US Secretary of State in Israel: Blinken’s delicate Middle East trip

Status: 01/30/2023 10:22 a.m

In an extremely tense phase, US Secretary of State Blinken is traveling to the Middle East. The most recent events may have thwarted his original plans: instead of mediating, he must above all appease.

By Julio Segador, ARD Studio Tel Aviv

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is not to be envied for this trip to the Middle East. He comes to the region at a time when tensions between Israel and the Palestinians threaten to escalate. Just last week, US State Department spokesman Ned Price made it clear that his boss, Blinken, is coming to Israel and the Palestinian territories as a mediator and is looking for a joint solution:

“For us it is clear: It is a fact that unilateral steps by Israel and the Palestinian Authority are critical and promote tensions. And they endanger the two-state solution that has already been negotiated and all efforts towards it. This specifically includes the further annexation of areas, the construction of settlements and house demolitions,” Price said.

But since then the scenario has changed completely. First the military action of the Israeli security forces in Jenin in the West Bank with ten dead, then the attack in Jerusalem in front of a synagogue with seven dead. Blinken will meet today with an Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is unlikely to think much of mediation between Israelis and Palestinians at the moment.

After the attack in Jerusalem, Netanyahu opted for a hard-line policy. “We are not looking for escalation, but we are prepared for any possibility. Our response to terrorism is an iron fist and a forceful, swift and precise response,” Netanyahu said.

Recently clear criticism of settlement construction

Instead of acting as an intermediary, Blinken now has to act as a firefighter – which should completely thwart his original plans, especially when it comes to the sensitive issue of building housing estates. Just a few weeks ago, Blinken criticized the settlement policy in the occupied West Bank in clear terms. The US would remain unequivocally opposed to any action that undermines the prospects for a two-state solution, he said.

After the attack in Jerusalem, the expansion of settlement construction is one of the measures announced by the cabinet in response to Palestinian terror. In a statement, Netanyahu said: “We will make it clear to the terrorists who want to uproot us from our country that we will stay here.”

“The situation is extremely dangerous”, Sophie von der Tann, ARD Tel Aviv, on the situation in Israel

tagesschau24 09:00 a.m., 30.1.2023

Difficult talks to be expected with Abbas

Blinken’s talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) are unlikely to get any easier. Under the aging President Mahmoud Abbas, the PA is losing influence; Radical forces such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are increasingly recruiting and radicalizing young Palestinians in the West Bank. In his talks in Ramallah on Tuesday, Blinken is likely to persuade Abbas to clearly distance himself from terror and violence.

In view of the difficult agenda that Blinken has ahead of him, two other topics could come to the fore in the talks with Israel: the planned and controversial judicial reform of the Netanyahu government, which is also viewed critically in Washington. And the joint stance of Israel and the US in the fight against Iran’s nuclear plans.

Just last week, both countries held a large-scale joint military exercise involving thousands of soldiers, around 140 aircraft and a dozen warships. The background to this largest joint military exercise to date is said to have been the growing tensions with Iran. According to media reports, both countries – Israel and the USA – could also be behind the recent drone attack on a military facility in Iran.

Blinken’s Middle East trip in a tense phase

Julio Segador, ARD Tel Aviv, 30.1.2023 9:07 a.m

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