US Struggles to Sway Israel on Its Treatment of Palestinians. Why Netanyahu Is Unlikely to Yield

US President Joe Biden listens to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he reads a statement in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, amid the battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
US President Joe Biden listens to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he reads a statement in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, amid the battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
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US Struggles to Sway Israel on Its Treatment of Palestinians. Why Netanyahu Is Unlikely to Yield

US President Joe Biden listens to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he reads a statement in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, amid the battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
US President Joe Biden listens to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he reads a statement in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, amid the battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)

President Joe Biden’s administration keeps pressing Israel to reengage with Palestinians as partners once fighting in Gaza is over and support their eventual independence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps saying no.

Even on actions to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians, the two allies are far apart.

That cycle, frustrating to much of the world, seems unlikely to end, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's fourth urgent diplomatic trip this week to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war started. Though the United States, as Israel’s closest ally and largest weapons supplier, has stronger means to apply pressure on Israel, it shows no willingness to use them.

For both Netanyahu and Biden, popular opinion at home and deep personal conviction in the rightness of Israel’s cause, and each man’s battle for his own short-term political survival, are all combining to make it appear unlikely that Netanyahu will yield much on the US demands regarding the Palestinians, or that Biden will get much tougher in trying to force them.

Support of Israel is a bedrock belief of many American voters. Biden's presidential reelection bid this year puts him up against Republicans vying to outdo one another in support for Israel. For his part, Netanyahu is fighting to stay in office in the face of corruption charges.

Some experts warn it's a formula that may lock the US into deeper military and security engagement in the Middle East as hostilities worsen and Palestinian civilians continue to suffer.

“It’s a self-defeating policy,” said Brian Finucane, a former policy adviser in the State Department on counterterrorism and the use of military force.

“What may be expedient in terms of short-term domestic politics may not be in the long-term interests of the United States,” said Finucane, who is now a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group research organization. “Particularly if it results in the United States involving itself in further unnecessary wars in the Middle East.”

The administration says Biden's approach of remaining Israel’s indispensable military ally and supporter is the best way to coax concessions from the often intractable Netanyahu, whose government ministers were trumpeting their rejection of some of the US requests even as Blinken was still in the region.

Since Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, the US has rushed arms and other aid to Israel, deployed forces to the region to confront escalated attacks by Hamas' Iran-backed allies, and quashed moves in the United Nations to condemn Israel's bombing of Palestinian civilians.

On Thursday US time, the same day Blinken was wrapping up his diplomatic mission, US warships and aircraft hit targets in Yemen, hoping to quell attacks that the country's Iran-allied Houthi militias have launched on commercial shipping in the Red Sea since Israel started its devastating offensive in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

American officials claim modest success for Blinken's latest diplomatic efforts. He secured limited, conditional support from Arab leaders and Türkiye for planning for reconstruction and governance in Gaza after the war ends. But prospects are uncertain because Israel’s far-right government is not on board with several key points.

The Biden administration has placed a particular premium on Israel reducing the number of civilian casualties in its military operations. The US urging seemed to have some effect in recent days, as Israel began to withdraw some troops from northern Gaza and moved to a less-intensive campaign of airstrikes.

Israel has been not just uncooperative, but also openly hostile toward some smaller American requests, such as when Blinken pressed Israel to turn over the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which Israel has refused to do.

“We will continue to fight with all of our might to destroy Hamas, and we will not transfer a shekel to the PA that will go to the families of Nazis in Gaza,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X, in a message welcoming Blinken to Israel on Tuesday.

But the biggest US disagreement with Israel has been with Netanyahu’s refusal to consider the creation of a Palestinian state. Arab states say a commitment on that point is essential to convincing them to participate in and contribute to postwar planning for Gaza.

Israelis and Americans are far apart on the matter.

The Palestinians have been divided politically and geographically since Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction, overran Gaza in 2007, leaving internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with self-rule over isolated enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The US wants Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to undergo administrative reforms before setting up a unified government in Gaza and the West Bank, as a precursor to statehood.

Blinken and his aides believe that Netanyahu — or his successor should Israel hold early elections — will eventually realize that Palestinian statehood is the key to Israel’s long-term security and accept it because it will have the effect of isolating Iran and its proxies, which are the biggest threat to Israel and the region.

