Rubio backs Israel in goal to eradicate Hamas
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting in Jerusalem on Sept 15.
PHOTO: EPA
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JERUSALEM – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sept 15 backed Israel’s new offensive on Gaza City
Mr Rubio showed no daylight between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Jerusalem, despite US President Donald Trump chiding Israel a week earlier for carrying out air strikes on Hamas leaders in US partner Qatar.
“The people of Gaza deserve a better future, but that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated,” Mr Rubio told reporters at a joint press conference with Mr Netanyahu.
“You can count on our unwavering support,” he said.
Mr Rubio also took a dim view of the Qatari-brokered negotiations for a ceasefire, despite Mr Trump last month predicting an end to the war within weeks.
He called Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel
“As much as we may wish that there be a sort of a peaceful, diplomatic way to end it, and we’ll continue to explore and be dedicated to it, we also have to be prepared for the possibility that that’s not going to happen,” Mr Rubio said.
He will travel to Doha on Sept 16, the State Department said, to “reaffirm America’s full support” for the Gulf state’s sovereignty – words he did not use in front of Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Trump told reporters in Washington that Mr Netanyahu “won’t be hitting in Qatar” again
Qatar is home to the largest US air base in the region and has assiduously courted Mr Trump, including with a gift of a luxury plane
‘Greatest friend’ of Israel
Israel has launched a major new military campaign aimed at seizing Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre, where the United Nations determined last month a million people were facing famine
Israeli strikes killed another 49 people on Sept 15, many of them in Gaza City, the civil defence agency reported.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
Mr Netanyahu said Mr Rubio’s visit was a “clear message” the US stood with Israel, and called Mr Trump “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had”.
Mr Rubio’s visit comes a week before France will lead a UN summit
Mr Rubio called statehood recognition, which is fervently opposed by Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing government, “largely symbolic” and alleged that it “emboldened” Hamas to take a hard line.
“It’s actually hurting the cause they think they’re furthering,” Mr Rubio said.
Mr Netanyahu warned that Israel may take unspecified “unilateral steps” in response to recognition of a Palestinian state.
Far-right members of Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet have called for annexation of the West Bank
The October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed more than 64,900 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Mr Rubio met privately with hostages’ families, who have campaigned hard for their release.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Controversial tunnel
In a highly symbolic step, Mr Rubio had attended the inauguration of a tunnel for religious tourists
Mr Fakhri Abu Diab, 63, a community spokesman in Silwan, said Mr Rubio should instead come to see homes, such as his own, that have been demolished by Israel in what Palestinians charge is a targeted campaign to erase them.
“Instead of siding with international law, the United States is going the way of extremists and the far right and ignoring our history,” he said.
The inauguration was closed to the press, but Mr Rubio, a devout Catholic, wrote on X that the so-called Pilgrimage Road reflected an “enduring cultural and historical bond between the United States and Israel” and the “Judeo-Christian values that inspired America’s founding fathers”.
Mr Rubio also began his visit on Sept 14 in the Old City by joining Mr Netanyahu at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray, and calling Jerusalem the “eternal capital” of Israel.
Until Mr Trump’s first term, US leaders had shied away from such overt statements backing Israeli sovereignty over contested Jerusalem, which is also holy to Muslims and Christians. AFP
