Blinken leaves Mid-East with ceasefire intact; aid uncertain
Vows to help in funding but US stance is Gaza rebuilding must be with authority, not Hamas
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A Palestinian dressed as a clown entertains a child amid the ruins of a building destroyed during recent Israeli bombing in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AMMAN (Jordan) • A fragile cease-fire remains intact, but the work to rebuild after the short but deadly war between Israel and Hamas has just begun, the top American diplomat said on Wednesday at the close of a Middle East trip intended to keep simmering tensions from erupting anew.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was returning to Washington from the brief but urgent visit with new promises to help fund a massive humanitarian and reconstruction effort in the Gaza Strip, pockets of which were decimated during 11 days of hostilities between Hamas, the militant group that controls the area, and Israel.
Following meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan - two Arab neighbours of Israel that have influence with Palestinians in Israel and in the occupied West Bank - Mr Blinken said he would reach out to other nations in the region "to ensure we all contribute to recovery, stability and the reduction of tensions".
He said Egypt had offered to contribute US$500 million (S$662 million) to rebuild Gaza, and noted Jordan's "vital role" in working with the Palestinian Authority - Hamas' political rival - in the West Bank.
"We see the ceasefire not as an end, but as a beginning - something to build on," Mr Blinken told journalists in Amman, shortly after meeting King Abdullah II of Jordan.
But the path forward could stretch indefinitely without a clear resolution. Past efforts to rebuild Gaza, and lift its 2 million residents from dire poverty and instability, have failed.
Although the United States is shepherding the latest donor drive and has contributed US$360 million in humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians, control of such aid is part of a long-running power struggle between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
President Joe Biden has said reconstruction must be in partnership with the authority, not Hamas. And Israeli leaders have said they will resist contributing to an aid package unless the Palestinian Authority stops cooperating with an International Criminal Court investigation of war crimes in territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Following a Wednesday discussion with Mr Blinken in Jerusalem, President Reuven Rivlin of Israel, said enduring relations with the US "allow us also to agree not to agree, from time to time".
Mr Blinken had to carefully navigate the unsavoury aspects of partnering with unpredictable allies or other leaders with whom the US is often at odds.
Even as he was commending Egypt for persuading Hamas to accept the ceasefire, Mr Blinken said he pursued "a lengthy exchange" with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi over human rights abuses committed on his watch.
In Jordan, Mr Blinken assured King Abdullah of support after several uneasy years during which Washington's relationship with Amman was largely put on a back burner, overshadowed by former president Donald Trump's emphatic embrace of Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netan-yahu. "We'll have a lot of work to do together," Mr Blinken said.
Mr Blinken has played down expectations that new peace talks could be on the horizon and, over two days of diplomatic talks, he generally steered clear of predicting that the ceasefire would hold.
Instead, he insisted on focusing on supplying emergency aid to Gaza as a first, if halting, step to a broader stability. "That's where you try to build hope as well as opportunity," Mr Blinken told journalists.
NYTIMES