March 22, 2024 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Tony Blinken visited Saudi Arabia on March 20, Egypt on March 21, and Israel today. Top on his agenda were a “ceasefire tied to the release of hostages,” “surging” humanitarian aid into Gaza—he asserted in Cairo that aid has improved “in recent days” but not by enough, he demurred—and respectfully requesting Israel not invade Rafah but wipe out Hamas in the manner the U.S. proposes. He accomplished nothing but keeping up the charade that the U.S. is the big decider of what happens in Southwest Asia.
This was his sixth such shuffle since last Oct. 7, and the drive to exterminate the Palestinians is still raging. Reportedly, Israel was added on at the last minute. He met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and with his war cabinet, after which the State Department readout on those meetings reported that Blinken had “reaffirmed the United States commitment to Israel’s security and the lasting defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah,” with nary a mention of the ballyhooed U.S. opposition to Israel’s announced intention to launch an attack on the 1.4 million Gazans driven into that tiny area. Netanyahu told Blinken that Israel has to militarily enter Rafah to eliminate Hamas, and “I hope we would do this with U.S. support but if necessary—we will do it alone.”
Blinken said publicly in Cairo that he had worked hard on a deal for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel in his meetings with the Saudi Foreign Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the day before. He could not give a timeline on when that would happen, but he insisted that such a move is the key to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so that the region can then take on “perhaps the biggest threat to Israel and to many others, which is Iran and its various proxies. The perpetuation of this cycle only benefits Iran and the proxies that are working for it.”
