The United States strongly supports Israel in its war against Hamas, but is increasingly at odds with its Middle East ally over what will happen to the Gaza Strip once the war winds down.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this week announced that Israel would retain an open-ended security presence in Gaza. Israeli officials talk of imposing a buffer zone to keep Palestinians away from the Israeli border. They rule out any role for the Palestinian Authority, which was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007 but governs semi-autonomous areas of the occupied West Bank.
The United States has laid out a much different vision. Top officials have said they will not allow Israel to reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory. They have repeatedly called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
These conflicting visions have set the stage for difficult discussions between Israel and the U.S.
That will never happen. Israel is the US's main base of power in the Middle East. That is the US government's number one priority here.
We could have videos of IDF forces chopping off Palestinian babies' heads and the US would not stop supporting Israel. They would just have some strong words to say about it.
This is going to take time. What to do with Gaza and Palestinians is going to take a lot of commitment. The US wants to unite the West bank with Gaza, and the current power level is opposed.
That would be hard, considering the west bank exist exclusively on paper. In reality, Palestinians only have a couple dozen of hamlets surrounded and guarded by Israelis who subject them to an apartheid. The rest of the west bank is Israeli settlements.
As sad as it makes me to say it, and as much as the US says it's against it. I suspect after this conflict there will no longer be a Gaza. Netanyahu is set on his promise to extol "an unimaginable price" for Oct 7. As soon as the Rafah doors open, by force or simply by the humanitarian collapse, Palestinians will never be allowed to return to that land, the few remaining towns in the west bank will be taken. The world will look in horror, the UN will condemn it but won't be able to do anything due to US veto. And the the Zionists will have their final solution. When the Israelis are willing to kill anyone who looks even remotely Arab even if they're Jewish, you know the prospect is bleak.
When the VP is the point office for objecting to Israel's plans and the POTUS is releasing good old fashioned "they raped the white women" propaganda then you already know how it's going to go.