Biden admin calls 'Israel' strategy in Gaza 'self-defeating': Politico
6 Min Read
The idea of “total victory” is increasingly becoming unlikely, as asserted last week by Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.
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President Joe Biden speaks during a memorial service at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (AP)
Top officials in the Biden administration are calling out "Israel’s" tactics in Gaza "self-defeating" - a type of criticism that "Israel" has not seen since October 7, according to Politico.
The officials said that "Israel" has turned the world against it with its continuous bombing and blocking of humanitarian aid, which they claim has enabled the Palestinian Resistance to recruit more fighters.
An anonymous senior administration official told Politico, “We want to encourage a deeper focus on the connection between the ongoing military operations and, ultimately, the strategic endgame,” adding, “We’re going to keep pressing on that point.”
The official noted that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week to plan an “achievable and durable” success against Hamas.
Meanwhile, in a Tuesday interview for CNN, Netanyahu said, “We have to get rid of Hamas. Otherwise, there’s no future for Gaza.”
A person familiar with US intelligence revealed that Biden officials are becoming increasingly concerned that Hamas has been able to recruit during wartime which has allowed them to withstand the 7 months of conflict.
The idea of “total victory” is also increasingly becoming unlikely, as asserted last week by Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and then on Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. C.Q. Brown called out "Israel" for failing to protect civilians in Gaza and prevent Hamas from coming back.
Brown told reporters, “Not only do you have to actually go in and clear out whatever adversary you are up against, you have to go in, hold the territory and then you’ve got to stabilize it,” and if that doesn’t happen, it “allows your adversary then to re-populate in areas if you’re not there, and so that does make it more challenging for them as far as being able to meet their objective of being able to militarily destroy and defeat Hamas.”
Warning signs ignored
Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, former head of US Central Command against the Islamic State, asked what happens after the alleged "destruction" of Hamas. “What’s the plan to take care of the 2.5 million Palestinians that are left behind? What’s the plan to deal with the remainder of the Hamas fighters? It seems incomplete and I just don’t think that they have communicated or have thought through that as well as I would’ve hoped they would’ve.”
Dana Stroul, a former top Middle East Pentagon official who resigned in January, wrote in a Foreign Affairs essay published Monday that the US shared lessons of its failures in Iraq with "Israel", but "Israel" has not listened to those warnings.
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“Not only has Israel declined to learn from this body of knowledge and experience on the sequencing of activities to prevent worst outcomes for postconflict societies, but it also appears that Israel is on track to repeat the same mistakes,” she noted.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said in an interview recently, “The U.S. learned over decades that unless you center humanitarian needs and the protection of civilians in conflict that your military goals will fail. We are seeing this first hand as Hamas rapidly resurfaces after IDF operations and retains capabilities despite months of fighting.”
Votel said that the Israelis “are not helping their cause here.”
Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, who led US Central Command from 2019 to 2022, reveals that "Israel" hasn’t deployed a large enough force to clear and take hold of areas where “people are probably going to try to flow back in,” and Hamas will then move in and reestablish presence.
“That’s classic guerilla strategy,” he claimed.
Votel claims that relying on a partner force to secure areas after the military operation was complete in Iraq and Syria against ISIS was key, and “unless you do that, you are going to find yourself going back into these areas and reclearing them and re-fighting them”.
He continued to criticize the occupation for reaching out to Arab nations to help with the “day after” scenario.
“There should’ve been more deliberation upfront about how they were going to do that part of the campaign, and now they are where they are,” he said.
The 'anti-semitic card' strikes again
This comes a day after Netanyahu described on Monday the measures of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against him and Security Minister Yoav Gallant as "anti-semitic" and confirmed that they will not constrain "Israel" in its war on Gaza.
The Chief Prosecutor of the ICC Karim Khan stated that his office is filing applications for arrest warrants before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the "territory of the State of Palestine," in the Gaza Strip, from at least October 8, 2023. This was the first action of its kind taken against any major US partner.
Read next: US Democrats seeing red after Israeli letter reprimands lawmakers
Biden on Monday strongly criticized the International Criminal Court's move to seek arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, labeling it "outrageous".
Biden cited an alleged absence of equivalence between "Israel" and Hamas as he affirmed unwavering support for "Israel's" security.
"And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence - none - between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security," Biden said in a statement.
