After a sobering trip to #Kyiv, Secy of State Antony J. #Blinken is urging #POTUS#Biden to lift some restrictions on how Ukraine can use American arms.
#Israel has agreed to daily, 4-hour pauses in operations inside #Gaza to allow more #civilians to leave the northern part of the enclave & facilitate an increase in #HumanitarianAid entering from #Egypt, the #WhiteHouse said Thurs. The pauses are to begin “today,” #NSC spox #JohnKirby said.
#BarackObama offered a complex analysis of the conflict between #Israel & #Hamas, telling thousands of former aides that they were all “complicit to some degree” in the current bloodshed.
And then came the longer-term concerns, something #Israel, in its immediate #rage, seemed less interested in contemplating: If you succeed in destroying #Hamas, what will you do w/ #Gaza? And what will happen to your hopes — & ours — for broader #MiddleEast#peace?
#Biden reminded the Israelis of the “mistakes” the #UnitedStates had made as it struck out in fury after the #alQaeda attacks in Sept 2001….
At a news conference before his departure, #Austin firmly took #Israel’s side, saying that after the attacks, “this is no time for neutrality or for false equivalence or for excuses for the inexcusable.”
But he called for calm in the days ahead.
“This is a time for resolve & not revenge, for purpose & not panic, & for security & not surrender.”