wants in the West Bank.
03:48 So it's very hard to see how they would have any chance of taking control of the Gaza Strip
03:53 any time soon, even if there were a two state solution, which was agreed upon by both sides.
04:00 And even Hamas has come out and said that this is just another way of the United States
04:05 trying to interfere in regional politics.
04:09 And it doesn't really know what it's talking about.
04:10 So all of this seems to be pretty unclear about what Antony Blinken is going to obtain
04:16 here.
04:17 And I think a lot of concern in the United States that Israel has really decided to go
04:19 its own way and won't really be listening very much to what the U.S. wants.
04:23 All right, Philip.
04:24 Thank you very much, Philip Turle, our foreign editor.