world news
Blinken tells Jewish leaders in the US does not want Israel to ‘escalate’ after Iran attack
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration does not want tensions between Iran and Israel to “escalate” after Iran’s massive attack on Israel over the weekend, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told American Jewish leaders.
Blinken called the meeting at the State Department on Tuesday morning as Israel contemplates how and when to retaliate against Iran. Blinken underscored how eager the Biden Administration is for the Israel-Hamas war not to spread across the region.
“We understand and appreciate why the Israelis feel like they must respond,” Blinken said according to the notes of one participant, confirmed by three others. “In our estimation, it is not in Israel’s interests or in America’s interest for this to escalate. However, that is a decision for Israel to make. We would never tell Israel what to do — we just give the best advice we can.”
That message came after reports that President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would not participate in or support an Israeli attack on Iran. The United States did help defend Israel from the Iranian attack, shooting down missiles and drones fired by Iran. It was part of a coalition of countries that came to Israel’s defense, including the United Kingdom, France and Jordan.Tuesday’s meeting was off the record, but a number of participants agreed to describe it on condition they not be identified. Groups represented included the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, J Street, the Reform movement, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Federations of North America, the Israel Policy Forum, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the American Jewish Committee, the Conservative movement, Hadassah and the Anti-Defamation League.
Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s envoy to combat antisemitism, moderated the gathering. The State Department did not return a request for comment.
Unconditional support for the Jewish state
There was some pushback from the centrist and right-wing Jewish officials present, who called on the United States to support whatever decision Israel makes. “If and when and how Israel responds, we said it’s very important for that to be backed up by the United States, so that Iran and others see that the coalition [that repelled Iran’s attack] will stay together and remain a deterrent to Iran,” one of the participants said.
Overall, the Jewish leaders evinced gratitude, with the word “miracle” used multiple times to describe the relief that Israel and its allies downed most of the missiles and that no one was killed by the attack. There was relief, too, the US-Israel tensions over the Gaza war, intensifying in recent weeks, appeared to dissipate for the time being. “The alllyship solidified this weekend,” a participant said.
The centrist and center-right officials also decried the tensions between Israel and the United States prior to the Iran attack over Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas. They said that divisions between Israel and the United States should remain private, and that creating public “daylight” between the countries encourages their enemies and spurs antisemitism.
Blinken said he too preferred to keep disagreements private, and noted that most leaks regarding US-Israel disagreements come from the Israeli side. No one in the room argued with that.
Others in the room, representing the more liberal groups, were sympathetic to the Biden administration’s pressing Israel to facilitate the entry of more aid into the Gaza Strip, which is experiencing a humanitarian crisis.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby, praised the Biden Administration for sanctioning Jewish extremists the Biden Administration says are terrorizing West Bank Palestinians.
The atmosphere was warm despite the pushback on Israel’s potential retaliation against Iran, all participants said; the hour-long meeting opened and closed with the Jewish groups lavishing praise on the Biden Administration for rapidly coming to Israel’s assistance to repel the attacks.
“While there might be specific policy disagreements, everyone there was also coming from the same fundamental place, having the same fundamental values and the same fundamental concern for the safety of the Jewish people and the safety of the Israeli people,” Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the JCPA, a liberal-leaning public policy group, said in an interview.
Spitalnick thanked Blinken for the work the Biden Administration was undertaking to identify foreign-sourced misinformation in an election year, noting how the toxicity in the misinformation often morphs into bigotry and antisemitism, which spreads.
“We see how post-Oct. 7, antisemites of all stripes are being empowered and emboldened and amplified by a number of these foreign bot farms and disinformation campaigns,” she said. “And it’s having very real impacts on Jewish safety.”
Danny Ayalon, former Deputy Foreign Minister and Israeli Ambassador to Washington, called the recent pro-Palestinian protests on campuses “an Islamist agenda that did not start today.”
Ayalon stated, “They have already influenced the public opinion in Europe in their favor and are trying to replicate the process in the US. From this perspective, they are succeeding, and they are, in fact, trying to influence not only Biden and the government but also members of Congress. Currently, Trump is leading in at least five states. Everything is subject to the American electoral system.”
Ayalon continued, “There are two axes through which Americans have been operating from the beginning of the war until today: the strategic axis, strong support for Israel, Israel’s strength is a clear American interest, and not to expand the war, and on the other hand, Biden’s political interest. He wants quiet; he wants stability. He would, of course, prefer to see a breakthrough. If he could run these elections on an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, that would be his dream. It is not beneficial for Biden to encourage escalation of the fighting.”
