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Israeli and US Interests on War and Ceasefires Do Not Align
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken disembarks from an aircraft as he arrives in Israel, as the push for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel continues, in Tel Aviv, March 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Despite claims to the contrary, a significant divergence between the security interests of Israel and the United States has developed in recent months.
President Joe Biden and his top aides have spent months relentlessly trying to bring Israel and Hamas to a long-term ceasefire via a hostage release agreement and to push for an “end to the war.” Despite the US’ official position, the motivation for this intense effort is broader than a desire to bring the hostages home. The US wants to bring Israel to a ceasefire because it views Gaza as the key to deescalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Washington wants to avert a war that could draw in Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran, as that conflict could in turn draw the US itself into the fighting.
The White House administration therefore perceives Gaza as the key to regional de-escalation — but that view fails to address Israel’s need to ensure sustained freedom of operation in Gaza to prevent Hamas from regrouping. It also ignores Hezbollah’s massive military-terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon and 11-month assault on Israel as well as the alarmingly advanced Iranian nuclear program, which is intended by Tehran to provide a nuclear umbrella to protect the whole of the jihadist Iranian axis.
While the US has played a vital role in coordinating and taking part in defensive operations that have greatly benefited Israel, particularly during the April 14 Iranian missile and UAV attack on Israel, and has played an essential role in supplying Israel with war munitions, it has no desire to be drawn into sustained offensive operations against Iran. It is operating accordingly in line with this strategic agenda.
American efforts are therefore far from fully aligned with Israel’s interests, as they apply a “band-aid” approach that would leave festering threats in place. The ongoing threat from Lebanon would be allowed to continue, and an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza would all but guarantee a Hamas regrouping and a renewed Iranian-backed force build-up in Gaza.
It is perfectly legitimate for close allies to have divergent interests and to manage these disagreements, but some transparency regarding this situation would be beneficial.
For example, CNN reported on September 5, 2024, that a prospective hostage and ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was 90% completed, citing senior US administration officials. These statements minimized the large gaps that remain between the two sides and the fact that Hamas continues to demand a full Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza.
(This essay will not go into the hostage deal proposals themselves, which warrant a separate analysis).
In the same report, a senior Biden administration official stated, “We still see this deal, this very complex but necessary arrangement, as really the most viable, perhaps the only viable option for saving the lives of the hostages, stopping the war, bringing immediate relief to Gazans, and also making sure we fully account for Israel’s security.”
On September 1, The Washington Post cited a US official as stating, “You can’t keep negotiating this. This process has to be called at some point.”
The US fears that a failure to reach a ceasefire in Gaza will tip the Lebanese arena into full-scale war, which in turn could activate Iran via missile and drone attacks. This series of events could draw the US into the conflict. US bases in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere are vulnerable to attack by Iran and its proxies, and a Middle Eastern war involving the US military is deemed by Washington to be a political negative (whether it is an election year or not).
This concern is likely a primary motivator for US policy in the region, and a significant reason behind American impatience over the stalled talks.
In a reflection of this motivation, American officials have released statements at almost every step of the war in Gaza designed to cast doubt on Israel’s ability to deal with Hamas, as well as Israel’s ability to militarily take on Hezbollah.
For example, US officials were quoted by CNN on June 20 as expressing “serious concerns” that in the event of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah, the latter could overwhelm Israel’s air defenses in the north. “We assess that at least some Iron Dome batteries will be overwhelmed,” said a senior administration official.
This assessment is largely self-evident and not in serious dispute. There appears to be no purpose to its release to the public by American officials other than the overall goal of pressuring Israel into a Gaza ceasefire.
In May, the IDF announced that it had succeeded in evacuating around a million Palestinians from Rafah. This was despite a major American pressure campaign designed to avert the Rafah operation that included the withholding of American arms shipments to Israel (including 2,000-pound bombs, which affects Israel’s posture against Hezbollah).
On May 12, CNN reported that top American officials “offered stark warnings” against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city “would lead to widespread civilian casualties, spark a Hamas insurgency and create a power vacuum the terror group would later seek to fill.”
Going “headlong into Rafah” could have dire consequences, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned prior to the offensive. “Israel’s on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas,” Blinken told NBC at the time. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also warned at the time that the Israeli operation would lead to “really significant civilian casualties” while still being unlikely to eliminate Hamas. President Biden issued similar warnings prior to the Rafah operation.
Yet the extreme consequences they warned about failed to materialize due to Israel’s ability to evacuate the Gazan population from Rafah. And in any case, how leaving Hamas intact in Rafah would have solved the concerns raised by the US remains unclear.
