UNITED STATES NEWS

Killing of Hamas political leader points to diverging paths for Israel, US, on cease-fire

Jul 31, 2024, 11:37 AM

Hamas member holding a poster of their political leader who was killed in Iran Wednesday...

Hamas members hold a poster of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh during a protest to condemn his killing, at al-Bass Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Haniyeh, Hamas' political chief in exile who landed on Israel's hit list after the militant group staged its surprise Oct. 7 attacks, was killed in an airstrike in the Iranian capital early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel’s suspected killing of Hamas’ political leader in the heart of Tehran, coming after a week in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahupromised U.S. lawmakers he would continue his war against Hamas until “total victory,” points to an Israeli leader ever more openly at odds with Biden administration efforts to calm the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking on an Asia trip, was left to tell reporters there that Americans had not been aware of or involved in the attack on Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, whose roles included overseeing Hamas’ side in U.S.-led mediation to bring a cease-fire and release of hostages in the Gaza war.

The U.S. remains focused on a cease-fire in the 9-month-old Israeli war in Gaza “as the best way to bring the temperature down everywhere,” Blinken said after Haniyeh’s killing.

The targeting, and timing, of the overnight strike may have all but destroyed U.S. hopes for now.

“I just don’t see how a cease-fire is feasible right now with the assassination of the person you would have been negotiating with,” said Vali Nasr, a former U.S. diplomat now at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

If the expected cycles of retaliation and counter-retaliation ahead start unspooling as feared, Haniyeh’s killing could dash the Biden administration’s hopes of restraining escalatory actions as Israel targets what Netanyahu calls Iran’s “axis of terror,” in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

And with the U.S. political campaign entering its final months, it will be more difficult for the Biden administration to break away — if it wants to — from an ally it is bound to through historical, security, economic and political ties.

The killing of Haniyeh, and another suspected Israeli strike on a senior Hezbollah leader in the Lebanese capital of Beirut hours earlier, came on the heels of Netanyahu’s return home from a nearly weeklong trip to the U.S., his first foreign trip of the war.

The Biden administration had said it hoped to use the visit to work and overcome some of the remaining obstacles in negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza and to free Israeli, American and other foreign hostages held by Hamas and other militants.

President Joe Biden has been Israel’s most vital backer in the war, keeping up shipments of arms and other military aid while defending Israel against any international action over the deaths of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the Israeli offensive.

But Biden has also put his political weight behind efforts to secure the cease-fire and hostage release, including publicly declaring that the two sides had both agreed to a framework and urging them to seal the deal.

Netanyahu told a joint meeting of Congress during his visit that Israel was determined to win nothing less than “total victory” against Hamas. Asked directly by journalists on the point later, he said that Israel hoped for a cease-fire soon and was working for one.

Following the visit, Biden administration officials dodged questions about reports that Israel’s far-right government had newly raised additional conditions for any cease-fire deals.

Haniyeh had been openly living in Doha, Qatar, for the months since the Oct. 7 attack. But he wasn’t attacked until he was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s president. Nasr said Iran will see it as a direct Israeli attack on its sovereignty, and respond.

“If you wanted to have a cease-fire, if Haniyeh was in your sights, you might have said, ’I’ll kill him in a few months. Not now,‴ said Nasr, who said it suggested overt undermining of cease-fire negotiations by Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s far-right government says Israel is fighting in Gaza to destroy Iran-allied Hamas as a military and governing power there. Israel warns that it is also prepared to expand its fight further to include an offensive in Lebanon, if necessary to stop what have been near-daily exchanges of rocket fire between Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah is by far the most powerful of the Iran-allied groups in the Middle East. Analysts and diplomats warn of any such expansion of hostilities touching off uncontrollable conflicts throughout the region that would draw in the United States as Israel’s ally. The U.S., France and others have urged Israel and Iran and its allies to resolve tensions through negotiations.

In a letter to foreign diplomats made public Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Israel “is not interested in all-out war,” but that the only way to avoid it would be to implement a 2006 U.N. resolution calling for a demilitarized zone along Israel’s border with Lebanon and an end of hostilities with Hezbollah.

On Tuesday, after the strike on the Hezbollah figure but before the attack on the Hamas leader, U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the administration’s talks with the visiting Netanyahu had been constructive.

Kirby played down concerns reported by news media that the killing of the Hezbollah official could escalate the cycles of violence in the Mideast.

“Look, we’ve all heard about this all-out war scenario, now multiple points over the last 10 months,” Kirby said, before the killing of Haniyeh appeared likely to change the scenario ahead. “Those predictions were exaggerated then, and, quite frankly, we think they’re exaggerated now.”

United States News

Voters arrive to a polling station on the Navajo Nation in Fort Defiance, Ariz., on Election Day, T...

Associated Press

Why AP called Arizona for Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press declared President-elect Donald Trump the winner in Arizona on Saturday night after vote updates in Maricopa and other counties added to his overall lead, putting the state out of reach for Vice President Kamala Harris. At the time the AP called the race at 9:21 p.m. ET, Trump led […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Democrat April McClain Delaney wins a US House seat in a competitive Maryland race

BALTIMORE (AP) — Democrat April McClain Delaney narrowly won a U.S. House seat in Maryland’s most competitive congressional races that came to focus on reproductive rights and the economy. The state’s sprawling 6th Congressional District covers a wide swath of rural Maryland as well as more affluent liberal suburbs of Washington, D.C. The close race […]

5 hours ago

Associated Press

AP Race Call: Democrat April McClain Delaney wins election to U.S. House in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District

Democrat April McClain Delaney won election to a U.S. House seat representing Maryland on Saturday. The 6th District seat in western Maryland was open after Democratic Rep. David Trone sought the state’s open Senate seat rather than a fourth term in the U.S. House. McClain Delaney served in the Department of Commerce under the Biden […]

5 hours ago

Associated Press

AP Race Call: Donald Trump wins Arizona

Donald Trump won Arizona on Saturday, returning the state and its 11 electoral votes to the Republican column after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. The win over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris marks Trump’s second in Arizona since 2016. Trump campaigned on border security and the economy, tying Harris to inflation and record illegal border crossings […]

6 hours ago

FILE - Judith Jamison, choreographer and artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatr...

Associated Press

Judith Jamison, transcendent dancer and artistic director of Alvin Ailey company, dies at 81

NEW YORK (AP) — Judith Jamison, an internationally acclaimed dancer who later served as artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for two decades, has died. She was 81. Jamison died after a brief illness in New York on Saturday, surrounded by close friends, Christopher Zunner, an Ailey spokesperson, confirmed to The Associated […]

6 hours ago

Associated Press

AP Race Call: Republican Eli Crane wins reelection to U.S. House in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District

Republican Rep. Eli Crane won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Arizona on Saturday. Crane, a freshman lawmaker, defeated former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, who was vying to become the state’s first Native American congressman. The Republican-leaning 2nd District covers a wide swath of Arizona, wrapping in Prescott, Flagstaff, the eastern part of […]

6 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

DISC Desert Institute for Spine Care

The best methods to make your back pain disappear for good

Are you struggling with back pain that will not go away?

...

Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

It wouldn’t hurt to get your AC checked after Arizona’s excruciating heat wave

A well-maintained air conditioning unit is vital to living a comfortable life inside, away from triple-digit heat in Arizona.

...

Sanderson Ford

3 storylines to get you revved up for the 2024 Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals training camp is just a couple weeks away starting on July 25, and Sanderson Ford is revved up and ready to go.

Killing of Hamas political leader points to diverging paths for Israel, US, on cease-fire