A senior Biden-Harris official was reportedly infuriated last week after Israel ignored his advice and launched a series of attacks against Hezbollah.
The Biden-Harris administration has become increasingly concerned that a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is set to erupt, as the two have been locked in a conflict that has grown in both scope and severity over the Israeli-Lebanese border in recent weeks. Biden senior adviser Amos Hochstein in recent months has been serving as an envoy to mediators in the Middle East to try to keep tensions low between Israel and Hezbollah while also negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, who have been at war for nearly a year, according to Axios.
Hochstein traveled to Israel last week to warn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a war with Hezbollah, citing concerns that it would only upset an already chaotic Middle East. One day after Hochstein’s message to Netanyahu, Israel remotely detonated explosives planted inside thousands of personal communication devices being carried by Hezbollah operatives.
Hochstein was left furious because he wasn’t told of the plan in advance and felt that Israel had ignored his advice, U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Axios.
Some other Biden advisers also saw the attack as a “reckless march to war,” but also accepted the move as what Israel describes as “de-escalation through escalation,” the U.S. officials told Axios. Israeli officials have signaled in recent weeks that the time for a diplomatic solution has passed because Hezbollah continues to act aggressively near Israel’s northern border, displacing large numbers of civilians living there and endangering the country’s security.
Biden officials have privately concluded their ability to influence regional developments is limited, according to Axios.
Hochstein had also been working on a proposal that would resolve tensions between Israel and Hezbollah through an Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, but that plan stalled a few weeks ago after negotiations over a deal hit a wall, according to Axios.
Though they haven’t said it publicly, some Biden officials believe that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict already looks like another war, they told Axios. Hezbollah first started attacking Israel last year out of support for Hamas, which itself attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed approximately 1,200 people.
Now the Biden administration’s goal — with only months until Biden leaves office — is to prevent Israeli forces from launching a full ground invasion into Lebanon and keep Iran from involving itself on Hezbollah’s behalf, U.S. officials told Axios.
“We want to prevent a ground war,” a senior U.S. official told Axios.
Biden officials are working on a new proposal that would see a temporary “pause” in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which could be presented as soon as Wednesday, one Israeli official and two sources with knowledge of the matter told Axios. Netanyahu has reportedly been informed of the proposal and was open to discussions.
Officials are also spending time on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week talking to their regional counterparts to try to find diplomatic solutions, according to Axios. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in New York on Tuesday, and Netanyahu is expected on Thursday.
“We see a path to de-escalating the situation in the north and we are working on it in real-time in New York and in capitals around the world,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told Axios.
The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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