The goal behind all these statements appears to have been the same: to create pressure on Israel to enter into a ceasefire, even if that meant leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.
Washington is taking a similar approach to the northern front. On June 28, US defense officials were quoted by Middle East Eye as stating that an Israeli ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon could “further ignite Iran’s allies in the region and cement Tehran’s military cooperation with Russia.”
It is, however, possible to argue that the US’ own attempt to contain Iran has emboldened it and the IRGC’s region-wide terror-promoting elements, thereby also boosting Iran’s ally, Russia, which has become deeply dependent on Iranian firepower in its war against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the US has been involved in a series of failed efforts, led by mediator Amos Hochstein, involving talks with the formal Lebanese government (which holds no power whatsoever over Hezbollah). The goal is to create a diplomatic off-ramp for the northern conflict. Yet none of these efforts contain any clear proposed enforcement mechanism of UN Security Resolution 1701, which bans Hezbollah from being militarily active in southern Lebanon.
UN Security Resolution 1701 allegedly came into effect upon the conclusion of the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Yet Hezbollah spent the intervening 18 years turning some 200 southern Lebanese villages into Iranian-backed military-terror bases and building up a firepower arsenal larger than that of most NATO armies. It did this with no pushback from the UN whatsoever and no attempts to enforce the resolution.
For months, American officials have expressed alarm over prospects of full-scale war with Hezbollah and leaked assessments that cast doubt on Israel’s capabilities, similar to American assessments of IDF capabilities in Gaza.
As long ago as January 7, The Washington Post reported that “Israel’s talk of expanding war to Lebanon alarms [the] US.” The report contained references to “an American intelligence assessment” that found that it would be “difficult for Israel to succeed in a war against Hezbollah amid ongoing fighting in Gaza.” The target audience of those reports could well have been the Israeli public itself.
More recently, an American official was quoted by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid as saying that a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah could have “catastrophic and unforeseen consequences,” as Israel would need to shift growing numbers of military units from the Gaza front to the Lebanese border and Hezbollah would continue to bombard northern Israel and keep 60,000 Israelis internally displaced.
While an open discussion about the dangers of a full-scale war against Hezbollah and potentially Iran is welcome, there is little reason to continue to pretend that American and Israeli security interests in the Middle East are identical. The US long ago decided to seek de-escalation as its primary goal. Israelis should think twice before automatically accepting the claim that Washington’s regional agenda and public statements always promote Israel’s own critical security needs.
Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He provides insight and analysis for a number of media outlets, including Jane’s Defense Weekly and JNS.org.A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
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US Says That Israel Accepts Gaza Ceasefire Plan; Hamas Cool to It
A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
Israel has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza, the White House said on Thursday, and Hamas said it was reviewing the plan although its terms did not meet the Palestinian terrorist group’s demands.
As a US-backed system for distributing food aid in the war-torn enclave expanded, Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted a deal presented by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Netanyahu’s office did not confirm the reports, but White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in Washington that Israel had signed off on the proposal.
She did not detail its contents. But the New York Times quoted an Israeli official familiar with the proposal as saying the initial phase would include a 60-day ceasefire and humanitarian aid flowing through UN-run operations.
Hamas said it was studying the proposal, and senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group was still discussing it.
But Abu Zuhri said its terms echoed Israel‘s position and do not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops, or admit aid as Hamas has demanded.
Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March after only two months.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all 58 hostages still held in Gaza must be returned before it will agree to end the war.
Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to “sending out a new term sheet” about a ceasefire to the two sides in the conflict that has raged since October 2023.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict,” Witkoff said then.
Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that have normally been reluctant to criticize it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the devastating Hamas attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza.
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‘A Slap in the Face’: Chicago Venue Cancels Plans to Screen Documentary About Antisemitism for Second Time
Israeli-American rapper Kosha Dillz performs his new song “Bring the family home,” his response to Hamas’s attacks, in front of a Jewish bakery in lower Manhattan, US, Oct. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Aleksandra Michalska
A Chicago theater that canceled the screening of a documentary about campus antisemitism and then agreed to reschedule a showing has now made the final decision not to screen the film at its venue after facing harassment, it announced on Tuesday.
The Facets Film Forum, which operates the Facets arts theater in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, claimed in a statement that Israeli-American Jewish filmmaker and rapper Kosha Dillz and the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) – which helped organize the original screening that was canceled — have allegedly engaged in harassment against the venue, making it “impossible” for the Facets to move forward with a showing of “Bring the Family Home.” The documentary covers the rise of antisemitism on US college campuses after the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This is the first film directed by Kosha Dillz, whose real name is Rami Even-Esh, and it focuses largely on anti-Israel encampments and sentiments at DePaul University and Northwestern University. Facets is located down the street from DePaul.
