Blinken: After Oct. 7, I threatened to nix Biden visit if Israel didn’t let aid into Gaza
Outgoing secretary of state tells NY Times he argued for ‘9 hours’ with Israeli leaders over aid; is ‘astounded’ at lack of world pressure on Hamas to end war, free the hostages
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has revealed that in the first days after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, he had to threaten Israel that President Joe Biden would not visit the country as planned unless the government allowed aid into Gaza.
Speaking to The New York Times in a wide-ranging interview at the end of his tenure, Blinken spoke about the initial siege imposed on Gaza in the wake of the massacre that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage.
He detailed how during the trip, five days after the attack, he met with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, “arguing for hours on end about the basic proposition that the humanitarian assistance needed to get to Palestinians in Gaza.”
“And that was an argument that took place because you had in Israel in the days after October 7 a totally traumatized society. This wasn’t just the prime minister or a given leader in Israel. This was an entire society that didn’t want any assistance getting to a single Palestinian in Gaza. I argued that for nine hours,” he said.
Ultimately, he said, he had to threaten that Biden would not come to Israel if aid did not start going in.
“I told the prime minister, I’m going to call the president and tell him not to come if you don’t allow this assistance to start flowing. And I called the president to make sure that he agreed with that, and he fully did. We got the agreement to begin assistance through Rafah, which we [later] expanded to Kerem Shalom and many other places,” he said.
In the interview, Blinken reiterated that the US does not believe that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza, though he said there were times when Israel was not “doing enough” to allow in humanitarian assistance.
Blinken also denied that Netanyahu was responsible for talks on a ceasefire-hostage deal falling apart in June, saying it has been Hamas that has prevented an agreement.
“What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded,” Blinken said.
But he then appeared to suggest that the administration never wanted to publicly blame Netanyahu for blocking a deal, even if he was, due to fear that this would lead Hamas to harden its stance.
“Whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel… Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a cease-fire and the release of hostages,” Blinken said. “There are times when what we say in private to Israel where we have a disagreement is one thing, and what we’re doing or saying in public may be another.”
Still, he reiterated his dismay that most global pressure to end the conflict has been on Israel and not Hamas.
“One of the things that I found a little astounding throughout is that for all of the understandable criticism of the way Israel has conducted itself in Gaza, you hear virtually nothing from anyone since October 7 about Hamas,” he said.
“Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender — I don’t know what the answer is to that. Israel, on various occasions [prior to the war], has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world? Where is the world saying, Yeah, do that! End this! Stop the suffering of people that you brought on!” he said.
Blinken has made 11 visits to Israel since the war began in October, 7, 2023, and has made dozens of visits to regional countries, including Qatar and Egypt, to represent the Biden administration in hostage and ceasefire talks.
He was picked by President Biden to be Secretary of State in 2021 and served in the role for the entirety of Biden’s term in office.
As President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office on January 20, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio is expected to be confirmed as the next secretary of state, US policy toward Israel and the region will change significantly, likely departing from the Biden administration’s demands for greater humanitarian aid access in Gaza.
On Friday, Channel 12 reported that Israel is already considering significantly restricting the amount of aid entering Gaza in anticipation of Trump’s inauguration.
The move is reportedly aimed at dismantling Hamas’s governing capabilities in Gaza, which Jerusalem says the terror group has been able to maintain after nearly 15 months of war by controlling much of the aid that enters the Strip. Hamas fighters have been known to charge fees in exchange for the release of aid convoys upon their entry into Gaza.
Only a limited amount of aid is entering Gaza, and a further siphoning would likely exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Many of those displaced by the war are living in tents and reporting major shortages in food and medical supplies.
Israeli authorities say they have allowed thousands of aid trucks carrying food, water, medical equipment, and shelter supplies into Gaza, with much of it looted by Hamas and armed gangs. International aid agencies say Israeli forces have been hampering aid deliveries, making the situation even worse.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