“From Israel’s perspective, if you can have a future where they’re integrated into the region, relations are normalized with other countries, where they have the necessary assurances, commitments, guarantees for their security — that’s a very attractive pathway,” Blinken said in Cairo, his last stop. “But it’s also clear that that requires a pathway to a Palestinian state. We’ve heard that from every single country in the region.”

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, called Blinken's remarks “tone deaf.” For Israelis, the US push to revive negotiations for Palestinian statehood signals that American leaders haven't realized how Israeli public opinion has hardened on Palestinian issues over the years, and especially since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli public felt “hurt, insulted, fearful and concerned that this is the way our allies are talking,” Oren said.

Ultimately, he said, US and Israeli interests don't always converge. “At the end of the day, there’s a limit, because if (Biden) says stop, we’re not going to stop,” he said.

Israeli leaders know they’ll need to make some concessions to the United States, Oren said. Some they have already made, like letting limited amounts of fuel into the Gaza Strip, something Netanyahu adamantly refused to do in the early days of the war.

Biden has resisted calls from some in his Democratic Party to use US leverage with Israel, chiefly US military support, to try to force the issue.

The administration spoke out publicly against a move by some Democratic senators to tie US military aid to Israel to ensuring that Israel take more concrete steps to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. The administration says continuing to support Israel's defense is in the interests of US national security. Since then, it's twice declared emergencies to authorize new arms sales to Israel without Congress' OK.

Another attempt to pressure the Biden administration and Israel is expected next week, when Sen. Bernie Sanders plans a floor vote on compelling the State Department to tell Congress whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law.

The United States also has some real incentives to use in encouraging Israel to improve its treatment of Palestinians, including when it comes to steering Israel and Israeli popular opinion toward a long-term political resolution. Israel knows the US is likely to be key in rallying any Arab financial and political support for postwar Gaza, and to Israel's deep desire to normalize relations with Arab nations, said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer for the Washington-based Israel Policy Forum.

But few expect big changes under Netanyahu. And some are skeptics on Biden.

“Blinken has turned into a political analyst who talks about things that may or may not happen,” said Hani al-Masri, director-general of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies.

The Biden administration “seems helpless in the face of Netanyahu’s government,” al-Masri said. "What is happening in the case of Israel makes it seem as if it is not serious in all the positive statements it makes about the Palestinian state and Palestinian rights.”



Doctors and Moms Say Babies in Gaza May Die without More Formula, Blame Israel’s Blockade

 Seham Fawzy Khodeir watches her son, Hisham, who is just days old and was born prematurely, lying in an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP)
Seham Fawzy Khodeir watches her son, Hisham, who is just days old and was born prematurely, lying in an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP)
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Doctors and Moms Say Babies in Gaza May Die without More Formula, Blame Israel’s Blockade

 Seham Fawzy Khodeir watches her son, Hisham, who is just days old and was born prematurely, lying in an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP)
Seham Fawzy Khodeir watches her son, Hisham, who is just days old and was born prematurely, lying in an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP)

Seham Fawzy Khodeir watches as her son lies inside a dilapidated incubator and listens to his faint cry, mixed with the muted sound of the equipment.

The mother of six is increasingly concerned about the survival of Hisham al-Lahham, who was just days old, breathing with the help of equipment and being fed through a tube in his tiny nose.

Most alarming is that the medical-grade formula he needs to survive is running out.

"There is no milk," the 24-year-old mother told The Associated Press. He needs it to "to get better, to live and to see life."

Hisham is among 580 premature babies at risk of death from starvation across the war-battered Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Khodeir and others blame Israel’s blockade for the plight of their children. Doctors say that although some formula has been delivered, the situation is dire. Their desperation comes as the war in Gaza has been overshadowed by the Israel-Iran war.

"These babies have no time ... and no voice," said Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics department at Nasser Hospital, the main medical facility still partially functional in southern Gaza.

'An avoidable disaster'

Khodeir's son is one of 10 babies in incubators at Nasser's neonatal intensive care unit. Last week, al-Farah rang the alarm, saying the hospital’s stock of medical-grade formula was "completely depleted."