A rough cut of “Bring the Family Home” was set to premiere at Facets on May 13, but mere hours before the screening, the venue canceled the event, citing safety and security concerns for its patrons and staff. After facing an abundance of criticism from Kosha Dillz, CJA, and their supporters, Facets agreed to work with the filmmaker to reschedule the screening for later this summer.
“Facets Film Forum respects the First Amendment, its protections of free speech and the right to express views through film,” Facets said in a statement on May 16. “We regret any unintended offense our decision to cancel a privately organized, public film screening caused the filmmaker, those seeking to attend the event, and members of our community who have experienced or witnessed oppression or discrimination in any form.”
However, this week the theater has backtracked on its decision to reschedule the screening, before it even announced a new date for the event.
“Rather than acknowledging the legitimacy of our concerns and decisions, CJA and the filmmaker, and individuals that appear to be their supporters, have engaged in harassing Facets,” the venue claimed. It alleged that supporters of the film were “vilifying” Facets in an email campaign targeting donors, arts groups, and others, and even shared “vicious” posts on social media “attacking Facets.” The posts allegedly included offers for a “bounty to anyone willing to burn down Facets’ building,” which Facets reported to authorities. The venue also claimed that supporters of “Bring the Family Home” recording a conversation with a Facets staff members without consent and then posted it online, sharing personal contact details.
CJA launched an email campaign earlier this month that urged its supporters to reach out to Facets about the cancellation on May 13. CJA claimed the venue called off the event “because of discomfort with Jewish visibility” and called the move “shameful” and “a disgrace.” Facets said on Tuesday that more than 2,500 emails were sent.
“Given these acts, we are ceasing any further discussions with CJA and Mr. Dillz. Facets will not tolerate harassment of its staff from any organization,” the theater said in the statement this week. “Facets will continue to remain committed to our mission and the safety of our staff and guests.”
Facets said that for five decades, it has “provided a safe space for the community to experience a vast variety of film perspectives.” The venue noted that it hosted an event as part of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema’s 20th Anniversary Celebration in March. Earlier this month, the theater also screened “No Other Land,” the Oscar-winning documentary that heavily criticizes Israel’s demolition of a village in the West Bank. “Bring the Family Home” was originally meant to be mentioned on the marquee outside of Facets along with “No Other Land,” said Kosha Dillz.
In its statement, Facets also listed three Jewish or Israel-themed movies that it has screened in the past, including “Come Closer,” “In Between,” and “Zone of Interest.” None of those films depict pro-Israel sentiments or a condemnation of antisemitism like “Bring the Family Home.”
Kosha Dillz told The Algemeiner on Thursday he cannot believe that he has been canceled twice by the same venue, which has not screened his film even once. “I was quite shocked,” he said. “It’s exhausting to deal with this for the second time. How can they cancel a film twice that hasn’t been shown once. To me, that’s just representative of what the Jewish community has to deal with.”
He also denied taking part in the alleged harassment that Facets claimed it faced, including the email campaign and calls online to burn down the venue.
“The 2,500 emails — those are people that aren’t related to me. I don’t know them. Obviously, they know me,” he noted. “They made it seem as if I was the one who rallied people to email them and take away their funding. That’s obviously not true.”
Even now, after Facets made the final decision not to screen “Bring the Family Home,” Kosha Dillz does not support efforts to attack the venue for the move.
“I don’t think bullying people who have gotten bullied makes sense. I don’t think that’s a win-win situation,” he explained. “I don’t believe in people ganging up on them. I just think they were bullied by other bullies.”
Kosha Dillz had multiple Zoom meetings and sent several emails back and forth with leaders at Facet to reschedule a screening of “Bring the Family Home,” hoping to find a new date for the event. Following the decision by Facets this week to call off all efforts for a screening, Kosha Dillz told The Algemeiner that he is upset but will now focus his time and energy on finding a new venue to screen the documentary.
“It’s called selective Jewishness,” he said of the move by Facets. “They are picking which voices they get to hear and they’re letting other people define it for them. I was the one who offered for them to make it good [after the initial cancellation] and they took me up on it and then, you know … it’s kind of a slap in the face. But the first time, shame on them. The second time, shame on me.”
On Wednesday, CJA released a statement on social media in response to Facets decision this week and also the allegations against the Jewish group.
