A large-scale confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah is likely to break out in the next several weeks if Jerusalem and Hamas fail to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, U.S. intelligence indicates.
U.S. officials are trying to convince both sides to deescalate — a task that would be significantly easier with a cease-fire in place in Gaza.
But that agreement is in tense negotiations and U.S. officials are not confident Israel and Hamas will agree to the deal on the table in the near future. Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah have drafted battle plans and are in the process of trying to procure additional weapons, according to two senior U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence.
Both sides have publicly said they do not want to go to war, but senior Biden officials increasingly believe that intense fighting is likely to break out despite efforts to try and prevent it.
The risk is higher now than at any other point in recent weeks, according to another senior U.S. official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive intelligence.A war between Israel and Hezbollah could ignite a conflict that forces the U.S. to help defend Jerusalem and pushes the Biden administration to engage more deeply in a region it has for years tried to leave.
It also risks another humanitarian disaster, punching the aid community at a time when it is already stretched thin and trying to manage the crisis in Gaza.
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Back in the post-9/11 Bush years I couldn’t conceive of an administration with less concern for Middle Eastern lives, let alone a Democratic one
Biden is going to lose the Arab/Muslim vote Dems for an entire generation. I don’t think anyone realizes what a profound shift that is
@HumbleDotterelGreen2yrs2Y
“The logic of Nasrallah … is that it is all tied to Gaza, and until there is a cease-fire in Gaza the firing at Israel won’t stop,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Wednesday. “We frankly, completely reject this logic.”
There is a deep, catastrophic, intentional stupidity in the Biden White House that is going to tear the entire Middle East apart.
@DunbirdEllieSocialist2yrs2Y
america and israel have to present hezbollah, ansarallah, and hamas as nihilist terror groups who bomb and kill irrationally and can’t be reasoned with. otherwise you’d have to confront their actual motives and objectives. can’t do that!
It's funny how on the last decades the US foreign relations tradition of Realism(knowing your adversaries thinking and desires, to stir them in the right direction) was changed to a tradition called "wishful thinking and believing our own propaganda".
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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