[News] US admits it doesn't want diplomatic solution

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/us-admits-it-doesnt-want-diplomatic-solution>
US admits it doesn't want diplomatic solution

Maureen Clare Murphy
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy> Rights and
Accountability
<https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability> 5 October
2024
------------------------------

Firefighters work at buildings damaged in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on 3
October.
Xinhua News Agency

Israel is embarking on a maximum pressure strategy in Lebanon as it has
done in Gaza, hoping that it will succeed in forcing a surrender by the
resistance in the former where it has failed in the latter.

According to
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-10-04/ty-article/.premium/israel-intensifies-strikes-on-beiruts-hezbollah-stronghold-in-attempt-to-force-agreement/00000192-574a-d2cc-a5d7-f7ff26e80000>
Amos Harel, an analyst for Israel’s *Haaretz* newspaper, that country’s
intensive airstrikes in Lebanon “looks like a pressure campaign to impose a
speedy agreement.”

Israeli media reported
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-idf-aiming-to-wrap-up-intensive-fighting-in-lebanon-in-2-3-weeks-making-way-for-deals-in-north-and-south/>
on Friday that “a senior Israeli security official” told the families of
Israelis being held captive in Gaza that the military will be fighting in
Lebanon for another two or three weeks, with the goal “to reach a
diplomatic agreement with Hizballah that would allow Israel to secure a
hostage deal.”

The strategy is backed by the US, which has provided unconditional support
for Israel during its genocide of the Palestinian people, particularly in
Gaza, and now for its military offensive in Lebanon.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller admitted
<https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-september-30-2024/>
during a press briefing this week that “we’ve never wanted to see a
diplomatic resolution with Hamas,” saying that the US was “committed to the
destruction” of the Palestinian resistance group.

Miller then said that “I wish that Hamas would come to the table and work
with us on a ceasefire” – the implication being that the only such
agreement that would be accepted by Washington would be the complete
surrender of Hamas.
There is little reason to think that the US would like to see anything
besides a total capitulation of Hizballah as the result of any supposed
diplomacy process to bring quiet to Israel’s so-called northern front.

Amal Saad, an expert on Hizballah, observed
<https://x.com/amalsaad_lb/status/1842268000986296630> that designation of
the Lebanese resistance group as a terror organization by the US and other
Western powers “has effectively empowered Israel to escalate its campaign
of state terrorism in Lebanon,” replicating in that country the “new model”
of brutal warfare wrought in Gaza.

The proscription of Hizballah has “given Israel the cover to commit war
crimes against the Lebanese people and depopulate Shia areas” of the
country, according to Saad.

It has “also granted Israel the license to potentially carry out ethnic
cleansing and genocide of the Shia community when it inevitably realizes
that its extreme violence is incapable of defeating Hizballah.”
Ayatollah’s speech

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a historic speech
<https://english.khamenei.ir/news/11146/Palestinian-and-Lebanese-Resistance-pushed-back-Zionist-regime>
on Friday – part of it directed towards the Palestinian and Lebanese people
and delivered in Arabic.

But it also delivered a clear message to Tel Aviv and Washington that there
will be no defeat of Hamas and Hizballah.
Khamenei said that the regional resistance will not back down after the
martyrdom of its leaders.

While “we are all grieving and mourning” following the death of Hasan
Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizballah killed in a massive attack on
Beirut’s southern suburbs last week, “our mourning does not mean being
depressed, distressed or losing hope,” Khamenei said.

Unbowed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s thinly veiled threat of
regime change
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israels-netanyahu-tells-iranians-regime-change-will-happen-sooner-people-think>
in Iran, Khamenei asserted that Israel is in its most precarious position
since its establishment.

Operation al-Aqsa Flood – the surprise attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 –
and the year of resistance in Gaza and Lebanon that followed “has bought
the usurping entity to the point where its main concern is to preserve its
existence,” Khamenei said.

Israel has tried to delink its southern and northern fronts by
assassinating Nasrallah and several other founding commanders of Hizballah.
The Lebanese resistance group has vowed to keep firing missiles and drones
towards Israel until it ends its attacks in Gaza.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, who met with Lebanese leaders in
Beirut on Friday, “said Tehran supported efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon
on the condition it would be backed by Hizballah and simultaneous with a
ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” according to
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-strikes-heart-beirut-killing-six-2024-10-02/>
Reuters.

Khamenei’s speech, a rare Friday sermon delivered in public at the Imam
Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran, should leave little doubt
that Iran will not back down from its key role in the regional resistance.

Iran fired a massive barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday,
forcing the majority of Israel’s population to seek safety in bomb shelters
as military bases were hit in the center of the country in retaliation for
the strikes that killed Nasrallah.

Khamenei emphasized that countries in the region have a shared interest in
defeating the threat posed by Israel, the common enemy of the Palestinian,
Lebanese, Iranian, Yemeni and Syrian peoples.

Unity would lead to the defeat of all enemies, Khamenei said, and Iran
would fulfill its duties with resolve. Acting with neither hesitation nor
haste, Iran will do what is logical, reasonable and correct, he said.

As if to underscore that the regional resistance would not be cowed, a
strike from a drone launched from Iraq killed two Israeli soldiers
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-10-04/ty-article/two-israeli-soldiers-killed-in-drone-strike-from-iraq-in-northern-israel/00000192-585a-d76b-a1f6-7f7fd6ff0000>
and injured 24 others in the Golan Heights – Syrian territory under Israeli
military occupation since 1967 – on Thursday.