“We objected, respectfully and publicly, to the theater’s sudden about-face. We sent emails. We asked questions. We defended a Jewish voice that refused to conform to the approved script. For that, they accused us of harassment,” CJA said. “If Facets believes in free speech, it must apply to Jews who are visible, assertive, and yes, Zionist. Anything less is not inclusion. It’s performance. We remain proud partners of ‘Bring the Family Home’ and of every Jewish artist who refuses to stay quiet just to stay included.”
CJA also accused Facets of “cultural exclusion” and “soft censorship,” making “endless excuses” and “shifting standards for what qualifies as ‘appropriate’ Jewish expression.”
CJA said “Bring the Family Home” will be shown in Chicago on June 22, but a venue has yet to be secured.
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‘Part of Our Commitment to the Palestinian People’: Anti-Israel Group Vandalizes Jewish-Owned Business in London
Vandals targeted a Jewish-owned real estate business in London on May 28-29, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
A Jewish-owned real estate business in London was vandalized by a radical anti-Israel group overnight on Wednesday into Thursday in an attack that local Jewish leaders called a “traumatic antisemitic targeting.”
Video shows two masked people dressed in all black smashing the windows of the business — which is located in Stamford Hill, a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood — and spraying it with red paint. Pictures in the aftermath of the vandalism show shattered glass and red paint all over the office, and other reports say computers and furniture were also wrecked.
Last night in London’s Stamford Hill: A Jewish business completely destroyed by vandals who spray-painted “Drop Elbit”—targeting a company with NO ties to Israel whatsoever. Jewish businesses. Jewish people. Targeted for being Jewish. pic.twitter.com/JruV4Si4J9
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) May 29, 2025
“This should be treated as [an] antisemitic incident without any doubt,” Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of Jewish security service Shomrim’s branch in Stamford Hill, told the Jewish Chronicle. “[The owners] are visibly Jewish; the people who run the business and this business itself have nothing to do with Israel.”
According to the Chronicle, the authorities were “called as soon as the damage was discovered on Thursday morning and the Metropolitan Police were notified shortly afterwards.”
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing and that no arrests have been made so far. “This incident is being treated as racially aggravated criminal damage,” the statement continued.
“We understand the concern this may cause members of the Jewish community,” the police noted. “Officers are working with community leaders and patrols have increased across the local area.”
Palestine Action, the group behind the vandalism, took responsibility for it on social media.
BREAKING: Palestine Action target the London-based landlords of Kent’s Elbit weapons factory, Instro Precision.
Instro Precision continues to export targeting gear to Israel, making both the Israeli weapons maker and its landlord, perpetrators of genocide. pic.twitter.com/TDN2yrEump
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) May 29, 2025
“Palestine Action target[s] the London-based landlords of Kent’s Elbit weapons factory, Instro Precision,” the group posted on X. “Instro Precision continues to export targeting gear to Israel, making both the Israeli weapons maker and its landlord, perpetrators of genocide.”
Along with vandalism of the business itself, “Drop Elbit” was also spray-painted on the pavement outside it, referring to Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense firm that is an industry leader.
A spokesperson for the group said the attack was a “part of our commitment to the Palestinian people” because “we will not allow companies on our doorstep to profit from mass murder.” The real estate group, it claimed, is “the [landlord] of a Kent-based Israeli weapons factory which is exporting targeting gear for the Israeli military.”
However, according to Gluck, the attack “is pure antisemitism” because “the people have no connection to Israel at all. They [the vandals] are accusing this company of having a connection to an Israeli arms manufacturer, which is not true.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) responded to the vandalism on X, asking, “Why is Palestine Action still not banned?”
“Palestine Action is a criminal enterprise operating freely in the UK and terrorizing the Jewish community,” it wrote. “It must be banned and its organizers and activists prosecuted.”
This latest vandalism is part of a general spike in antisemitism in the UK.
The UK experienced its second-worst year for antisemitism in 2024, despite recording an 18 percent drop in antisemitic incidents from the previous year’s all-time high, according to a report released in February.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, released data showing it recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, a drop of 18 percent from the 4,296 in 2023. These numbers compare to 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022, 2,261 in 2021, and 1,684 in 2020.
Last year’s total “is a reflection of the sustained levels of antisemitism that have been recorded across the UK since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,” CST said of its findings. “CST’s Antisemitic Incidents Report 2023 charted the immediacy and scope of the rise in anti-Jewish hate following that attack, before Israel had set in motion any extensive military response in Gaza.”
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