The United States strongly supports Israel in its war against Hamas, but is increasingly at odds with its Middle East ally over what will happen to the Gaza Strip once the war winds down.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this week announced that Israel would retain an open-ended security presence in Gaza. Israeli officials talk of imposing a buffer zone to keep Palestinians away from the Israeli border. They rule out any role for the Palestinian Authority, which was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007 but governs semi-autonomous areas of the occupied West Bank.

The United States has laid out a much different vision. Top officials have said they will not allow Israel to reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory. They have repeatedly called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

These conflicting visions have set the stage for difficult discussions between Israel and the U.S.

  • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
    151·
    1 year ago

    The US could end this quickly if they wanted to by just threatening to take away support. Where would Israel be without the iron dome?

    • SlikPikker
      1·
      1 year ago

      No, they couldn’t.

      That would lead Israel to realign to either China or to another NATO power.

      Then maybe share their US tech with them.

    • Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      Well…without a reliable way to stop the rockets shooting into Israel, I guess they’d have to make sure the rockets aren’t launched in the first place.

      So yeah, they’d probably step up the war, only now with the explicit objective of wiping out all of Gaza since it’s the only way they can prevent attacks.

      Israel is VERY aware that support might disappear for them someday. That’s the entire point of the nation, so that Jews, who have been persecuted for over two thousand years, do not need to rely on the benevolence of others to defend them. They have their own munitions stockpiles and factories and are themselves an advanced technological nation, not dependent on the US to fight Hamas. They are perfectly capable of wiping out the Gaza strip without outside assistance.

      Plus, your question is based on a false premise anyway. Iron Dome is a system invented, developed, designed, and built in Israel. The US did put some money into it, but not an amount Israel could not have. So without US aid, Israel would be somewhat worse off, but overall totally fine.