“This reflects longstanding regional norms.”
Washington, December 3 – Biden administration officials warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yisrael Katz today that if the IDF attempts to enforce the temporary truce with the Lebanese, the administration will consider that a failure to adhere to the truce.
State Department representatives sent strong messages this morning to the Israeli government, cautioning Netanyahu and the Israeli military not to attempt to respond in kind when Hezbollah violates the ceasefire that both sides agreed to last week, because responding to violations of the ceasefire by the Iran-backed terrorist group will constitute a violation of the ceasefire.
“If Israel sincerely intends to uphold this ceasefire agreement, then Israel must not respond when the agreement is violated,” one such message read. “The sincerity of Israel’s commitment will be cast into doubt if, in the face of Hezbollah firing rockets or drones at Israel, or targeting Israeli personnel, Israel fires at Hezbollah targets.”
State Department spokesman Rollo Verandye declined to specify what moves Israel can make to maintain deterrence and ensure Hezbollah adheres to the ceasefire. “It’s not our place to tell Israel how to defend itself,” he demurred. “But I can say that the administration will view with disfavor measures that undermine the ceasefire agreement, such as retaliating for Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire. If Israel does that, it will be difficult to refrain from seeing that retaliation as the reason for any failure of the ceasefire.”
Other international players seconded the official US position. “This reflects longstanding regional norms,” explained European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. “To depart from the default model of violations being deemed violations only when Israel shoots back would destabilize decades of international and institutional work. The Israeli government cannot pretend ignorance here of that established standards.”
Mainstream media outlets confirmed that this rule informs their reporting, as well. “Arabs attacking Jews is never the story,” acknowledged Reuters editor Tenden Schuss. “Okay, that’s something of a simplification: a huge death toll, or some unusually brutal aspect to such attacks, will make it newsworthy. Otherwise, it doesn’t register as a story unless or until Israel takes preventive or retaliatory action. Also, even if the brutality or body count makes the development a story in and of itself, we strive to report it only with a framing of Israel deserving it, or failing to prevent it so it’s really Israel’s fault, or making token mention of the incident itself but swiftly diving into speculation of future Israeli action, or recalling previous Israeli reactions, which of course get characterized as overreacting.”
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