‘Historic step’ No More: Biden Flips on Backing Abraham Accords; Biden Administration: ‘No guarantees’ Hamas Won’t Benefit From US Aid to Gaza, and related stories

‘Historic step’ no more: Biden flips on backing Abraham Accords:

The White House is now dismissing President Trump’s Abraham Accords between Arab states and Israel — after candidate Joseph R. Biden in 2020 effusively praised the deals and took credit for laying the diplomatic groundwork.

The normalization pacts between Israel and a number of Arab states were at the heart of the Trump administration’s Middle East strategy, easing Israel’s economic and diplomatic isolation and building up a regional coalition of allies to confront Iran and its proxies.

Asked by a reporter last week specifically about the status of Mr. Trump’s accords, Jen Psaki, President Biden’s press secretary, responded: “Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don’t think they did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East.”

The recent 11-day war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip has put the region on edge once again. Over the weekend, Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh declared victory after Hamas fired over 4,000 missiles into Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliated with airstrikes. Mr. Haniyeh said Hamas had met its objective in the fighting and “destroyed the project of coexistence,” according to news reports, in a reference to the Abraham Accords. —>READ MORE HERE

Biden administration: ‘No guarantees’ Hamas won’t benefit from US aid to Gaza:

U.S. officials acknowledged coming American aid for Palestinians could rehabilitate Hamas after several weeks of fighting with Israeli officials as Secretary of State Antony Blinken works to seal the ceasefire between the warring sides.

“We’re going to be working in partnership with the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority to kind of channel aid there in a manner that does its best to go to the people of Gaza,” a senior State Department official told reporters Monday. “As we all know in life, there are no guarantees, but we’re going to do everything that we can to ensure that this assistance reaches the people who need it the most.”

President Joe Biden emphasized the need to “rebuild Gaza” without re-arming Hamas after the ceasefire last week. That’s a difficult problem, but the combination of regional partners and situational awareness could help Biden’s team mitigate much of that risk.

“We know pretty well from doing sanctions research which industries they’re involved in personally and where they draw a lot of their funding from,” the Atlantic Council’s Kirsten Fontenrose, the White House National Security Council’s senior director for the Gulf in 2018, told the Washington Examiner. “Putting money into industries that are not part of their bucket is one way to make sure they … can’t siphon off the funding.” —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories:

Secretary of State Blinken Promises U.S. Aid to Rebuild Gaza Strip

Blinken: Biden will push $75M in Palestinian aid, reopen Jerusalem consulate

As Biden “Rebuilds” Gaza Infrastructure, Hamas Brags It Turned Water Pipes Into Rockets

Biden Wants $75 Mil for Gaza/Hamas and $30 Mil for UNRWA/Hamas

Biden Admin Announces Major Aid Money and Controversial Consulate for Palestinians

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