Israel-Hamas War Focus at US Debate

Obviously Israel, Gaza was going to come up in this discussion. Let's just start with Biden's remarks and the fact that he said everyone around the world, be it UN Security Council, be it European leaders beat Israel themselves are putting their weight behind the ceasefire, which as we know isn't entirely true because earlier this week that's in Yahoo gave an interview where he directly rejected that 3 point ceasefire proposal that Biden put forward. So did we learn anything new from this great Jomana? And I think that when he said Hamas was the only one holding up the ceasefire agreement, you saw Trump coming in saying, no, Israel is the one doing that and that you should let them finish the job. So Trump is saying, oh, criticizing how Biden was handling the war and handling these negotiations, especially with the ceasefire, telling them that they should let just Israel go into Gaza and finish the job entirely. And we also saw Biden pushing back against this idea that he hasn't supported Israel fully, saying that the only thing that they have delayed or stopped shipment is, of course, the 2000 LB bomb that we saw in this video, saying that they would cause a lot of harm to populated areas. And we saw, of course, Trump saying or or criticizing Biden, also calling him a Palestinian or a bad Palestinian behaving like one. Not sure what that really meant, but of course, it was a heated debate. And this, the Israeli Hamas war has been a contentious issue in the US, right? We saw the protests and university protests and all of that. And there is worry that Biden might lose some support because of the way that Israel had been handling the war and maybe the absence of a leverage of US leverage against Israel. It's interesting that straight away, off the bat, Trump brought in the Iran angle there. Of course, Iran is heading to the polls today, but there is another front that's getting increasingly worrisome. You and I have spoken about it over the course of the week, and that is the the border with Lebanon. Overnight, we're hearing of Pentagon starting preparing themselves for the possibility of an Israeli ground attack into southern Lebanon. Yesterday, our colleagues at Bloomberg Surveillance had the chance to speak to the US envoy to the region, Amos Hoxsey. And let me just listen to some of his comments before we digest what this means. Now Hezbollah has said that they are attack attaching their their actions to what happens in Gaza. We we understand that that's the reality. And we have to work within those parameters to see what we can do as as things shift. And of course, we are working very hard. The president has been working non-stop to try to get a ceasefire that allows all the hostages to come home until that would practically end this war in Gaza. That of course would make things a lot easier to reach a settlement, but it's not an automatic. It's not you get a ceasefire in Gaza and you get a ceasefire in Lebanon. It doesn't work that way. We have to have its own solution in Lebanon, but it is enabled considerably by a ceasefire in Gaza. And earlier in that interview, he said, at the end of the day, we have to get Hezbollah away from the border because the status quo of October 6th is not possible anymore. But also seem to imply that there is a correlation between the ceasefire in Gaza and a potential ceasefire in Lebanon. But they're not one in the same. Exactly. And Hochstein was, you know, is the one pushing and handling these negotiations between Israel and directly with Hezbollah. And we have from our own original reporting what the mediator between Israel and Hezbollah is, which is the House Speaker Nabihibiri telling Hochstein that the only thing I can ask Hezbollah is for them to reduce the tension, meaning to take these attacks back to how they were at the first, you know, the first days of the war, not really deep into Israel. I can ask them to reduce tensions, but obviously Hezbollah is completely rejecting withdrawing from that border, whatever kilometres they're asking or Israel is asking. And So what we're seeing now is definitely an escalation. Tensions are rising. And what you mentioned earlier that the US sending these assets to the Mediterranean, closer to Israel and Lebanon, I think this is definitely a show of force. It's also a sign of deterrence, saying that we are here to support Israel if there is a war. And that is definitely a very strong message that everyone was waiting for. And the big question is how would you need the US react or support Israel if a war between the two does happen?