Blinken feels ‘fierce urgency’ to resolve Middle East crisis, says it will need Israeli help not opposition
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he feels a “fierce urgency” to find a long-term solution for the Middle East, one that satisfies the security concerns of Israel while moving toward a self-governed Palestinian state.
“It’s not like any of this happens over night, it’s not like it’s flipping a light switch,” Blinken said at the World Economic Forum, a summit of government and business leaders in Davos, Swizerland. “As we’re in the midst of human tragedy in so many ways in the Middle East, for Israelis and Palestinians alike, I have to tell you I personally feel the fierce urgency of now.”
In a wide-ranging conversation with New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, the secretary said such a resolution could only happen “with the help of Israel, not its active opposition,” adding that “the question now is: Is Israeli society prepared to engage on these questions? Is it prepared to have that mindset? That’s challenging.”
One benefit over past conflicts, Blinken added, was that “Arab and Muslim countries are prepared to have a relationship with Israel — in terms of integration, its normalization, its security — that they were never prepared to have before.”
Every single person in Gaza is hungry, U.N. says
The United Nations is raising the alarm about famine in Gaza, saying every single person in the enclave is hungry and a quarter of the population are starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water.
The U.N. also said Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, which it said makes it “an unparalleled humanitarian crisis” amid continued bombardment by Israel.
Since Jan. 1, only 21 per cent (5 out of 24) of planned deliveries of aid containing food and other lifesaving supplies reached their destination north of Wadi Gaza, the U.N. said, and its experts are…
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