A Feb. 20 article by Yang Sheng in China’s semi-official daily Global Times is unimpressed by Washington’s gentle diplomatic pressure on Israel, purportedly to get it to harm fewer civilians in Gaza. “Chinese analysts said Washington is still reluctant to exert full pressure on Israel to stop the bloodshed,” the article notes, “but only imposes limited diplomatic pressure to respond to calls from the international community. U.S. military aid is key for Israel to continue its attack in Gaza, and as long as the Biden administration maintains the military supplies to Israeli forces, the change of words about diplomatic language won’t bring any significant change, experts noted.”
The author then quotes Wang Jin, an associate professor at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwest University, who said that “the U.S. does have power to restrain Israel, but it is just reluctant to use it. The military aid is the most important leverage for Washington to impose pressure on the Netanyahu administration, but now the U.S. only wants to impose pressure via the diplomatic channel.”
