US asking Israel ‘hard questions’ on Gaza military assault: White House

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday would not acknowledge differences between the US and Israel over the military assault on Gaza, but emphasized that Washington was being candid with its ally.

Faced with growing outcry over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel by Hamas militants, Sullivan said, “We do not stand for the killing of innocent people, whether it be Palestinian, Israeli or otherwise.

Israeli forces are expanding ground operations in Gaza while their fighter jets have struck hundreds more Hamas targets on Sunday in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the second phase of a three-week-old war.

Asked if there was any “daylight” between the two allies on Israel’s military operation, Sullivan told CBS’ “Face the Nation” they were discussing hard questions, humanitarian aid, distinguishing between terrorists and innocent civilians, how Israel is thinking through its military operation.

“We talk candidly, we talked directly, we share our views and an unvarnished way and we will continue to do that,” Sullivan said.

“But sitting here in public, I will just say that the United States is going to make its principles and propositions absolutely clear, including the sanctity of innocent human life. And then we will continue to provide our advice to Israel in private.”

The three-week-old Israel-Hamas war enters what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said could be a “long and difficult” new stage, President Joe Biden is calling on Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their eventual postwar reality.

It’s one, he argues, where finally finding agreement on a long-sought two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be a priority.

“There’s no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6,” Biden told reporters, referring to the day before Hamas militants attacked Israel and set off the latest war. The White House says Biden conveyed the same message directly to Netanyahu during a telephone call this past week.

“It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution,” Biden said.

The push for a two-state solution — one in which Israel would coexist with an independent Palestinian state — has eluded US presidents and Middle East diplomats for decades. It’s been put on the back burner since the last American-led effort at peace talks collapsed in 2014 amid disagreements on Israeli settlements, the release of Palestinian prisoners and other issues.

Palestinian statehood is something that Biden rarely addressed in the early going of his administration. During his visit to the West Bank last year, Biden said the “ground is not ripe” for new attempts to reach a permanent peace even as he reiterated to Palestinians the long-held US support for statehood.

Now, at a moment of heightened concern that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral into a broader regional conflict, Biden has begun to emphasize that once the bombing and shooting stop, working toward a Palestinian state should no longer be ignored.

Until recently, Biden had put far more emphasis on what his administration saw as the achievable ambition of normalizing relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors than on restarting peace talks.

Even his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a lengthy essay that was written shortly before the Oct. 7 attack and described Biden’s global foreign policy efforts made no mention of Palestinian statehood.

In an updated version of the Foreign Affairs essay posted online, Sullivan wrote that the administration was “committed to a two-state solution.” White House officials also say the normalization talks have always included significant proposals to benefit the Palestinians.