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Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.
Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah in order to convince the group to engage in diplomatic talks to end the conflict, the officials told POLITICO.
Not everyone in the administration was on board with Israel’s shift, despite support inside the White House, the officials said. The decision to focus on Hezbollah sparked division within the U.S. government, drawing opposition from people inside the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community who believed Israel’s move against the Iran-backed militia could drag American forces into yet another Middle East conflict.
POLITICO spoke to two Israeli and four U.S. officials for this story, most of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive diplomatic talks.
The National Security Council declined to comment.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, declined Monday to comment on private talks between Israeli leaders and U.S. officials when asked about Hochstein and others’ exchanges.
“We don’t always ask for permission for everything we do,” he said of the two countries, adding, “I think what they say publicly reflects the goal that they would like to see a diplomatic solution, which we are not against.”
In mid-September calls and meetings, Israeli officials outlined broadly that their military was preparing to make the shift. They didn’t offer details. Hochstein and McGurk relayed to their Israeli counterparts that — while they still urged a cautious approach — the timing was likely opportune for such a move, especially after Hezbollah had been significantly degraded in the months prior.
While Hezbollah had long said it would only engage with Israel if it reaches a cease-fire with Hamas militants it is battling in Gaza, U.S. assessments indicated at that point that Hamas wasn’t likely to agree to a cease-fire deal anytime soon. And that meant it could be a moment to focus more on Hezbollah alone – and to decouple the two conflicts.
This latest fight with Hezbollah began the day after Oct. 7, when the group began firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel — eventually forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee the area on both sides. Hamas launched its war on Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7.
The U.S. officials knew little of exactly what Israel was planning, but even as they supported Israel pressuring Hezbollah, they urged caution. They warned that if Israel went too far it could risk escalating the situation into an all-out regional war — something the administration has been trying to avoid for nearly a year. They also stressed that the only way to end the conflict was through a negotiated diplomatic agreement.
Officials in the intelligence community, in briefings and talks with members of Congress last week, had said they were increasingly worried about the potential for a direct ground confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah. Similar conversations were occurring in the State Department, where officials were concerned about the mounting civilian death toll in Lebanon.
Some in the administration say that what looks like a rift is just the United States pursuing multiple routes at once.
“Both things can be true — the U.S. can want diplomacy and support Israel’s larger goals against Hezbollah,” a senior U.S. official said. “There’s clearly a line that the administration is toeing, it’s just not clear what that line is.”
Behind the scenes, Hochstein, McGurk and other top U.S. national security officials are selling Israel’s Lebanon operations as a history-defining moment — one that will reshape the Middle East for the better for years to come.
The thinking goes: Israel has obliterated Hezbollah’s top command structure in Lebanon, severely undercutting the group’s capabilities and weakened Iran, which used Hezbollah as a proxy and power projector.
The internal administration division seems to have dissipated somewhat in recent days, with top U.S. officials convening Monday at the White House with President Joe Biden to discuss the situation on the ground. Most agreed that the conflict, while fragile, could offer an opportunity to reduce Iran’s influence in Lebanon and the region.
Still, the White House is walking a fine line, U.S. and Israeli officials said. The Biden administration wants to support Israel’s actions against a U.S.-designated terrorist group that has killed Americans and threatens the region. But it is not comfortable endorsing Israel’s campaign completely — or publicly — because it is worried it will creep too far into Lebanese territory, instigating an all-out war, one of the U.S. officials said.
The administration’s public message to Israel continues to be: Avoid escalation and keep pursuing diplomacy with Hezbollah — in particular, a 21-day cease-fire proposed by the U.S. and France last week.
That has been the case despite developments in the Israeli operation. Those included attacks on thousands of Hezbollah operatives using exploding pagers and walkie-talkies and the decimation of Hezbollah’s top ranks, including a strike that killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Israel and Hezbollah to accept a cease-fire, even as he — like Biden and others — is glad to see Nasrallah gone.
“With regard to Lebanon, what’s the best way to achieve the stated objective of creating an environment in northern Israel that gives people confidence to return to their homes? As I said, we believe the diplomatic course is the best one,” he said Friday amid reports that Nasrallah had been killed.
When Biden was asked in a press conference Monday whether he was comfortable with Israel’s targeted ground raids in Lebanon, the president said: “I am comfortable with them stopping. We should have a cease-fire now.”
But negotiations over the 21-day cease-fire proposal the U.S. announced last week are essentially paused, one of the U.S. officials said, while Israel continues to go after Hezbollah’s positions across the border in Lebanon.
The situation escalated further Monday when Israeli special forces moved across the border, targeting Hezbollah’s tunnel network and other command centers, another U.S. official told POLITICO.
The Israelis had planned to launch a significantly bigger ground incursion into Lebanon this week, but Biden officials have urged against it, asking Israel to be more targeted in how it conducted its operations.
