JERUSALEM — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sought Wednesday to blame a recent breakdown in Gaza ceasefire talks on the decision by some European leaders to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Talks over a lasting ceasefire have repeatedly stalled since the early months of the war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack – and long before there was any talk of major European states recognizing Palestinian statehood.
The decisions were announced by France, Britain and other countries after the Trump administration’s Mideast envoy had already walked away in frustration from the negotiations, which happened behind closed doors. It’s unclear how and when they began to break down.
But Mr. Huckabee’s remarks in an interview with The Associated Press point to a sharp divide among Western nations about how to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the rift has only deepened since President Trump took office.
Many European countries have sought to pressure Israel — the stronger party — and frame the pursuit of a two-state solution as a way to address the root causes of a conflict that long predates the war in Gaza. But the Trump administration has given Israel wide latitude to end the war on its terms.
The White House fully supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to end an earlier ceasefire that Trump had helped broker and resume wide-ranging military operations, during which Israel prevented food, medicine and other goods from entering Gaza for more than two months.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that it will call up 60,000 reservists ahead of an expanded military operation in Gaza City, where many Palestinians have chosen to stay despite the danger. Gaza City is Hamas’ military and governing stronghold, and one of the last places of refuge in the northern Strip, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering. Israeli troops will be targeting Hamas’ vast underground tunnel network there, the official added.
Mr. Trump appears to have adopted Israel’s position that further military pressure — including the planned Gaza City offensive — will force Hamas to surrender.
“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!” Mr. Trump posted this week on his Truth Social site.
Meanwhile, France, Britain and more than two dozen other Western-aligned nations have expressed mounting outrage at Israel’s actions, demanding that it halt the fighting and do more to facilitate humanitarian aid. The moves to recognize Palestinians statehood – which were largely symbolic — were in part aimed at pressuring Israel to halt its offensive.
Britain explicitly linked the two, saying it would hold off on recognizing a Palestinian state if Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, stopped building settlements in the West Bank and committed to a two-state solution.
Israel’s current government and most of its political class were opposed to Palestinian statehood even before the war, and they now say it would reward Hamas and allow the militants to eventually carry out more Oct. 7-style attacks.
Huckabee, who is himself a longtime opponent of Palestinian statehood, said the “noise that has been made by European leaders recently … is having the counterproductive effect that they probably think that they want.”
“If they believe that unilaterally calling for a two-state, a Palestinian state recognition, immediately brings them closer, the sad truth is it’s taking them further away,” he said.
Most Palestinians believe the decades-old conflict is rooted in Israel’s military occupation of lands they want for an independent state and its continuous expansion of Jewish settlements. Attempts to negotiate a two-state solution going back to the early 1990s repeatedly broke down as violence flared, and no serious or substantive talks have been held since Netanyahu returned to office in 2009.
On Wednesday, Israel approved plans for settlements in an area known as E1 outside Jerusalem, which the Palestinians and others say will cut the West Bank in half and make the establishment of a viable and contiguous state virtually impossible.
Past U.S. administrations joined their Western allies in vehemently opposing such plans. Mr. Trump and Mr. Huckabee — a strong supporter of Israeli settlements — did not.
