Secret Plan or Compliance: US Strategy in Gaza War.
Foreign Affairs has published a detailed report titled “The End of Israel’s Exceptionalism: A New Paradigm for American Policy,” the full text of which will be published in four issues on the Islamic Republic News Agency in the coming days. The first part of this report has been published previously. The second part states.
The aftermath of the October 7 Hamas operation clearly exposed the fundamental flaws in the exceptional US-Israeli relationship. President Joe Biden and his team have predictably struggled to shape how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war and Tel Aviv’s actions elsewhere in the region. The United States has not sought, formally or informally, to reach an understanding with Israel about what kind of assistance will be provided, under what conditions, and for what military objectives. The US government’s support for Israel’s military response has demonstrated an understandable solidarity with a partner under pressure, but in the absence of such clarity, it has been seen by Netanyahu as a “blank check.”
US engagement with Israeli officials at the start of the war has established a pattern of calculated but ultimately compliant pressure. From the very first Israeli operation in Gaza, it was clear that the Israeli military was not paying enough attention to reducing Palestinian civilian casualties. The Biden administration repeatedly and seriously but privately raised concerns about the Israeli military’s bombing tactics in the early weeks of the war. However, any impact these discussions might have had on Israeli behavior was undermined by public statements from American officials that, while expressing regret for the civilian casualties, refrained from condemning them or attributing responsibility to Israel.
The US administration was reluctant to suspend arms shipments during this early period, and US vetoes of several UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire, including for failing to mention Hamas’s role in the conflict, were seen by other countries as tacit approval of Israeli tactics. Even as public criticism mounted at home, Netanyahu seemed to have concluded that he could ignore the grievances of the Biden administration, which prioritized Israeli freedom of action over minimizing civilian harm.