The American influence on the Israel-Hamas conflict
Ayalon also noted that “From all the conduct of Hamas, the IDF controls 90 percent of Gaza, and they are negotiating as if they hold the upper hand. They think they have the advantage and need to hold out as long as possible until the American elections.”
“The prominent guiding line is the evident interests of Biden and the Democrats. There are about five key states where this conflict will be decided by the electoral system. In some states, like Michigan, there is a relatively large Arab Muslim concentration, and a small percentage one way or the other can shift the entire state from one side to the other. That’s exactly Biden’s dilemma,” Ayalon concluded.
Edited by Shani Romano for 103FM radio.
Udi Segal and Tal Shalev spoke this Wednesday morning on 103FM radio with Omer Lubaton Granot, an Israeli master’s student at Columbia University, who shared his feelings after the widespread pro-Palestinian protests on campus as a reaction to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“I’m okay, but outside, it’s chaotic like you wouldn’t believe,” he shared, “There are dozens, if not over a hundred, detainees. We are following directions. The students from the protest yesterday broke into the building and shattered windows.”
Despite the chaos, Granot recognized some good things that came out of the campus protests.
“It gave the university a reason to investigate matters they’ve avoided for a long time. There is a lot of criticism about maintaining freedom of expression because it is sacred here, but the students went too far. They closed the campus today. No one could enter.”Lubaton Granot continued, “It’s been disrupting the daily routine here for two weeks already. There are people with covered faces walking around here, waving terrorist flags, shouting ‘Zionists out,’ preventing Israelis from freely walking on campus.”
“At a certain point, we waited for the police to come and take assertive action against them. The president asked the police to stay on campus until May 17. There is a need for constant police presence even though they are not a mob, this is not London, and there are not 100,000 protesters here,” he noted.
“I read in several places, but not sure if it’s confirmed, that among [the protesters] there was a relative of a man who was convicted of terrorism and unrelated to the university. Among the protesters are all sorts of people who are professional provocateurs. But in the end, they are coordinated, inside and out.”
“These are the same organizations where many of their leaders are simply on the outside,” he concluded and said, “There is a sense of personal threat, and we keep looking over our shoulders. We’re careful where we speak Hebrew on campus. We are remaining cautious. Since the beginning of this whole thing, it’s been really scary.
Three missiles were sighted approximately 15 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Mokha, British security firm Ambrey said on Friday, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that one vessel was damaged.
“The Master has reported two attacks. The first attack, the vessel experienced an explosion in close proximity to the vessel, which was felt by the crew on board,” UKMTO said in an advisory note.
“Subsequently, the second attack on the vessel, consisted of what is believed to be two missiles, which resulted in damage to the vessel,” UKMTO added.
Russian-linked ship attacked
The tanker, which was not identified by name, was en route from Pimorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India, when it was attacked, Ambrey said in its advisory note.
“A Panama-flagged tanker, formerly UK-owned before its ownership changed in November 2023, was the closest vessel to the sighting,” Ambrey’s note said.
“At the time of writing, the vessel’s owner was Seychelles-registered and was engaged in Russia-linked trade,” Ambrey said of the tanker that was attacked.
The note said the vessel was transmitting an Automatic Identification System (AIS) signal.
Months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa, and have stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.
The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.
The Houthis since November have attacked more than four dozen ships, taking possession of one and sinking another. The barrage of assaults had eased in recent weeks amid US-led airstrikes and a sharp drop in commercial vessel voyages through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
-
Solar Energy3 years agoDLR testing the use of molten salt in a solar power plant in Portugal
-
Camera3 years agoCharles ‘Chuck’ Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and inventor of the PDF, dies at 81
-
TOP SCEINCE1 month agoStellar winds of three sun-like stars detected for the first time
-
TOP SCEINCE1 month ago
Brightest gamma-ray burst of all time came from the collapse of a massive star
-
world news1 month ago
Jewish diaspora expresses concern as Iranian drones launch toward Israel
-
TOP SCEINCE1 month ago
Inherited predisposition for higher muscle strength may protect against common morbidities
-
world news6 months ago
Gulf, France aid Gaza, Russia evacuates citizens
-
Camera3 years agoSony a7 IV sample gallery
