Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that once the war is over, Gaza should be united with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. In doing so, he sends a strong signal about what the United States sees as its preferred endgame in the struggle between Israel and Hamas.
The message, delivered at a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo, came as President Biden feels growing pressure to use his power to pursue long-term, sustainable goals in the region and minimize civilian casualties. But the United States and Israel are increasingly showing signs that their interests are diverging.
Mr. Blinken’s comments on Wednesday reflect deep concern among Mr. Biden and his White House aides as the conflict enters its second month. What began in the days after October 7 as an unequivocal rush to defend an ally has become a much more complicated diplomatic challenge for the president to help define an alternative to an open-ended war in the Middle East .
Mr. Biden wields significant influence as a world leader with strong ties to Israel, and his administration has sought to rally Arab countries and others behind a vision that looks beyond the fighting and deep emotions that have divided the region for years.
On Wednesday, Mr. Blinken said there must be “affirmative elements to achieve lasting peace.”
“This must include the voices and aspirations of the Palestinian people at the heart of post-Gaza crisis governance,” he said. “It must include a Palestinian-led administration and unite Gaza with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”
Mr. Blinken did not provide details on how such an arrangement might be implemented; it would not be a short-term solution as violence continues. But it would not be easy to restore the Palestinian Authority – which controls parts of the West Bank – to power in Gaza, even if Israel were to succeed in ending Hamas’ rule. Its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is deeply unpopular. Many Palestinians view him as corrupt and say his efforts to gain independence through peace talks have failed.
“We don’t have it all figured out at this point,” John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said on CNN on Wednesday. “And I don’t know that it would be reasonable to think that at this particular point, a month into the conflict, we could do that. But we know it has to be something different than under Hamas.”
In the hours and days after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,400 people, Mr. Biden fully embraced Israel’s right to respond, a position that White House officials still often repeat.
But as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, Mr. Biden has sought to balance his support for Israel with calls for the protection of Palestinian non-combatants and for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting.
Another possible split emerged this week, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel suggested his country could take on a security role in Gaza “indefinitely” after the end of the war. Mr. Kirby responded by saying that a reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces “is not the right thing to do.”
In his comments on Wednesday, Mr Blinken made no mention of the presence of Israeli forces still in Gaza, home to about 2 million Palestinians.
Mr Biden has also come under pressure from some within the Democratic Party, which is deeply divided over the conflict. On Wednesday, the majority of the Senate Democratic caucus signed a letter asking Mr. Biden to ensure that Israel has a viable plan to defeat Hamas and will use U.S. military aid in accordance with international law.
Veterans of the often contentious diplomacy between the leaders of Israel and the United States said the willingness of the president and secretary of state to be publicly critical of Israel is a response to that dissatisfaction with Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.