Representatives of the G7 nations assembled hurriedly in Japan and today announced a “unified stance” on the war in Gaza. The United States was once again represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was described as having “hammered out” the statement in coordination with the other representatives. Blinken failed to garner any support for Israel from Arab nations previously, but he clearly had a much smoother path among the G7 countries. Still, you could see his and Biden’s fingerprints in the statement. The group unequivocally condemned the attacks by Hamas and supported Israel’s right to self-defense. But they also included demands that “all parties” allow for “unimpeded humanitarian support” for civilians, which of course won’t be able to happen without some “humanitarian pauses” in the war. (AP)

Top diplomats from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies announced a unified stance on the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday after intensive meetings in Tokyo, condemning Hamas, supporting Israel’s right to self-defense and calling for “humanitarian pauses” to speed aid to desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement following two days of talks, the nations sought to balance unequivocal criticism of Hamas’ attacks against Israel and “the need for urgent action” to help civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“All parties must allow unimpeded humanitarian support for civilians, including food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, and access for humanitarian workers,” said the statement, hammered out by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy. “We support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement and the release of hostages.”

The agreement was reached with the Foreign Ministers from France, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, and Italy. I was a little worried that Italy might not be fully in line with the rest, but it appears that they’ve settled in on the correct side. Those of you who still remember when the G7 was the G8 can easily imagine how much more poorly this would have gone if Russia was still a member of the gang. Russia has traditionally supported a two-state solution and engaged positively with the Palestinian side. They do not consider Hamas a terrorist organization. There is no evidence that Russia helped plan the October 7 attacks, but they are definitely cozier with Iran than Israel.

Other members of the G7 expressed their desire to prevent any further escalation of the war in Gaza and stop it from spreading outside of the current boundaries. That’s a noble goal to be sure, since nobody wants to see it spread and Israel doesn’t appear to feel a need to “escalate” beyond the methodic pace they have been setting thus far. But someone is going to have to put a leash on Iran at some point and Joe Biden hasn’t expressed any interest in doing that yet.

The meeting couldn’t wrap up without Tony Blinken putting his foot in his mouth again, sadly. He set other restrictions in terms of what should happen after the war. While he included a couple of restrictions on the Palestinians, most of them were aimed at Israel. He insisted that Israel “could not” remain in Gaza once Hamas has been defeated. That’s in direct contradiction to what Bibi Netanyahu said just this week. Here’s a video of Blinken addressing reporters on that topic.

Remember that Netanyahu said that Israel would almost certainly have to maintain “security responsibilities” in Gaza after the war, perhaps “indefinitely.” Personally, I think that sounds like a recipe for trouble given the history of the region for the past few decades. But then again, it’s unclear what other solution is available for Israel. The Palestinian Authority has already said they won’t take over Gaza. Neither Egypt nor Jordan want the job and they won’t even accept Palestinian refugees from the Strip. The only people who wanted to run Gaza were Hamas, and they only wanted the position to use it as a platform to attack Israel.

If someone doesn’t remain and establish order in Gaza, coordinating supplies and security, Hamas could easily start to grow back like a weed when you can never fully yank out all the roots. As dangerous as it might be, who else could do it initially but Israel? It would be nice if some new elections could be orchestrated once the cleanup from the war is underway. That would give the supposedly peaceful Palestinian civilians the chance to demonstrate that they are ready to live in peace alongside Israel as the protesters in America and in our Congress keep insisting. I don’t buy it for a minute, but the Palestinian people at least deserve the chance to show their true colors.