US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel on Monday for talks expected to focus on Israel’s eventual end to the intense war in Gaza and a transition to a more limited, focused conflict, the sources said. .
For Austin, the journey is a delicate balancing act. He has consistently supported Israel’s right to defend itself following the October 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. But he has also increasingly spoken out about the plight of Gaza civilians as Israeli strikes increase the death toll.
In a speech earlier this month, Austin went so far as to call civilians the “center of gravity” in Israel’s war against Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules Gaza, and warned of the risks of their radicalization.
A US defense source accompanying Austin told reporters that he is expected to discuss Israel’s plans to move into the next phase of the war in talks with top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“What we see today in terms of intensive ground operations plus airstrikes will not continue forever. This is one phase of the campaign, a Pentagon spokesperson said. “We are interested in supporting the Israelis in planning what the transition will look like once they decide to complete major ground operations and are ready to transition.”
Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program on Middle East Policy at the Washington Institute, said both the United States and Israel appeared to agree to an eventual move to the next phase of the campaign.
But Washington wants this to happen sooner, perhaps within a few weeks, while Israel believes it needs more time, he said.
“So they largely agree on the way forward and the need to eventually move toward a more targeted approach, but there is disagreement on the timetable,” he said.
When US national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited Israel last week, Netanyahu told him that Israel would fight “to absolute victory.” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war “will take more than a few months.”
With brutal ground fighting spreading across the Gaza Strip this month and humanitarian organizations warning of a disaster, Biden said last week that Israel risked losing international support due to “indiscriminate” airstrikes that kill to Palestinian civilians.
Austin, a retired general, led U.S. forces in the Middle East and even led U.S. troops in Iraq, which could help him in talks with Israeli officials, the Pentagon official added.
Austin, the source said, is familiar with how to conduct military operations “on the other side of an intense conflict to ensure that a military reconstruction of Hamas is not viable or feasible in that case.”
In a sign of the Biden administration’s intense focus on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Austin is accompanied in Israel by Air Force Gen. Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Austin and Brown are also grappling with the war’s regional fallout, with Iran-linked groups launching waves of attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria and the Houthi movement in Yemen attacking ships in the Red Sea in support of Hamas.
Iran’s Houthis said over the weekend that they had attacked the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat with a swarm of drones.
US Central Command said the destroyer USS Qarni shot down 14 Houthi drones over the Red Sea on Saturday. Britain also said one of its warships was shot down by a suspected attack drone targeting merchant ships.
