'"The more people suffer, the less they feel empathy for those suffering on the other side. Large majorities throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds believe October 7 didn't happen, and if it did, then it was a legitimate attack on Israel's military," he said. "In Israel, there was almost no reporting on the conditions in Gaza and what the people there endure every day. This dehumanization is one of the greatest tragedies of the conflict."
The primary element of Blinken's vision for Gaza's reconstruction starts with the Palestinian Authority inviting international partners to help establish and run an interim administration – responsible for civil sectors like banking, water, energy, health and civil coordination with Israel. The international community, according to Blinken, would provide funding, oversight and technical support.
The interim administration, meanwhile, would include both Gazans and PA representatives, selected after "meaningful consultation" with communities. It would hand over full responsibility to a fully reformed PA as soon as feasible.
It would operate in close cooperation with senior UN officials, alongside an interim security mission made up of partner nations and vetted Palestinian personnel responsible for a creating secure environment for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, as well as border security preventing Hamas smuggling.
Under Blinken's plan, the U.S. would stand up a new initiative training a PA-led security force in Gaza that would gradually take over from an interim mission – the details of which would be enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution.
Blinken noted that several unnamed international partners expressed willingness to provide forces, but only if Gaza and the West Bank are reunified under a reformed PA as part of a pathway to an independent Palestinian state.
"All parties need to summon political will, make hard decision and hard compromises," he said. "Key regional and international actors need to fully commit to fully supporting Palestinian-led governance and preventing Hamas' return. The PA will need to carry out swift, far-reaching reform to build more transparent, accountable governance," he said.
Blinken further noted that Israel will have to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed PA. "All must embrace a time-bound, conditions-based path toward forming an independent Palestinian state. These principles are mutually reinforcing," he continued, painstakingly detailing missteps from both parties.
"Israelis must decide what relationship they want with the Palestinians. That cannot be the illusion that Palestinians will accept being a non-people without national rights," he said.
"Israelis must abandon the myth they can carry out de facto annexation without cost and consequence to Israel's democracy, its standing, its security," he continued.
"Some in Israel argue that accepting a political horizon for the Palestinians would reward Hamas for October 7. In fact, Hamas has tried to kill the idea of two states for decades."
Blinken insisted that Israel accepting a political horizon would be "the ultimate rebuke to Hamas' nihilistic agenda of death and destruction.
"Up to this point, the parties have failed to make these difficult decisions or acted in ways that put a long-term deal and peace further out of reach," he said, charging Israel with "systematically undermining the capacity and legitimacy of the only viable alternative to Hamas – the Palestinian Authority."
"Israel continues to hold back PA tax revenues that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians – funds that belong to the Palestinians and that the PA needs to pay people that provide essential services."
In the West Bank, meanwhile, Blinken noted that Israel is expanding official settlements and nationalizing land at a faster rate than at any time in the last decade while "turning a blind eye to the unprecedented growth of illegal outposts," adding that "violent attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians have reached record levels."
"We've long made the point that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone," he continued, noting "in north Gaza, each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and reemerge because there's nothing else to fill the void.
"We assess Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost. That is a recipe for enduring insurgency and perpetual war," he continued. "The longer the war goes on, the worse the humanitarian situation gets in Gaza."
"Israel has pursued its military campaign past the point of destroying Hamas' military capacity," he added.
Blinken, however, charged Hamas with having "cynically weaponized the suffering of Palestinians," recalling how slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar sent a message to mediators deeming the deaths of Palestinian civilians "necessary sacrifices."
"Israel's efforts have fallen far short of meeting the colossal scale of need in Gaza. We've been clear publicly and privately, there are steps Israel could take to transform the humanitarian situation in Gaza," he continued.
"The longer the war goes on," Blinken warned, "the greater the risk that Israel's longstanding peace accords with Jordan and Egypt will collapse."
He further warned that Israel "remaining bogged down in Gaza will only harm Israel economically," noting hits to foreign direct investment and Israel's credit rating, as well as how the extended mobilization of reservists is undermining small businesses and private sector productivity.
Blinken further lamented the PA repeatedly failing to undertake long overdue reforms, such as reigning in corruption, and its refusal to consistently and unequivocally condemn October 7.
He said the latter point only entrenched doubt among Israelis that the two communities could ever live side-by-side – as has the PA's prisoner-payment system and "antisemitic remarks of its leader."
He further attacked regional leaders for not forcibly condemning October 7, nor the general operating mode of Hamas. "Had countries around the world applied this collective pressure," he said, "Hamas leaders might have been forced to make different decisions many months ago."
Despite this, he noted "much of the heavy lifting" on Israeli-Saudi normalization is complete, including U.S.-Saudi negotiations on making Saudi Arabia a treaty ally, energy agreements on civil nuclear cooperation and economic agreements to bolster bilateral trade and investment.
The two main elements blocking Israel-Saudi normalization, in his words, are the end of hostilities in Gaza and a credible pathway toward a Palestinian state.
END
