The best way for Israel to normalize regional ties and isolate Iran is to agree to finalize a two-state resolution to the conflict, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Egypt on Thursday.
“I think you can really see two very stark alternatives for the region,” Blinken said after meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
He spoke in Cairo as he wrapped up a week-long trip that also included visits with top officials in Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Bahrain.
Blinken’s focus was on immediate threats from Iranian proxies, such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. He linked, however, his focus on preventing the Hamas war from spilling over onto other fronts, with the creation of a Palestinian state as an antidote to regional violence and a necessary component of any Israeli normalization efforts.
One can “have an integrated region with Israel – integrated with security assurances and commitments from regional countries, as well from the United States – and a Palestinian state,” Blinken said, or one can “continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah – all backed by Iran,” he explained.
“If you build that integration, if you bring Israel in, if you make the necessary commitments to security, and you move down the path to a Palestinian state, that’s the single best way to isolate, to marginalize Iran and the proxies,” Blinken said.
The choice between these two paths is clear to many leaders in the region, said Blinken. It’s also the path that “we fully intend to pursue with American diplomacy in the weeks and months ahead,” he added.
During his trip, however, he focused on the details specific to the Hamas war, sparked by the Islamist Hamas-led October 7 infiltration of southern Israel in which more than 1,200 people were massacred and some 250 seized as hostages.
Blinken backed Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza and emphasized the significance of ensuring its security. He emphasized the importance of freeing the hostages and spoke of the US work on that effort with Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating release efforts.
Blinken, however, also took issue with the high fatality count in Gaza, based on Hamas assertions that over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in war-related violence. That casualty figure, however, is supplied by the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians killed. Israel has asserted that it has killed more than 8,000 Hamas combatants in Gaza.
Preventing civilian deaths in Gaza
During Blinken’s visit to Israel, he spoke about the importance of preventing civilian deaths in Gaza and of transitioning the IDF’s military campaign from a high- to a low-intensity one. He spoke with officials about ways to increase the passage of goods into Gaza and the necessity of creating a deconfliction mechanism to distribute those goods.
Most of the Palestinians in Gaza have fled their homes due to the war, and their plight was also on Blinken’s agenda. He rejected calls by right-wing Israeli ministers for the voluntary displacement of Palestinians, insisting that they must be able to return home, particularly those from the northern part of the enclave.
“We come away with a number of concrete steps forward,” Blinken said as he pointed to an agreement with the UN, by which it would send an assessment team to north Gaza to see what steps are necessary for Palestinian civilians to return.
During his meeting with Palestinian officials in Ramallah, Blinken said, he received “a commitment from the Palestinian Authority to pursue meaningful reform,” but he did not specify what reforms he was mentioning.
Day After plans for Gaza were also a “big part” of his conversations in the region, Blinken said. “Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law,” he stated.
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified “that Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.
“Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law,” he stated.
“Our goal is to rid Gaza of Hamas terrorists and free our hostages. Once this is achieved, Gaza can be demilitarized and deradicalized, thereby creating a possibility for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Netanyahu stressed.