As Jerusleam anticipates uncomfortable measures being imposed on Israel during President Biden’s lame-duck tenure, Washington is already blaming the Israelis for a perceived humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 

Secretary Blinken is attempting to seal a “day after” roadmap for post-war Gaza, Axios is reporting. The plan, to be presented after the November election, is reportedly based on ideas devised by the United Arab Emirates and discussed with top Israeli diplomats.

There are gaps between Jeruslaem and Abu Dhabi, though, and also deep disagreements among members of the Biden administration, according to the website. Even so, Israelis are telling the Sun that they are concerned about facing American measures that might be harmful to their interests after the presidential election. 

Such measures could be imposed at the United Nations, especially if President Trump wins the election. After Trump won the election in 2016, a lame duck President Obama declined to veto a UN Security Council resolution that reversed previous American policies on Jewish settlements.  

“I don’t think it would be as dramatic as that Obama resolution,” a Jerusalem official told the Sun, adding though that Mr. Biden is likely to initiate UN action. “It could be something administrative, along the lines of the plan Axios reported on,” the official said.

Washington has been condemning Israel for worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Under American pressure, “several dozen trucks of aid have entered northern Gaza for the first time in several weeks,” the American ambassador at the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said during a Security Council emergency session Wednesday. 

“That’s not enough,” she added. “Many more deliveries are needed, and we will continue to push for that.” A “policy of starvation” could be “horrific and unacceptable” and might violate international and American law, she said. While Jerusalem states it has no such policy, she allowed that “we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement.” 

Ms. Thomas-Greenfield’s warnings follow a letter from Mr. Blinken and Secretary Austin threatening an arms embargo on Israel unless humanitarian conditions in Gaza improve within 30 days. The letter was an unsubtle hint that post-election America might go hard on Israel, perhaps using the UN as a cudgel.  

“The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks,” Vice President Harris wrote Sunday on X. “Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,” and “international humanitarian law must be respected.” 

The UN has long been predicting an Israeli-made famine in Gaza, something that has yet to materialize. “Given the abject conditions and intolerable suffering in north Gaza, the fact that humanitarian access is nearly non-existent is unconscionable,” the UN’s acting undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, Joyce Msuya, told the Security Council Wednesday. 

Israel says that aid delivery is hampered by Hamas’s insistence on controlling its distribution. Armed men take control of aid trucks, which they then use to deliver to favored Gaza clans. Needy Gazans pay them back either in cash or by sending young men to join the terror group’s fighting force. 

Since the start of the war, “over one million tons of aid have been delivered via more than 50,000 trucks, including over 700,000 tons of food,” Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, told reporters Wednesday. “The problem in Gaza is not lack of aid. The problem is Hamas, which hijacks the aid, stealing, storing, and selling it to feed their terror machine, while civilians suffer.”

Aggression by Hamas has worsened in recent weeks, according to Israeli sources, causing delays. Additionally, aid mostly fails to arrive to the needy because UN personnel and NGOs charged with its distribution are being intimidated and at times failing to face Hamas.     

“As we speak, you have 500 trucks that pass these very checkpoints,” Mr. Danon says. But the aid is “waiting there because you have problems of truck drivers, of people who don’t want to drive. It’s being wasted. So the blame is not on Israel. The blame is on Hamas.” 

So, should the IDF take over the aid distribution operation? “Our long-term goal is not to stay in Gaza,” Mr. Danon tells the Sun. In the near term, “we will make sure that security is being held properly, but we have no desire to be the one running the daily life in Gaza.”

The UAE’s “day after” plan reportedly envisions a Gaza takeover by an international force led by a reformed Palestinian Authority, which would marginalize President Abbas’s influence. Yet, turning it into an American plan would require some pressure, which, based on current Washiington’s views on Gaza, is likely to mostly be exerted on Israel.