11/21/2023 0 Comments Take five oil change reviewsSo yeah, that's what worries me more than anything else, that Hezbollah would come into the war. Hezbollah has in its inventory on the order of 150,000 rockets that have greater range, could reach Tel Aviv. Hamas shot several thousand so-called rockets at Israel, causing significant damage. HAASS: My biggest concern is not so much countries as it is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. How concerned are you about other countries in the region getting involved? SIMON: You mentioned the prospect of a widening war. Israel could hurt Hamas, leave, and once again, Hamas or something essentially like it could fill that vacuum. And as Israel learned after 2005, you can go in, you can stay, but when you leave, you create a vacuum. It's not obvious to me how this plays to the advantage of Israel's military. This is a very difficult terrain, given the density of population, the built-up urban areas. And also, it doesn't solve Israel's problems. It could also lead to a widening of the war, which is neither in Israel nor in the United States' interest. And the danger in acting, if you will, wholesale with a large military intervention in Gaza, it will cause, as you suggest, all sorts of civilian casualties that will lead to pressures for a cease-fire. Just because you can do certain things doesn't mean it's in your or anybody's self-interest. But privately, I would argue the administration has to urge Israel to act smart. HAASS: Publicly, the president gave a very powerful voice to support. How does the Biden administration support Israel while at the same time urging restraint and safeguarding civilians in Gaza? SIMON: A couple of questions of the moment. And what I think events of the last week or so have shown in all their horrific detail is that the Palestinian dimension remains necessary 'cause indeed, I worry not only the damage that it could bring without it, but also that it could potentially pose problems even to the relationships between Israel and Arab states. And most recently, the idea was to bring Saudi Arabia in. The problem is that it somehow was built upon this assumption that it could go on forever. It's understandable why that was desirable given the power of states, given that they're less difficult to work with as negotiating partners, and it made real progress. The entire approach to diplomacy in recent years has been what you might describe as from the outside in, normalized between Israel and Arab states. foreign policy so intent on Israel normalizing relations with some Arab states that it overlooked Palestinians? Richard Haass is a veteran diplomat who's worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations, and, of course, is also president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. The events unfolding in Gaza and Israel and the wider region present an enormous challenge for U.S.
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