Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected calls from the US to scale back Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip or take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war, drawing an immediate scolding from the White House.
The tense back and forth reflected what has become a wide rift between the two allies over the scope of Israel’s war and its plans for the future of the beleaguered territory.
“We obviously see it differently,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Netanyahu spoke just a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have “genuine security” without a pathway toward Palestinian independence.
Earlier this week, the White House also announced that it was the “right time” for Israel to lower the intensity of its devastating military offensive in Gaza.
In a nationally televised news conference, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, repeatedly saying that Israel would not halt its offensive until it realizes its goals of destroying Gaza’s Hamas militant group and bringing home all remaining hostages held by Hamas.
He rejected claims by a growing chorus of Israeli critics that those goals are not achievable, vowing to press ahead for many months.
“We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory,” he said.
Israel launched the offensive after an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. Israel believes about 130 hostages remain in Hamas captivity.
Israel’s assault has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, caused widespread destruction and uprooted more than 80 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
The US has said the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which governs semi-autonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalized” and return to Gaza. Hamas ousted the authority from Gaza in 2007.
The US has also called for steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem for their state. Those areas were captured by Israel in 1967.
Speaking on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blinken said the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries and isolate Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.
Without a “pathway to a Palestinian state,” Israel would not “get genuine security,” he said.
At the same conference, Saudi Arabian Minister of Foreign Affairs Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the kingdom is ready to establish full relations with Israel as part of a larger political agreement.
“But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state,” he said.
Netanyahu, who leads a far-right government opposed to Palestinian statehood, repeated his longstanding opposition to a two-state solution. He said a Palestinian state would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River,” he said, adding: “That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?”
“This truth I tell to our American friends, and I put the brakes on the attempt to coerce us to a reality that would endanger the state of Israel,” he said.
The comments prompted an immediate rebuke from the White House.
Kirby said that US President Joe Biden would “not stop working” toward a two-state solution.
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