Israel is poised to strike Iran following the barrage of ballistic missiles
fired from the country on Tuesday. Israeli officials have reportedly told
their US counterparts that the country’s attack will be “calibrated,” according
to
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/countdown-middle-east-war-region-can-step-back-brink-2024-10-04/>
Reuters.

Experts interviewed by the news agency said that Israel would likely avoid
highly sensitive targets like oil facilities and nuclear sites so as to
avoid an “escalated Iranian response including the potential targeting of
the oil production sites of US allies in the region.”
Daily attacks on Gaza shelters

While Iran and Israel teeter on the precipice of open war, Tel Aviv’s use
of heavy bombs in densely populated areas of Lebanon and Gaza continue
unabated.

At least 29 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on
Friday, according to
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-bombardment-kills-29-people-gaza-militants-renew-rocket-fire-into-israel-2024-10-04/>
health authorities in the territory.

On Thursday, the UN human rights office called
<https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/un-human-rights-office-opt-strikes-internally-displaced-persons-shelters-gaza>
on Israel “to immediately end the pattern of strikes in Gaza on buildings
acting as shelters” for displaced Palestinians.

“Such attacks have become an almost daily event,” the UN office said, with
at least six schools hit in the previous 72 hours, “resulting in tens of
fatalities, including women and children.”

“In September alone, our office recorded at least 14 schools struck in Gaza
by the Israeli military, and in August one school attack every other day,”
the UN stated.

Such blatant violations of the laws of war, normalized over the past year
in Gaza – during which time nearly 42,000 Palestinians in the territory are
confirmed to have been killed – are now being perpetrated by Israel in
Lebanon.

More than three dozen people were killed and 151 injured in the 24 hours
prior, the Lebanese government said
<https://x.com/ajmubasher/status/1842282225934479456> on Friday, bringing
the total number of fatalities in the country to more than 2,000.

More than 100 children had been killed in Lebanon over the past week and a
half, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said
<https://x.com/UNICEF/status/1842278827868709179> on Friday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said
<https://www.unocha.org/news/todays-top-news-lebanon-occupied-palestinian-territory>
on Friday that it “remains concerned about the safety and well-being of
civilians as Lebanon experiences a surge in airstrikes and displacement
orders.”

Israel targeted the Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon, “a
major axis for relief supplies coming into the country and used by families
fleeing to Syria in search of safety,” according to OCHA.

“It is imperative that all civilians be allowed to flee to safer areas, and
that they be protected whether they stay or leave,” OCHA added.

At least four hospitals in Lebanon suspended work due to Israeli attacks,
the AFP news agency reported
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/four-lebanese-hospitals-suspend-services-amid-israeli-bombing/>
on Friday.
Health workers killed in Lebanon

On Thursday, Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, said
<https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/lebanon/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-lebanon-imran-riza-attacks-against-healthcare-lebanon-3-october-2024>
that at least 73 health workers had lost their lives in escalated attacks
in southern Lebanon.

“In the past 24 hours, 28 health workers have been killed,” Riza added,
“underscoring the alarming escalation of violence and its devastating
impact on those providing life-saving care.”

On Wednesday, Israel bombed a relief center in central Beirut in “another
dangerous escalation,” Riza said, resulting “in the deaths of paramedics,
civil defense and relief officers who were actively assisting displaced and
affected communities.”

Riza said that such attacks “are serious violations of international
humanitarian law, undermining humanitarian efforts and threatening the
safety of those providing life-saving assistance.”

Following the killing of healthcare workers in Beirut overnight Wednesday,
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said
<https://x.com/JosepBorrellF/status/1841792911060410382> “I condemn this
violation of IHL [international humanitarian law].”

But condemnations will do little to protect paramedics and other health
workers targeted by Israel in Lebanon, especially as Matthew Miller, the US
State Department spokesperson, gave Israel the benefit of the doubt when it
comes to its attacks on hospitals during a press briefing
<https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-october-3-2024/>
on Thursday:
Paramedics in Lebanon interviewed by *The Guardian*
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/03/lebanese-healthcare-workers-fearful-as-growing-numbers-killed-in-strikes>
said there was a pattern of Israel launching airstrikes “whenever they
arrived at a location to start rescue operations.”

Rabih Issah, a commissioner with a medical organization active in south
Lebanon, said paramedics have received phone calls “with a voice speaking
Arabic on the other end, warning them to evacuate their medical centers,”
according to *The Guardian*.

Ghassan Abu Sitta <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ghassan-abu-sitta>,
a British-Palestinian plastic surgeon who worked in Gaza during the first
weeks of the genocide, told the UK publication that Israel was repeating in
Lebanon what it had done in Gaza.

“He said he was concerned that damaging the health system in south Lebanon
is part of an Israeli strategy to clear areas along the Lebanon-Israel
border of its inhabitants,” *The Guardian* reported.

Months earlier, Human Rights Watch published a report
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/07/israel-us-arms-used-strike-killed-lebanon-aid-workers>
stating it had documented the use of American weapons in Israel’s unlawful
attacks on aid workers in Lebanon.

The organization said at the time that the US “should immediately suspend
arms sales and military assistance to Israel” and called on Lebanon to
pursue war crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court.
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