Thursday, October 17, 2024

The US hopes Yahya Sinwar's death is the beginning of the end 

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The killing of October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar was confirmed by Israeli military officials on Thursday and quickly celebrated with a sigh of relief from the White House.

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released statements proclaiming the Palestinian militant leader a terrorist guilty of horrific crimes against both Israel and America.

And there was a clear sense that US officials were eager to jump on what they saw as the most significant positive development in the war-torn region of Gaza in a while to renew a push for the conflict to end.

Whether that push will have any success is another question. The Biden-Harris administration holds to the idea that Israel's government must accept the formation of a unified, sovereign Palestinian state which includes the currently occupied West Bank as well as Gaza, where tens of thousands are now dead after a savage year of fighting.

Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have vehemently rejected that outcome, publicly and privately. There's no immediate reason to think that will change — nor did US officials offer any reason why the US would suddenly see a change in cooperation from the far-right Netanyahu coalition government.

Israel's prime minister vowed on Thursday that his country's military assault on Gaza would continue until Hamas returned all hostages taken on October 7th.

At the State Department briefing, spokesman Matthew Miller characterized Sinwar as the key roadblock in the way of peace talks, while acknowledging that the Israeli government had important "decisions" to make regarding how to end the conflict.

 "Of course, there will be tough decisions that the Israelis will need to make to get an agreement to end this war, and we have made clear any number of times that we will have very direct, candid conversations about the need to make those tough decisions. But we weren't even in a place to do that when you have no one at the other end of the table willing to even agree to negotiate."

"We're now in a different place."

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By John Bowden.

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Daily briefing

Harris and Biden each respond to death of 'terrorist' Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

Joe Biden says the slain Hamas leader was guilty of 'unspeakable savagery' as the State Department promises to 'redouble' ceasefire talk efforts following the death of Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli operation, John Bowden reports

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