President Biden is the man at the top who makes the final decisions. But we all know that the details, and often the main ideas, are put together long before he steps in. I want to introduce you to a pair of those lesser players who may have a big voice in some of the decision making about Gaza.
First, there is the deputy advisor on national security affairs. The advisor, Jake Sullivan, is in Israel now. Part of his job is to sell the US program to Israel. Previous posts have pointed out how a lot of that program is either unworkable or (very) bad for Israel. Those are considerations that do not enter into the American proposals.
Sullivan’s deputy is named Jonathan Finer. He attended both Yale and Harvard and used to be Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State (2016-2017). It would not be surprising to find that many of the faults in US Middle East policy are there because of his influence. He is, nominally, Jewish. But he is not religiously observant and is well-known for holding strong anti-Zionist and anti-Israel views. Here’s a recent example:
Finer met with Arab- American leaders in Michigan where he said he had “no confidence” that Israeli leaders would take “meaningful steps” toward Palestinian statehood.
Maher Bitar is director of intelligence for the US National Security Council. He was Director of Israel and Palestinian Affairs at the State Dept. under Pres. Obama. His family is Palestinian. He is also a former UNRWA employee (that, by itself, is enough to cast suspicion).
If you want to know where American activities that undermine Israeli actions in Gaza come from, these two individuals might be a good place to start looking,
Wetherhorn 