Israel has not come close to destroying Hamas, U.S. official says

a Us official tells CBS News the Israelis quote haven't come close to achieving their objective of destroying Hamas and they criticized Israel's current strategy as quote a recipe for continuous War these comments come a day after the Israeli Israeli military's top spokesperson said that Hamas cannot be destroyed and that netanyahu's government must find an alternative to the militant group in Gaza CBS News Chief foreign affairs correspondent and Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan joins me now Margaret great to see you thanks for being here um so let's talk about netan Yahoo um his top advisers met with Biden's top advisers Jake Sullivan of course and Anthony blinkin um how is the Biden Administration assessing all of this do they have any indications are they giving any indications that an end to this war maybe in sight us officials have been pressing Benjamin Netanyahu for an answer to the question of what comes next since October um and so now you're just hearing that frustration spill out into the public space not just from us officials by the way also from Benny Gant member of the war cabinet who resigned because he said that the Prime Minister failed to describe anything other than Perpetual War uh and he didn't come up with a plan for the day after the defense minister stood up and said tell me who's going to run this place because a military occupation wasn't something that the Israeli military and you heard the military spokesperson reflect that sentiment as well that defense minister is expected here in Washington next week so this frustration really is spilling over and it matters in terms of the assessment of success like how do you defeat and Destroy Hamas Netanyahu has never directly answered that question in terms of what the Biden administration had been looking for no specifics of who comes in and and runs that gate who comes in and administers the aid uh do you want a full occupation because the far right of his Co government does argue for that and if he doesn't want it then he should say that um but you also have the Secretary of State spinning is Wheels traveling the globe with other Arab Leaders with other world leaders talking about how to pay for and plan for the 25m strip that is Gaza yeah and and at the same time you also have um you know everything going on possibly with Lebanon I mean Israel's military has approved a plan for a possible Invasion into Lebanon exactly are they preparing for what are the conditions there um and again I mean the Biden Administration another example of them trying to ease those tensions obviously a lot for Anthony blinkin there's extreme concern within the Biden Administration right now about where we are in the possibility of this new front really becoming explosive and this is The Showdown that the US had been fearful of because Hezbollah is really the strongest paramilitary group backed by Iraq they put some of those smaller militias to shame the ones who Who attack our service people in Syria and Iraq Hezbollah has incredible weaponry and has prepared for a war with Israel Israel has prepared for a war with Hezbollah for years not like the surprise attack we just saw with Hamas so the US has been trying to slowroll this for some time back in October President Biden did get Netanyahu to hold back on launching that front and launched his Envoy amas Hawkin to go try to do this diplomatic agreement to establish a border to establish a buffer zone because after October 7th when the rocket attack started picking up with Hezbollah uh they basically cleared out Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel people have been displaced they haven't been able to go home that's a political problem and so the idea was through a negotiation you could carve out that diplom that buffer zone but now those talks haven't achieved what the Israeli government had been looking for and the Lebanese government's extremely weak so it's the us trying to be the Midwife to to find a way other than a fullon assault and we have the defense minister coming here from Israel next week to meet at the Pentagon and this is going to be a big part of that conversation but amak seeing the envoy flying back and forth really trying to lower the tension and avoid this by brokering a deal and the US doesn't talk directly to hezb they have to this right exactly you kind of need a map to figure out where everybody uh is location wise um and obviously Netanyahu is expected to come here uh next month so a lot to look forward to there I want to move over and US officials have said don't come unless you have a plan for the day after exactly and a lot of um some Democrats saying that they're going to boycott it all together obviously a lot of politics uh for them there um let's move over to Ukraine um because the US announced today that it's redirecting all of its orders for these uh Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine um what kind of impact would this make in the war if any well you've had president zinsky say he needs to be able to defend cities he specifically wanted seven Patriots uh and if you remember at that press conference he stood next to President Biden and President Biden said I'll get you they're coming um and that they had plans for about five at that point what the US just did because the US is a supplier to so many countries who buy weapons made here um is say they jump to the front of the line so they're going to get the things you ordered will make it back to you but the interceptors for these Patriots which help um knock down incoming particularly in cities har right now is one of the places uh that they're most concerned about but to put them in other areas as well to defend by the way at times the civilian population because Russia continues to Target civilian areas so this is another way instead of gifting money or weapons it is saying here we'll give you what you need and they carved out some of the countries and uh I should say customers who don't have to um wait Taiwan for example interesting gets to continue to receive these Patriot interceptors because they need them as well with the possible aggression from China yeah a lot to get to we didn't even get to uh Putin's tour of Asia uh there's a lot going on here so we will look forward to your show coming up on Sunday thank you very much Margaret we appreciate it

Channel: Face the Nation

Views: 8,845

Keywords: Hostage Situation, Hamas, Joe Biden, Cease-fire, Foreign Policy, Palestinians, Gaza Strip, Benjamin Neta���nyahu, America Decides Segments, U.S., Politics, World, CBS News

Id: he9-cfFpGVw

Length: 6min 28sec (388 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2024