Hanging over the visit is whether the Biden administration can persuade Israel to support a Palestinian state to eventually stabilize the Middle East.
By Steve Hendrix and Missy Ryan, The Washington PostU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with the families of the hostages, kidnapped in the deadly October 7, 2024 attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024.
“We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken said before meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv. “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now.”
President Biden has warned Netanyahu that the United States cannot support a Rafah attack unless Israel does more to safeguard civilians in Gaza. “We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected,” Blinken said Monday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Blinken also toured Israel’s port of Ashdod, just 30 miles from the Gaza border, where Israel says it is clearing more aid to enter Gaza through the recently reopened Erez Crossing.
“The progress is real, but given the immense need in Gaza, it needs to be accelerated; it needs to be sustained,” he said. Netanyahu is politically pinched between hostage advocates taking to the streets in ever-greater numbers to press for a hostage release deal and far-right members of his coalition threatening to bring his government down if he reaches such an agreement.
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