US Secretary of State completes Anthony Blinken His current visit to the region is the ninth round of the tour around Tel Aviv, and with each round the foreign minister of the largest country in the world seems more keen on the religious and political ties that bind him to Israel, explicitly rather than implicitly.
On his first visit to Israel a few days after the Al-Aqsa flood, Blinken said that he did not come to Israel only as US Secretary of State, but as “a Jew whose grandfather fled from murder.”
In his latest tour, which concluded on Monday, Blinken was also biased towards the Israeli vision and aligned with the positions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stressing that he accepted the proposal presented and that the ball is now in the court of Hamas “if it cares about the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” as he put it.
Blinken’s new statements during his press conference on Monday evening seemed frustrating and disappointing to many who expected – according to the calculations of the moment and the context of the visit – that he would pressure Netanyahu to accept his president’s proposal. Joe Biden Which Hamas agreed to and Netanyahu rejected.
Prior to Blinken’s statements, Netanyahu’s office was heaping praise on the results of the meeting between Blinken and Netanyahu in Jerusalem, which lasted about 3 hours and may have been the longest during Blinken’s successive visits to Israel since the start of its aggression on Gaza StripOn October 7th.
9 rounds in 10 months
With the conclusion of his current visit, Blinken will have visited Israel 9 times in 10 months, at a rate of approximately one visit every month.
The following is a review of Blinken’s tours of Israel and the region over the past ten months, and the most important information and contexts related to them:
First visit.. green light for open war
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first visit to Israel came 6 days after the Al-Aqsa flood, as he visited it on Thursday, October 12, 2023.
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He said in a statement during that visit that he did not come to Israel only as US Secretary of State, but as “a Jew whose grandfather fled from being killed.”
This visit was of a solidarity nature with Israel after the surprise “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance, and it was also a green light for the comprehensive Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
On the sidelines, Blinken said his visit carries a message that they will always be there for the Israelis, who he said do not have to defend themselves alone.
One of the most significant activities of that visit was Blinken’s participation in a meeting of the Israeli “War” Council that was formed after October 7.
The second visit.. mobilizing support and manipulating time
The second visit of the US Secretary of State took on a deceptive character, as it included Israel and other Arab countries, and carried a faint humanitarian spirit expressing Washington’s readiness to discuss corridors for humanitarian aid. This mission comes in second place after the first mission, which is to mobilize support for Tel Aviv in the Arab capitals he visited, and to besiege any inclination or expected support for Hamas.
During his stay in Israel (October 16, 2023), which he preceded by visiting Arab countries, Blinken said that he heard in those countries “a lot of good ideas”, especially regarding providing aid to the 2.2 million residents of the Gaza Strip, denying the possibility of expelling Palestinians from the Strip.
The third visit… for unlimited negotiations
On Friday morning, November 3, Blinken returned to Israel on his third visit since Operation Protective Edge. Despite the man’s announcement of his intention to pressure his allies in Tel Aviv, his statements were otherwise. He said in a press conference with the Israeli president, “We are determined to support Israel and we will never hesitate to do so. Israel has the right to defend itself, and we are keen not to repeat these attacks.”
After completing his visit to Israel, Blinken headed to Jordan, and then began a tour of Asian countries that included Japan, South Korea, and India.
The fourth visit.. a calming down to contain the revenge after the assassination of Al-Arouri
On January 9, 2024, it was the fourth visit since the war began on October 7, 2023. It included Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, in addition to Israel.
What distinguished this visit was that it was postponed from its previously announced time due to the assassination carried out by Israel against the Hamas leader, martyr Saleh al-Arouri, in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
It seemed clear that the American official was making an effort to mitigate any possible retaliation for the assassination of Al-Aaruri in Lebanon.
The fifth visit.. for the sake of detainees, not peace
On February 5, 2024, Blinken began his fifth tour of the region, which he opened in Saudi Arabia, and included Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and the West Bank. The issue of Israeli prisoners in Gaza was the most important element for the top American diplomat, within the Western concern for detainees who are receiving the best treatment, according to the admission of those who were released, in contrast to a machine of destruction that has so far crushed more than 40,000 martyrs without provoking the human spirit in the hearts of most Western leaders.
