Israel defence minister says Gaza war will last 'months'
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Transcript
00:00 That's the military's desired length of time, a few months.
00:05 If you ask Benjamin Netanyahu,
00:06 it should last for years perhaps until the next election.
00:09 So he won't have to have any questions asked
00:12 because nothing can be asked during a war.
00:14 And if you ask the people on the ground in Gaza,
00:17 the shorter, the better.
00:18 So I think that's an aim, if you like, of the military.
00:22 It's not clear they will have that period of months.
00:25 We know from what we heard from Jake Sullivan
00:27 before he went into this meeting,
00:29 that his aim is to get more aid,
00:32 to more aid more quickly to civilians in Gaza,
00:35 not just for it to pile up on the borders,
00:37 but actually to get in, to be delivered,
00:40 and to see an improvement in the situation
00:42 of ordinary civilians in Gaza
00:44 who are now piled into the south of the Gaza Strip,
00:48 no longer in their own homes, displaced,
00:51 many of them hungry, we heard from the United Nations today.
00:55 And all of those things are things
00:57 that America wants to repair or to fix
01:00 in order to give Israel a little bit more time,
01:03 but I don't think months to finish this fight with Hamas.
01:08 - And Jake Sullivan then in Israel today
01:12 for these meetings with Galan,
01:13 with Benjamin Netanyahu as well,
01:16 but it's worth saying he's not the only American envoy
01:19 who will be heading to Israel in the coming weeks.
01:21 Several people are expected to go.
01:23 So is the United States trying now to ratchet up pressure
01:28 on the Israeli government?
01:29 - I think the answer to that is yes,
01:32 because there's several coming just in the space
01:34 of a couple of days before Christmas,
01:36 the pre-Christmas rush.
01:38 And we've seen American pressure from the start.
01:41 You know, Joe Biden's been here,
01:43 Blinken's been here a number of times.
01:45 That's the US Secretary of State.
01:47 They attend war cabinet meetings.
01:49 That's something that is not common at all
01:52 from previous Gaza conflicts and previous wars
01:55 that Israel fought over many years, over decades now.
01:58 Some in Israel are referring to it as a bear hug,
02:01 both protection and also a way to stop Israel
02:04 from doing certain things that America might not want.
02:08 For example, I think it's quite clear now,
02:10 if you look back over this 69 days so far,
02:13 that it was American intervention
02:15 that stopped Israel opening a second front
02:18 or perhaps Hezbollah opening a second front in Lebanon.
02:21 So while that border is definitely escalating,
02:25 it's still not at the capacity that it could be.
02:27 And that is definitely due to American intervention,
02:30 pressure on Israel, huge support for Israel.
02:34 That was a message both to Iran and to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
02:39 You know, as Joe Biden said, don't.
02:42 I think another thing that they will definitely
02:44 be discussing today is as well as Syria and Lebanon,
02:47 so the Northern border, as well as Gaza,
02:50 I think what is going on with the Yemeni,
02:53 the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea,
02:57 I think that's a very serious next stage.
02:59 And from Israel's point of view,
03:01 the puppet master for all of these,
03:03 for Yemen, for Hamas, and for in Lebanon and Syria is Iran.
03:08 I'm sure that will be part of their discussion too.
03:11 We did see, for example, the US saying
03:15 that it would not bring in force 20,000 assault rifles
03:20 to Israel right now, because it feared
03:21 they were going to be given to extremist settlers
03:24 in the West Bank.
03:25 I don't think 20,000 assault rifles
03:27 is gonna break the bank here.
03:29 Israel has received much greater weapons than that.
03:34 But I think it's a sign, a message to Israel.
03:36 You can't do just whatever you like.
03:38 Remember who is helping you here.