With its hands largely tied, the Biden administration is considering options for next steps in working with its longtime ally

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Israel, however, is aware that the traditional formula for restoring calm to the unstable Middle East region no longer applies.

Never before has Israel suffered so many victims in such a short time (700 dead at the last count). It is a unique moment when Israeli casualties exceed those suffered by Palestinians in countless battles over the decades. At least four U.S. citizens were among the dead, U.S. officials said.

Just like the United States, world leaders

on

Sunday urged restraint. But Israel will not yet be able to withdraw politically or psychologically. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed strong revenge, and Israel also faces the deadly dilemma of rescuing more than a hundred hostages, including some Americans seized by Hamas militants whose multi-front offensive against Israel on Saturday left the country world bewildered.

This also puts the United States in a difficult position.

What the United States can do about this is, simply put, not much at this stage, said Martin Indyk, former Middle East envoy and U.S. ambassador to Israel. I think President Biden’s instinct is to put his arm around Netanyahu, assure him of American support, and try to encourage some restraint, although that will probably fall on deaf ears at this point.

In addition to speaking with Netanyahu,

President

Biden and his top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, have held dozens of urgent telephone consultations over the past 24 hours with a range of Arab leaders, including those of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership is different from the Hamas militants who have brutally attacked or kidnapped dozens of civilians in Israel.

Right now the whole focus is on supporting Israel, making sure that the country has what it needs to counter this attack from Hamas, making sure that it has control over its own territory, and that it takes the necessary steps to ensure accountability. and to make sure this doesn’t happen again as best we can, Blinken said on NBCs

“

Meet the press.

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Challenged over what appears to have been a colossal failure by Israeli intelligence, which failed to anticipate the offensive, Blinken said Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the US, European Union and Israel, was not involved in the talks on the conflict that has taken place. the past months. As a result, some of the planning may have gone unnoticed.

The Gaza Strip, with

two 2

million inhabitants, has been essentially sealed off by Israeli forces on its northern, eastern and coastal borders, and by Egypt in the south. Surveillance in the extremely densely populated area the size of a major US city is considered one of the most intensive in the Middle East.

However, experts say Israel has been distracted for most of the year. The violence has spread to the other Palestinian territory, the West Bank, with Palestinian militant groups emerging and repeated instances of Jewish settlers rampaging bloodily through Palestinian villages.

Netanyahu’s right-wing government, the most extreme in Israeli history, has expanded Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which most of the world considers illegal, and virtually ended Palestinian and American hopes for an independent state. destroyed.

At the same time, some of Netanyahu’s more controversial policy moves, such as gutting Israel’s judiciary, have sparked mass protests across the country. Protesters have also included members of the tough, loyal military, and in some cases reservists have said they would not report for duty in protest.

There was “a feeling that this was a dysfunctional government of the far right that placed more emphasis on protecting settlers in the West Bank than on protecting kibbutzniks on the Gaza border,” Indyk said during a teleconference sponsored by the Council. on foreign relations, said. Kibbutzim, farms and villages in Israel bordering Gaza were the main targets of Hamas attackers and the scenes where most lives were lost.

Israel’s next steps could include a massive assault on Gaza and possibly a full-scale invasion, 18 years after Israel withdrew from the desolate, impoverished zone. Israeli airstrikes have already leveled a number of high-rise residential buildings in Gaza. But the presence of civilian hostages that Hamas has hidden in Gaza will complicate Israel’s progress.

Most analysts agree that Iran played a major background role in this conflagration. U.S. officials said they could not say for certain that Tehran had direct participation, but that it certainly financed, trained and encouraged Hamas.

“There is no doubt that Hamas is financed, equipped and armed by Iran,” said a senior government official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. “Hamas would not exist without Iran’s support over the years and decades.”

In Washington, Biden’s Republican opponents are trying to blame his recent dealings with Iran, which secured the release of five American citizens from Iranian prisons and freed up $6 billion in Iranian oil revenues, for emboldening the Islamic Republic and leading until the attack on Israel. Government officials say this comparison is absurd.

“Let’s be clear:

T

The deal to bring American citizens home from Iran has nothing to do with the horrific attack on Israel,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. and medicines. Anything that says otherwise is wrong.”

Nevertheless, Iran’s lurking in the background threatens to expand the conflict beyond Israel and Gaza. A brief skirmish took place overnight between northern Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The two sides fought a war in 2006 that led to a temporary Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.

Iran also hopes to halt US-backed efforts to open ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a much-appreciated development that would reshuffle the dynamics in the Middle East.

“Hamas wants to prevent broader peace in the region,” former US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross said on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. “Israel will respond in an unprecedented way to what their 9/11 was. Hamas knew that, but cared little about the consequences for the residents of Gaza.”

Administration officials are also concerned about the current paralysis of the U.S. House of Representatives without a speaker following the impeachment of Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), which could complicate the approval of additional aid to Israel. The U.S. also has no ambassador to Israel as Biden’s nomination of former Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew awaits confirmation in a Senate where Republicans have slowed hundreds of Biden appointments.

The Pentagon meanwhile announced on Sunday that it was moving aircraft.

includingincluding

an aircraft carrier and guided-missile cruiser into the Mediterranean to “strengthen regional deterrence efforts.”

The US will also provide Israel with additional equipment, including ammunition and other equipment that “will begin moving today and arrive in the coming days,” the Pentagon said.