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00:00Philip Torel, who joins me on the set. Philip, now this is an official visit. Talk us through
00:04a bit more about what's going to be on the agenda. Okay, it's an official visit, so this is not just
00:08you, Avgalon, the Israeli Defense Minister, turning up to have a friendly chat. This has
00:12been organized for weeks. He's going to be meeting with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken,
00:16with the Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, and with the Director of the CIA, William Burns,
00:21the three major partners who are discussing the action US support for Israel. This is all,
00:29as you said, coming at a particularly difficult time for relations between the United States and
00:33Israel. First of all, over the situation in Gaza. Now, what Avgalon is saying here is quite
00:39interesting. He's saying what he wants to talk about is the so-called phase three in Gaza. Now,
00:44phase three is the reconstruction of Gaza. Now, remember that it was President Biden who came up
00:48with a peace proposal just over a month ago, calling for a ceasefire. That ceasefire has never
00:53actually been introduced, a three-point ceasefire deal or three-point peace proposal. Phase three is
00:59the reconstruction. We don't have the ceasefire yet, but they're already trying to talk about
01:03reconstruction. This follows on to what Benjamin Netanyahu was saying the other day, which was
01:08we're going to pause the fighting, and now we're going to reduce the clashes that are taking place
01:12in Rafah. So I think what the Israelis are saying is we're not going to give up on trying to
01:16eradicate Hamas, but we are going to try to move a bit further forward with trying to
01:21move in a direction that's more helpful towards the people of Gaza. And remember that the latest
01:29casualty figure from Gaza is 37, over 37,000 people dead since the attacks of the 7th of October. Now,
01:37on the other issue, which is the situation in Lebanon, I think what the Israeli Defense
01:44Ministry is planning to do is by introducing a situation where they say they have less attacks
01:49in Gaza, they've stopped the main offensive in Rafah, they're going to move the troops from that
01:57area to the border with southern Lebanon, maybe to intensify their attacks against Hezbollah
02:03from that part of the conflict. So that appears to be what is on the menu, the discussions that
02:07are taking place. But I think there is growing concern in Washington that all of this could
02:11spiral out of control and lead to a much broader conflict in the Middle East, and that's something
02:15that is in the interest of nobody. Right. And this issue of the lack of a ceasefire in the
02:20fighting in Gaza is really giving context to these talks today, as well as worry in the U.S.
02:25over the impact this might have on Joe Biden's re-election campaign. Well, I think that is a
02:29major concern for Joe Biden. Now, you mentioned in your introduction the accusations by Israel
02:35over the freezing of weapons supplies to Israel from the United States. Remember, the U.S. is the
02:43biggest supplier of weapons to Israel. The figure there is $4 billion worth of weapons a year,
02:51which are basically essential for the war effort. If those weapons didn't turn up,
02:54there wouldn't be a war in Gaza. So there is concern on the part of Israel that
03:00what they think the U.S. is doing is freezing some of those weapons supplies. They say that
03:04should not be happening because it's going to stop them from crushing Hamas in the Gaza Strip
03:08when they need those weapons badly. It's difficult for Joe Biden because Joe Biden
03:13has pledged to support Israel, saying Israel has a right to defend itself. And if there were another
03:17attack, for example, by Iran against Israel and Israel didn't have the means to defend itself
03:22because the U.S. had not been supplying those weapons, then the U.S. obviously would come under
03:27a lot of criticism. That said, when it comes to Joe Biden, he's in a very difficult situation
03:33because he knows that if he's going to win the election this year on November the 5th
03:37against Donald Trump, then it would be in his interest that the situation in Gaza was solved
03:43and there was no longer any conflict taking there because he's lost support from a large number of
03:49Democratic voters who don't understand why he is supporting Israel so vehemently in all of this
03:56conflict and want Joe Biden to be much more outspoken about the way the United States is
04:02criticizing Israel. And when push comes to shove, I think this is probably the conflict
04:07since the war in Vietnam in the 1960s that has really the most affected an election campaign
04:14in the United States, more than even the Iraq war and George W. Bush in 2003, bearing in mind
04:21the fact that up until now, not a single U.S. soldier has been killed in the Middle East
04:25conflict. But I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in the U.S. about exactly
04:29why Joe Biden is supporting the Israelis so strongly in all of this.
04:32All right, Philip, thanks so much for that. That's France 24's Philip Turrell.