Tag: Antony Blinken

The Biden-Blinken Rules of War for Israel
Business

The Biden-Blinken Rules of War for Israel

War is back against Hamas, but will the Biden Administration let Israel win? Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered the bad news to Jerusalem before the truce ended: He wants Israel on a short leash.Hamas fired rockets at Israel Friday morning, in violation of the pause, and failed to produce the remaining female hostages to trade for more time and terrorists. It also claimed that its last child hostages, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother, Ariel, are dead.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Israel, Hamas Agree to Extend Truce for Another Day
World

Israel, Hamas Agree to Extend Truce for Another Day

Updated Nov. 30, 2023 7:17 pm ETListen to article(2 minutes)TEL AVIV—Israel and Hamas agreed to extend a temporary truce in Gaza for an eighth day, Egyptian officials said Thursday, in a deal that is expected to involve the release of another 10 hostages, mostly women and children.Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the region, where he urged Israelis to extend the pause and reduce civilian casualties if the fighting resumes. Blinken called for a civilian “protection plan” that halts displacing Palestinians and designates safe spaces including hospitals and other critical infrastructure.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Threat of a Post-Hamas Palestinian State
World

The Threat of a Post-Hamas Palestinian State

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s list of “Nos” and “Musts” for postwar Gaza and Israel ranges from impractical to much worse (“The Day After Israeli Victory,” Review & Outlook, Nov. 13).Especially misguided is his push for the creation of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians were already given a territory, the Gaza Strip, on which they could have built a state. Instead they turned it into a cesspit of terrorism, murder and oppression. The corrupt Palestinian Authority also sponsors terrorism and anti-Semitism. Based on this track record, the Palestinians do not deserve a state of their own.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Iraq’s Delicate Balancing Act With Iran and the U.S.
Health

Iraq’s Delicate Balancing Act With Iran and the U.S.

BaghdadWith the Gaza war threatening to spiral into a wider Middle East conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad, where he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani. Mr. Sudani faces the delicate task of balancing his country’s ties between America and Iran and stopping Iran-aligned militias from attacking U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in Iraq. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Uncivil Servants: Foreign Policy Bureaucrats Target Israel
Business

Uncivil Servants: Foreign Policy Bureaucrats Target Israel

The Biden administration faces a wave of internal dissent against its support of Israel. On Nov. 14, more than 500 staff members and political appointees from about 40 government agencies sent a joint letter to President Biden criticizing his administration’s policy on the Gaza war, according to the New York Times.It was the latest of several protest letters. The Times reported that the administration has received similar messages, including three internal memos addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a letter “signed” by more than 1,000 employees of the Agency for International Development. The State Department requires that employees sign their names to dissent cables, but the other two letters have no signatures. The Times reported that these government employees wrote anony...
The Day After Israeli Victory
World

The Day After Israeli Victory

While Israel focuses on winning the war against Hamas, the U.S. has been pressing for commitments on what will come next. Speaking in Tokyo last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out five “Nos”: “No forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. . . . No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks. No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza.”If only the Biden Administration had that many red lines for Iran. The Secretary of State might also recall that the postwar U.S. occupations of Japan and Germany continued into the 1950s and included territorial adjustments.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Blinken Seeks to Balance Aid for Palestinian Civilians Against Israeli Self-Defense
World

Blinken Seeks to Balance Aid for Palestinian Civilians Against Israeli Self-Defense

RAMALLAH, West Bank—Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked to assure Palestinian leaders that the U.S. is committed to helping Palestinian civilians and was met with a demand for an immediate cease-fire in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Blinken’s unannounced Sunday visit to the West Bank, to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, came hours after an Israeli airstrike hit a refugee camp in Gaza, killing at least 38 people according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. Israeli officials didn’t immediately comment on the explosion at the Al Maghazi refugee camp.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Antony Blinken Met With Officials Opposing U.S. Gaza Policy
Politics

Antony Blinken Met With Officials Opposing U.S. Gaza Policy

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with a group of State Department officials who are involved in formal dissents over President Joe Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, according to one current and one former State Department official.The previously unreported meeting took place on Oct. 26, said the former official, who left the State Department several years ago. It came amid huge internal frustration at State over the sense that Biden has disregarded officials’ national security expertise and circumvented normal consultation processes in his focus on demonstrating support to Israel.A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting beyond saying “the Secretary meets with colleagues regularly including those who may have dissenting views.”Department spokesper...
An Israeli ‘Pause’ Would Help Hamas
Business

An Israeli ‘Pause’ Would Help Hamas

President Biden has been stalwart in backing Israel’s right to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 massacre. But a political backlash is growing, in the Democratic Party and abroad, to rein in Israel before it can achieve its military objectives. Is the Administration’s support beginning to crack?Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Israel Friday to deliver a mixed message: Defeat Hamas—“there cannot and must not be a return to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo”—but pause the fighting and think about a two-state solution for Palestinians “not tomorrow, not after the war, but today.”Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Israel Faces Growing International Pressure to Pause Gaza Strikes
World

Israel Faces Growing International Pressure to Pause Gaza Strikes

Listen to article(2 minutes)International pressure for a cease-fire or pause in Israeli strikes in Gaza grew Friday as hospitals in the enclave began to run out of fuel and displaced Palestinians struggled to find clean drinking water.Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday morning arrived in Israel, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was expected to raise the issue of a pause in fighting, among other measures, U.S. officials said. Before leaving Washington, Blinken said that, in conversations with Israeli officials, he would address “concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimize harm to men, women and children in Gaza.”Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8