The Guarantor That Guarantees Nothing

By Elijah J. Magnier –

The exchange between U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the June congressional hearing on the State Department budget may prove more revealing than many official communiqués issued about Gaza, Lebanon or the broader Middle East. What emerged was not simply a disagreement over humanitarian aid or the implementation of President Donald Trump’s twenty-point Gaza plan. The hearing exposed a deeper question that now extends far beyond Gaza itself: if Washington is unable or unwilling to enforce commitments upon its closest ally, why should any regional actor, Lebanon or Iran or the Gulf countries, trust American guarantees elsewhere?

DeLauro’s questions were straightforward. She referred to the continuing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the limited flow of aid (120 humanitarian truck daily instead of 600 as agreed), the escalating death toll (dozens killed daily) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reported directive ordering the Israeli army to seize seventy percent of the Gaza Strip when it was 53% when the ceasefire was established. She repeatedly asked what progress had been achieved regarding implementation of the administration’s own plan and whether the United States opposed such a directive. Israel turned the reconstruction plan of Gaza into a cover to occupy more territories and ethnic cleansing Gaza.