Israel said to tell US planned ground op aims to enable long-term diplomatic arrangement

Reporting on an apparently imminent Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon, Channel 12 news says coordination with US President Joe Biden’s administration has been strained by the “major crisis” in relations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including over the elimination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah that came as the US was attempting to negotiate a ceasefire.

The report claims that the Israeli defense establishment has been stressing to the Americans that, whatever the tensions with Netanyahu, there are 10 million Israeli citizens, the US has an alliance with Israel, and it needs “to stand with us and understand our goals.”

The message to the US has also been that the goal of Israel’s campaign in Lebanon is to facilitate the safe return of residents of the north and to create the conditions to enable the kind of long-term diplomatic arrangement that US envoy Amos Hochstein has been trying to achieve for the past year.

The report also says there is “intensive coordination” between Israel and the US as regards any potential Iranian attack on Israel.