He said the tiny babies who relied on it would face "an avoidable disaster" in two to three days.

His pleas were answered, in part, by the delivery of 20 boxes of formula sent over the weekend by a US aid group, Rahma Worldwide. The new delivery is enough to cover the needs for the 10 infants for up to two weeks, al-Farah said.

Al-Farah, however, expressed concern about future deliveries, saying that it wasn’t guaranteed that more formula would be allowed into Gaza.

"This is not enough at all," he said. "It solved the problem temporarily, but what we need is a permeant solution: Lift the siege."

Meanwhile, fortified formula required for newborns is already out of stock at Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, its director, Dr. Jamil Suliman, said.

"Many mothers are unable to breastfeed due to severe malnutrition," he said, warning of a looming crisis.

Infants are among the hardest hit by Israel’s blockade, which started on March 2 with the complete ban of any food, water, shelter or medication.

Under mounting international pressure and repeated warnings of famine from the United Nations, Israel began allowing what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called "minimal" aid, starting May 19.

Since then, more than 1,000 tons of baby food, including formula, have entered Gaza, according to COGAT, the Israeli defense agency in charge of aid coordination in the Palestinian territory.

"Food for babies is certainly entering (the Gaza Strip), as the organizations are requesting it, we are approving it, and there is no withholding of food for babies," a COGAT spokesperson said.

But Gaza’s health officials say that for these babies, that aid hasn't included enough critical medicine, formula, medical equipment, and spare parts to keep the existing equipment operational.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said in a report Monday that fortified infant formula was nearly depleted from local markets, with several types already completely out of stock.

"Any limited quantities available in some pharmacies are being sold at skyrocketing prices, far beyond the purchasing power of most families," it said.

COGAT said the baby food is being distributed mostly through international organizations — not via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed private contractor that has drawn criticism from other groups. Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have opened fire on crowds heading to GHF sites. The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots.

Israel has defended its blockade

Israel has said the blockade aims to pressure Hamas into releasing the 50 hostages it still holds from its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that sparked the war. Fewer than half are still believed to be alive.

Israel has accused Hamas of siphoning aid, without providing evidence. The United Nations says there's been no significant diversion of aid.

Gunmen killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage on Oct. 7. Most of the hostages have been released by ceasefire agreements.

The war has unleashed unrelenting destruction, with more than 56,000 Palestinians killed and more than 131,00 wounded in Israel's offensive, according to Gaza health officials. The officials don't distinguish between combatants and civilians but say more than half the casualties are women and children.

The war and the blockade have sparked a humanitarian crisis, creating shortages of the most basic necessities and pushing Gaza’s health care system to the brink of collapse.

Seventeen of the enclave's 36 hospitals remain partially functioning, providing health care to more than 2 million people amid bombings, rising malnutrition rates and dwindling medical supplies.

"Starvation is increasing," said Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN's humanitarian affairs office for the occupied Palestinian territories. More than 110 children have been admitted for treatment for malnutrition every day since the start of this year, he said.

"Our warehouses stand empty while Israel restricts shipments to minimal quantities of mainly medical supplies and food," Whittall added.

A crisis at Gaza's hospitals

Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that all medical facilities in Gaza are operating in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions and have serious shortages of essential health care goods, including medicine and vaccines.

"Since the start of the hostilities in Gaza, women and girls are going through pregnancy lacking basic health care, sanitation, water, and food," said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. "They and their newborns are at constant risk of preventable death."

The Health Ministry has repeatedly warned that medical supplies and fuel were running out at hospitals, which use fuel-powered generators amid crippling power outages.

Whittall said hospitals were forced to ration the little fuel they have "to prevent a complete shutdown of more life-saving services."

"Unless the total blockade on fuel entering Gaza is lifted, we will face more senseless and preventable death," he said.

Nasser Hospital was forced to cut off electricity for some departments, despite the nonstop flow of patients, as part of a plan to save fuel, said Ismail Abu-Nimer, head of engineering and maintenance.

Supplies have been running out amid the influx of wounded people, many coming from areas close to aid distribution centers, said Dr. Mohammad Saqer, Nasser's director of nursing.

"The situation here is terrifying, immoral, and inhumane," he said.