Both the White House and the British government are sticking to their sophistry to justify their support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday that the Biden administration has “urged” Israel to tone down its military campaign in Gaza. “We are not saying let your foot up off the gas completely and don’t keep going after Hamas,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Jan. 14, when pressed on tensions with Israel about Gaza. Hamas “is still a viable threat,” and Israel has “every right and responsibility to go after that,” Kirby said, adding, “We believe the time is coming here very soon for a transition to a low-intensity phase.”
Kirby claimed that the Biden administration has been speaking with Israel “intensely about a transition to low-intensity operations. We believe it is the right time for that transition, and we are talking to them about doing that.” Israel has taken “some precursory steps to try to get to that point. They are pulling some troops out, they are relying a little less on airstrikes.” What needs to happen next, Kirby said, is “more targeted, more precise raids” and “less airstrikes.”
Netanyahu, however, doesn’t see it that way. On Sunday he said that “one of the things that has become clear beyond all doubt is that we must conduct this war and it will yet take many months.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is also promising that Israel will expand the war. The army “will not stop until we dismantle the capabilities of this organization, all over Gaza,” he said while visiting army units in the West Bank. “We have declared war on Hamas in Judea and Samaria [as Israel terms the West Bank], in Lebanon—wherever it may be necessary.” He stressed that when it comes to the West Bank, “I would like to emphasize: a strong Palestinian Authority is an Israeli security interest.”
In London, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron is engaged in the same kind of sophistry as Kirby. “Some say we must have an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote in an article posted to the Guardian and Haaretz on Jan. 11. “I do not want to see this conflict go on a moment longer than necessary. But this means achieving a sustainable ceasefire, one that will last and prevent another generation of children living under the constant threat of war. That means no more Hamas, and its rocket attacks and commitment to terror.”
Cameron said that, instead of an immediate ceasefire, there should be a greater flow of relief aid to Gaza. “We need more aid—and fast,” Cameron declared. “The British government and our partners are committed to being as creative as possible in getting life-saving assistance to those in need.”
