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Former US Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, spoke to DW about US diplomatic engagement in the crisis, saying the US can be instrumental in pressuring Israelis to avoid inflicting large numbers of innocent Palestinian casualties.
Feierstein, who also worked as a diplomat in Israel and is now with an NGO based in Washington DC, said the US is engaged in both trying to deter any participation by Hezbollah or Iran in the conflict while also expressing “a great deal of concern about the humanitarian situation inside of Gaza.”
“The announcement by the Israelis that they were restoring water to the southern Gaza area, and also, of course, the intense diplomatic engagement with both the Israelis and the Egyptians to try to get relief supplies in” were examples of the US getting results in its diplomatic efforts, Feierstein said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv for his second visit in less than a week. He’s scheduled to meet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, along with the Israeli war cabinet.
Feierstein warned that Israel’s stated objective in Gaza, namely eliminating Hamas’ leadership and structures, could prove very difficult to achieve, based on recent US experiences against Islamist militants.
“We, of course, in 2001, thought that we were going to eliminate al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is still there. We’ve said that we’re going to eliminate ISIS. ISIS is still there. These kinds of organizations don’t get eliminated. There is no military solution to this, to this situation,” Feierstein said.
“And of course, the more that the Israelis are responsible for, you know, for indiscriminate military action, the more deeply embedded these organizations become within the population. So it’s a situation where the harder you try, often the worse the outcome,” he added.
Feierstein said Israel should be cautious to “leave room” for future talks “not with Hamas, but with Palestinians,” that would hopefully lead to “a permanent, sustainable peace.”
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