Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his message to Washington from last week, that he would not allow Palestinian rule in Gaza, either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. NBC reported Netanyahu as saying that Israel and the U.S. “have differences regarding ‘the day after Hamas,’” declaring that a postwar “Gaza won’t be Hamastan or Fatahstan.” (Fatah being the Palestinian Authority-associated military. Netanyahu is famous over the years for supporting Hamas so as to undercut the Palestinian Authority.) NBC News said that Netanyahu was “effectively slamming U.S. plans for the Palestinian Authority to take over the governance of Gaza.”
For his part, President Joe Biden reportedly told well-heeled Democratic donors at a private fundraiser in Washington that Netanyahu had a “tough decision to make. This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history” and Netanyahu “doesn’t want a two-state solution.” Biden warned that Israel was beginning to lose support around the world, and said that Netanyahu “has to strengthen and change” the Israeli government to find an eventual long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
