Israel is now on the verge of fighting wars on two fronts, as the nearly year-old war on Hamas in Gaza may be joined by the rapidly-heating conflict with Hezbollah's fighters in Lebanon.
National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby on Thursday spoke with reporters amid President Joe Biden’s week of major foreign policy conversations with Indo-Pacific allies in Wilmington, Delaware, and allies from Ukraine and Israel during the United Nations General Assembly’s High Level Week in New York.
Asked if he has a better understanding of what Israel’s military objectives are, beyond "getting people back in their homes," Kirby hedged.
"Well, I would point you to what they’ve been saying themselves. Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu himself said that one of his principal objectives is getting people back home," Kirby said. "And there’s a lot of public opinion in Israel about that exact issue, about the desire to go home."
Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu said that Israel’s "policy is clear" and that his country is "continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes." His statement poured water on hopes for a cease-fire. Israel has continually fired rocket strikes into Lebanon, hitting 75 sites across the southern and eatern stretches of the country early Thursday, and tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border have been displaced.
"He has also said — and we have no reason to doubt him — that he wants to continue to eliminate the very legitimate lethal threats that Hezbollah poses to Israel," Kirby said of Netanyahu.
More than a week ago, pagers and handheld radios were used in two waves of explosions intended to target Hezbollah-aligned targets. More than 35 people were killed, and more than 3,200 were injured in the plot, including Hezbollah operatives, civillians and children. Israel is widely believed to have set the plot in motion, but has not claimed responsibility.
Meanwhile, a broad coalition of countries have lobbied for Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a temporary cease-fire to allow for diplomatic negotiations and avoid war. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomes a cease-fire, but he has no sway over Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is the strongest armed presence in Lebanon.
Part of the challenge for Netanyahu, the Associated Press reports, is that Netanyahu may lose the support of his far-right allies — and, ultimately, his grasp on Israeli power — should a temporary cease-fire become permanent.
Hezbollah has said that it would end its strikes only if a cease-fire is reached between Israel and Gaza. However, that’s proven unlikely despite long-running negotiations led by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar.
"I would add that we are still very much interested in trying to see if it can’t be moved forward, and nothing has slackened about our desire to see if there is room for another go at this," Kirby said. He later added that Biden’s main goal with Israel-Hezbollah talks "is to make sure that we find a diplomatic path here, to de-escalate along that blue line and that we avoid an all-out war and escalation not only there but elsewhere in the region."
Zelenskyy shares 'victory plan' with American allies
Thursday proved to be a significant day for Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, as he met with senators on Capitol Hill and gave public remarks alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden announced new assistance for Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia’s invasion.
"You saw all the announcements and commitments that the president made to [Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy] — a real surge, is the way I would describe this, in terms of security assistance and support to Ukraine as they try to continue to reclaim territory and to succeed on the battlefield here in the coming months," Kirby said. That surge of support, he said, helped draw down the remaining funds available from Biden’s existing authority to aid Ukraine, as he tasked the Department of Defense to allocate those funds through the end of Biden’s term in January.
Kirby later added that Biden "would like to see [the Russia-Ukraine war] ended today, and we all know that it could if Putin got the hell out of Ukraine. But of course, that doesn’t appear to be in the offing." Meanwhile, the U.S. is "doing everything we can to make sure they can prevail on the battlefiled, so that if and when President Zelenskyy decides he wants to enter into some sort of negotiated settlemen that he can do so from a position of strength," Kirby added.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy presented the "broad contours of his victory plan" to Biden and the president’s national security advisors, and Biden expects to meet with Zelenskyy during a trip to Germany next month.
"I don’t believe they’ve talked publicly about [the victory plan] too much in detail, so I think it would be inappropriate for me to do that," Kirby said. "I would just say, broadly speaking, it contains a series of intiatives and steps and objectives that President Zelenskyy believes will be important — not only for helping him end the war that he’s in now, but prevent another one and to be able to deter and defeat any future Russian aggression once the war is over."
Trump also said that he will be meeting with Zelenskyy, intially according to a screenshot of a text between Trump and Zelenskyy sent through an intermediary, posted on the former president’s platform, Truth Social.
“As you know, President Zelenskyy has asked to meet with me, and I will be meeting with him tomorrow morning at around 9:45 in Trump Tower," Trump said in a press conference Thursday afternoon. "And it’s a shame what’s happening in Ukraine, so many deaths, so much destruction. It’s a horrible thing,” Trump added, before railing against NATO allies for not dedicating enough of their budgets to military spending and claiming the war in Ukraine “never would have happened” if he was still president.