The governments of Israel and the United States now appear to be in disagreement over how many Palestinian civilians it’s acceptable to kill. Last week — as the death toll from massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza neared 10,000 people, including several thousand children — top U.S. officials began to worry about the rising horrified outcry at home and abroad. So, they went public with muted misgivings and calls for a “humanitarian pause.”
But Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he would have none of it, pushing back on Anthony Blinken during the U.S. secretary of state’s third trip to the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and vowing that Israel was “going with full steam ahead.”
