Israel is taking the next steps to defeat Hamas, amid differences with Washington over the course of the war — fought to defend Israel’s existence — as well with the U.S. government’s moves across the Middle East.
In the year and a half since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas death squads carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the Tehran-backed group continues to deliberately use civilians — including women and children — as human shields. It’s been launching attacks from hospitals, schools and residential shelters to advance its unchanged reactionary objective: destroying Israel and eliminating the Jews who live there.
After several weeks of protests by thousands of Palestinians in Gaza demanding Hamas step down, since May 1 there have been no reported actions. Hamas thugs have been beating, torturing and shooting those they accuse of being “outlaws” or “thieves,” and posting videos of their brutality as a warning to all who oppose their Nazi-like rule.
Israel gave Hamas a deadline to release 10 of the remaining hostages in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire, or face a stepped-up offensive, expected to begin after President Donald Trump completes his Mideast visit. Israeli forces now control at least 40% of the territory.
“Israel is prolonging the war, even though we do not see where further progress can be made,” U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steven Witkoff claimed when he met family members of some of the hostages seized by Hamas, Israel Channel 12 reported May 11.
That is the same stance as the Joseph Biden administration, which repeatedly demanded Israel halt the war in Gaza, leaving Hamas intact.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated May 13 his government’s position that “there will be no situation where we stop the war” until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages released.
Israel expendable to U.S. rulers
The concern of the U.S. government — no matter which party holds the White House — is that continued fighting interferes with advancing the economic and political interests of the U.S. capitalist rulers in the region. Washington sees defense of Israel as subordinate to U.S. imperialist interests and the Jews as expendable.
That was starkly clear in Trump’s announcement May 6 of a ceasefire deal with the Houthis, just two days after a Houthi missile made it through Israeli air defenses and exploded near the Ben Gurion International Airport.
Washington agreed to stop bombing Houthi targets in Yemen and the Houthis, a reactionary, Jew-hating group backed by Tehran, promised it won’t target U.S. ships in the Red Sea. But not a word about Houthi attacks on Israel. And the fact is there haven’t been any Houthi attacks on ships in the last six months.
Washington didn’t even inform Israeli leaders in advance of the announcement. Michael Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, told the press, “The United States isn’t required to get permission from Israel” to protect U.S. ships.
Whatever Washington’s intentions, the deal gives the Houthis — and Tehran — the green light to keep attacking Israel. Since then the Houthis have continued to fire drones and missiles. As of May 14 no more have succeeded in striking Israel.
Trump wants ‘stability for America’
On May 13 Trump headed to Saudi Arabia accompanied by top U.S. business executives. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are the next stops.
Before his arrival the Qatari rulers announced they had contracted to buy as many as 210 planes from Boeing.
Trump announced that he had negotiated a deal to sell the Saudi Kingdom nearly $142 billion in military equipment from U.S. companies and hundreds of billions in other lucrative contracts.
In a speech in Riyadh, Trump said it’s “my job to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity and peace.”
While in Riyadh, Trump met with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Trump announced he was lifting U.S. sanctions that had effectively cut Syria out of the international banking system and exacerbated the challenges facing working people there.
No nuclear weapons for Tehran
One of the Israeli government’s most serious concerns is Washington’s ongoing negotiations with the Iranian regime.
Trump says, “They can’t have a nuclear weapon,” while Tehran vows that it will never give up nuclear enrichment, although it says it would accept temporary “restrictions on the level and volume of enrichment.” In fact, that was the framework of the deal the Barack Obama administration agreed to with Tehran that was harshly criticized at the time by Trump. But any enrichment keeps Tehran on the road toward the capacity to produce nuclear weapons.
“Trump’s patience with Netanyahu is running out: The US is pursuing its own objectives and cutting Israel out of dealmaking with Iran and Saudi Arabia,” notes a May 13 headline in the London Financial Times.
A key objective in cementing U.S. imperialism’s relations with governments in the Gulf is to block any advance by Beijing, Washington’s biggest rival. That’s also part of what motivates the White House in seeking a deal with Tehran.
The stakes are high. The Middle East, home to hundreds of millions of people, has close to a quarter of the world’s oil and gas deposits.
Netanyahu wants the support of U.S. imperialism. But as long as Hamas is entrenched in Gaza, and Tehran has the potential to obtain nuclear weapon capability, he knows Jews in Israel could face a new Holocaust. He says he’ll do what’s needed to prevent that.
“Israel must be able to defend itself by its own forces against any threat and any enemy,” Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said May 8. “This was true facing many challenges in the past, and will also be true in the future.”