2 Prominent Democrats Urge Biden To Pressure Netanyahu To Change Course In Gaza
HuffPost
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Brian Schatz sent a letter to the State Department on Tuesday, asking the administration to outline ways to use U.S. leverage over the Israeli prime minister.
Two prominent Democratic senators are urging the Biden administration to use American leverage over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to temper his devastating U.S.-backed campaign in Gaza, HuffPost has learned. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hi.) sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday asking for specific actions that President Joe Biden will take to change Israel’s course and “to advance an independent, self-governed Palestinian state.”
Their message comes after Netanyahu earlier this month said Israel cannot accept a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Biden has for months resisted calls to do more to pressure Netanyahu, instead privately trying to win Israeli restraint. In recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers have signaled increasing concern with Biden’s policy, noting the killing of more than 26,000 people in Gaza and the deepening humanitarian crisis amid a continued Israeli assault with no clear end in sight.
“We have serious concerns that the Netanyahu government’s public and repeated rejection of a two-state solution” — the long-envisioned plan for Israeli and Palestinian states to live side-by-side — “fundamentally threatens regional security and undermines any path to a durable peace,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Numerous Israeli governments guarded and upheld the promise of a two-state solution as the foundation for a lasting peace in the region. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s explicit departure from that position, both in his statements and in government policies aimed at undermining this internationally agreed upon pathway, is dangerous to both U.S. and Israeli national security.”
Warren and Schatz asked the administration to state whether it believes Netanyahu’s views and military strategy serve the causes of eventual peace and freeing hostages captured by Hamas and other Gaza-based militants in their Oct. 7 attack inside Israel, which also killed 1,200 Israelis. They want a written response by Feb. 13 and an in-person discussion on how the administration’s strategy will achieve the goal of Palestinian statehood that Biden, Blinken and others have repeatedly identified.
Warren has previously said U.S. military aid for Israel, more than $3 billion annually and potentially billions more if Congress approves a post-Oct. 7 emergency request from Biden, cannot be “a blank check.” Watchdog groups have repeatedly said Israel has committed war crimes in its Gaza offensive, including with American equipment; Hamas has violated international law as well, they note.
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