(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Day 11 of conflict in Gaza [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-18 Excerpts from NYTimes Daily podcast. Sabrina Tavernise From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.” President Biden arrived in Israel today as the crisis in the region deepened — Archived Recording 1 We have other breaking news. NBC News now learning between 200 and 300 people were killed in a bombing targeting a hospital. [...] It’s Wednesday, October 18. So Ed, we have a deteriorating situation in the Middle East. You’ve been very focused on American diplomacy in this moment, and you’ve been traveling with American officials all over the region for the past week. Tell us what they’ve been trying to do. Edward Wong Sabrina, this is the most intense diplomatic scramble I’ve seen among US officials in the time I’ve been covering foreign policy and diplomacy in Washington. And it’s obvious because the stakes are very high. The US wants to show full support for Israel, which is a very close partner in a region where many countries have been hostile to it. Then there’s this growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel carries out its airstrikes and prepares a ground invasion there. And on top of all that, you’ve got the possibility of this becoming a wider regional conflict, and US officials are desperately trying to head that off. So from the very beginning of this crisis, American officials have been involved. We saw the US immediately come out and condemn the attacks by Hamas right after they took place on October 7 on a Saturday. And then over that weekend, there were a lot of intense discussions between President Biden and foreign leaders in the region to really try and get them on board with a consistent message about the attacks. I know that the US officials and US leaders were intensely focused on showing strong and unwavering American support for Israel at that time and for whatever Israel planned to do — its military strikes, its retaliation against Hamas. And they also wanted to speak with Arab leaders in order to try and persuade the leaders to condemn Hamas and condemn the attacks and show as much support for Israel as they could. Sabrina Tavernise And Ed, why was it so important to get Arab countries to sign on to this, to condemn the attack? Edward Wong Well, given the scale of the attacks, I think that the US felt they had an opening to try and get Arab nations and Arab leaders on board with what Israel is about to do. As you know, Sabrina, the Palestinians are seen as victims by many Arab citizens across the region. I would say that the majority of people who live in the Middle East see Israel as an occupier and see America as the backer of this occupation. So even an attack like the Hamas attack will be seen as justified by many just ordinary people in the region. And I think that the US was hoping that the governments and the leaders of the region would help set the tone, will help guide public opinion by coming out and being more forceful in their condemnation of these attacks. Sabrina Tavernise So what happens? Do any of them condemn Hamas and the attack? Edward Wong Well, there are a couple Arab countries that do come out strongly against Hamas. Over that weekend to Monday, we see the United Arab Emirates put out a statement that forcefully says Hamas was not right in doing these attacks and naming Hamas. And we also see Bahrain, a smaller country in the Gulf region, also put out a similar statement and naming Hamas. And what’s interesting is that these two countries had signed on a few years ago to what are known as the Abraham Accords, which were these agreements that the Trump administration really pushed in a diplomatic effort to try and get Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel. But Saudi Arabia, for example, makes a statement that essentially says, oh, we told you for years that the Israeli occupation of Gaza would lead to reactions that you won’t like. Qatar, another Arab country, comes out with a statement that says Israel is solely responsible for these attacks. And that did not please US officials at all, of course. Sabrina Tavernise So the US doesn’t get much in this initial round of private calls, this initial flurry of diplomacy. What does it do next? [...] Sabrina Tavernise So Ed, as we know, President Biden has made the choice to travel to Israel at this incredibly sensitive moment. What do you think he’s trying to accomplish with this visit? Edward Wong Well, Biden is trying to do several things. He wants to show full support for Israel for the war that it’s waging. He also wants to make sure that Israel and other governments in the region commit to getting humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza. That’s becoming a much bigger crisis. And he also wants to, again, send that message of deterrence to other adversaries of Israel and say, I’m here, America is here, and if you get involved in this war, then you’ll feel America’s wrath. But of course, it’s also a very fraught time for him to be going to Israel. The airstrikes are intensifying in Gaza. We’re seeing many more images of civilians who’ve been killed in these strikes. And just today, we got news that there was an explosion at a hospital in Gaza where hundreds of people were killed. And some of the images of the aftermath are absolutely horrific. Hamas came out with a statement saying that this was the result of an Israeli airstrike and Israel has said that’s not the case. Fighters in Gaza might have fired an errant rocket that landed on the hospital. Sabrina Tavernise Yeah, the videos circulating online do, as you say, show these unbelievably horrific images. Clearly, the details of what exactly happened there are still coming to light. Israel has said it wasn’t them. But the images are out there circulating and make this an incredibly wrenching moment for the Palestinians. And Biden’s trip is set to place him in the middle of this, which presumably makes his job of preventing the conflict from spreading harder. Edward Wong It definitely ties Biden and America much closer to this war that Israel is waging, this war that Israel feels is justified. But it will evoke a strong reaction from Arabs across the region and even from some governments that the US usually relies on to be its partners in the region. Sabrina Tavernise So Ed, I want to step back for a minute here. You’ve just spent seven straight days traveling with American officials around the Middle East. They’re racing to contain the threat of wider war. How do you see this moment based on what you’re hearing from them? Edward Wong Well, I think it’s a very anxious moment. I think it feels like we’re in the edge of an abyss, potentially. If this widens into a regional war, it could be the biggest event in the Middle East in many years, perhaps since the American invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring and those revolutions. And I think that the American officials are very, very worried about the US getting involved in another major war in the Middle East. They know that our country has been scarred by these wars. And some of the conversations that I’ve had with the US officials, as I’ve been traveling around with them, have been among the bleakest I’ve had since covering this diplomatic beat. There’s a very grim atmosphere. They definitely know things could get much, much worse. But also, these US officials tell me they need to stand strong with Israel. They say Israel is a partner. It’s an ally, and that America has promised to defend Israel through the decades against its enemies. [...] Sabrina Tavernise On his diplomatic trip to the Middle East, President Biden had planned to visit Jordan where he would meet with Palestinian leaders. But on Tuesday afternoon, that summit was abruptly canceled after the blast at the hospital. The situation deteriorated throughout the evening with defiant crowds of protesters clashing with security forces in Amman and in Beirut. And in Iran, the country’s foreign minister, who, on Monday, had warned that multiple fronts would open against Israel if attacks against Palestinians continued, said that time was up. [MUSIC PLAYING] www.nytimes.com/... [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/18/2200250/-Day-11-of-conflict-in-Gaza?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/