One of Israel’s most distinguished columnists, who had served as foreign policy and political advisor to former Prime Ministers of Israel, Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres, has said, “Israel’s fragility is at 10 out of 10.”
Alon Pinkas has also explicitly said that US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel will provide Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an excuse he needs to avoid taking tough action. He also stressed on the importance of Israel abiding by the rules of war and conducting its operations in a way that minimises civilian casualties.
He suggested that Prime Minister Netanyahu has a tradition of talking tough and then blaming others for not being able to fulfil his promises or threats. In this instance, the American president will provide the occasion and opportunity [to Netanyahu] for backing out of the tough action he has up until now promised.
In a 28-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Pinkas said he believes there is credible evidence to accept that last night’s bombing of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, which allegedly killed around 500 people, was not the responsibility of the Israeli Defence Forces but the result of a failed rocket launch by the Islamic jihad. While saying this, he cited Al Jazeera, who he said have a correspondent who saw the failed rocket launch hit the hospital. Afterwards The Wire discovered this was possibly based on a tweet which is fake news. Al Jazeera does not have a correspondent who reported she saw the Islamic jihad rocket misfire.
This interview was recorded minutes before President Biden arrived in Israel and also minutes after the Israeli Defence Forces’ press conference conducted by their spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, ended.
Pinkas criticised both the Palestinian President and King Abdullah of Jordan for refusing to meet President Biden, and for cancelling the Jordan summit. He said that this is far from being a setback for the American president; it’s a serious mistake made by the two Arab leaders.
He does not believe the likelihood of either Hezbullah or Iran getting involved in the conflict and, therefore, the danger of the conflict spreading further in the region is not imminent.