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Rabat – At the conclusion of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Tokyo, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared on Wednesday that Israel should not “reoccupy” the Gaza Strip once its murderous war on the Palestinian enclave comes to an end.
Despite being the strongest ally of Israel and the most vocal backer of the Jewish state’s professed goal to “eliminate” Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza and leading Palestinian resistance against decades of Israeli occupation, the US stated on Tuesday that it was against any potential reoccupation of Palestinian territory.
This followed a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had announced in an interview on Monday that his country was prepared to assume “overall responsibility for security” in Gaza “for an indefinite period.”
While it will keep supporting Israel’s “right to defend itself,” Blinken said, the US believes that achieving “lasting peace and security” in the region depends on ending the “forced displacement of Gazans.”
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As well as making efforts to stop the land “from being used as a platform for terrorism,” said the top US diplomat while referring to Hamas, this American vision for the day after would entail Israeli commitment to refrain from reoccupying Gaza at the end of the current cycle of bloodshed and mass murder.
He also stated that caution must be exercised in the future to prevent “any attempt to blockade or siege Gaza” and any “reduction” of its territory.
When the ongoing, murderous Israeli offensive ends, Blinken appeared to argue, the US needs to see Gaza “unified” with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. Under this vision, he suggested, “the voices and aspirations of the Palestinian people” will be “at the heart of governance in Gaza.”
The challenge of the US and the international community is to find “a way for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in their own spaces,” the top US diplomat said, stressing the need for “a sustainable mechanism for rebuilding Gaza.”
These comments come as critics of the US continue to point fingers at Wahsigton’s “blind” support of Israel’s genocidal policy in Palestinian territories.
While Blinken has continued to tour the world to showcase the US’ “unwavering” commitment to diplomacy and Washington’s efforts over the past two weeks to broker a diplomatic end to the Israel-Palestine conflict, it remains to be seen whether this will appease the increasing anti-West and anti-US wave rocking much of the Global South.
Over the past month, many observers in the non-Western world have deplored the west’s guilty silence and despicable indifference to the unfolding genocide in Gaza.
In addition, many critics of the West’s “hypocrisy” and “complicity” in the Gaza crisis have especially taken issue with the Biden White House’s repeated rejections of calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