The sixth visit.. West Bank presence and continuation of the war
On March 22, 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel, after completing another tour in Riyadh and Cairo, and the hard-won humanitarian aid was a topic of discussion with Arab leaders.
In Israel, the discussion included – in addition to the traditional files – the situation in the West Bank, ways of dealing with the Palestinian Authority, and of course stopping and ending the genocide was outside the agenda of agreement with the Israelis.
After his meetings with Israeli politicians, Blinken met with the Palestinian president. Mahmoud AbbasHe said he discussed with him measures aimed at “improving security and freedom for Palestinians in the West Bank.”
The seventh visit…to confront Hamas again
On April 30, Blinken began a visit to Tel Aviv, coming from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, in his seventh tour of the region since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
The US Secretary of State discussed with Israeli leaders ways to deal militarily with Hamas, and advised them on the danger of reckless ground invasion of Rafah.
At the conclusion of the visit, Blinken said he had clearly informed Israeli leaders of the United States’ opposition to a large-scale ground attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, noting that he had proposed “better solutions” to deal with the movement. agitation.
“Our position is clear, it has not changed and will not change,” Blinken told reporters after talks with Netanyahu and other officials in Israel.
In the following weeks, Israeli tanks invaded most of Rafah, despite Washington’s public opposition to Blinken’s loyalties, which he repeated on more than one visit and in more than one statement.
The eighth visit.. Restoring the decaying Zionist house
On June 10, 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his eighth tour of the region, starting in Egypt before moving on to Qatar and Jordan, and as usual, with a culmination from Tel Aviv. This visit comes – among other things – to restore the eroded Zionist house, with Israeli Minister Benny Gantz announcing his resignation from the emergency government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ninth visit.. the last chance for agreement
The ninth visit to Israel began yesterday, Sunday, August 18, as part of American efforts to push forward towards concluding a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip, after the number of martyrs and wounded from the aggression reached about 140,000, and after most of the homes and residences in Gaza were destroyed.
The visit and the round of negotiations that preceded it and the American proposal that Hamas had reservations about, and Blinken said that Netanyahu accepted it, come at a time when the war has become more exhausting for Tel Aviv and draining for Washington on the Israeli side.
Blinken considered that the last opportunity may be lost if a truce and calm agreement is not reached between the two parties. However, Blinken does not hide that he is indeed one of the two parties, with his continued bias towards Israel, whose positions he constantly understands, and is always ready to hold the Palestinian side responsible for the failure of any round of negotiations.
Indicators and implications
And without the nine visits having any effect on the ground, and the war not stopping, Israel not winning, and the resistance not raising the white flag, they showed:
- Signs of weakness and a significant decline in American influence in the region, as shuttle trips have replaced the phone calls that for decades were decisive in resolving the conflict and in resolving the debate, but today they face a complete inability to stop a flame that is about to spread to turn into a regional war.
- Failure to stop the genocide. Although Blinken’s statements in his first tours focused on Israel’s right to take its time and effort to defend itself, and on the US’s full support for it in taking revenge, his statements accompanying his recent tours added to those contents an emphasis on the importance of reaching a ceasefire agreement, avoiding harming civilians, and mitigating as much as possible the damage inflicted on them.
- The main American concern is to mobilize more regional protection and support for Israel. On every visit to Israel, Blinken would deliver messages to regional parties, most notably Iran, to the effect that the United States would not allow an attack on Israel, and that it would mobilize all its capabilities to prevent this, to defend Israel, and to establish American deterrence.
- American weakness towards the Zionist hawks controlling the security and political decision in Tel Aviv, as American pressures are no longer useful in forcing them to adopt a certain position or vision, even if it represents a desire among a broad spectrum of Israelis, most notably prominent officials and families of prisoners.
- The US decision is dependent on Netanyahu’s positions, as events have shown that US President Joe Biden and his chief diplomat are prepared to lose everything in order to go along with Netanyahu’s manipulation of the proposals submitted for a ceasefire. Despite the continued frustration, according to leaks, of the Biden administration, it has avoided exerting real and effective pressure on Netanyahu, and over time it has appeared that it has few means of influencing the course of the war or its end.
Between the nine visits, nothing has changed in the speech of the chief American diplomat. Blinken, who came at the beginning of the war proud of his Jewishness, is still the most supportive servant in the region of Tel Aviv in its policy, war, and aggression.
