A rendering of the proposed 56-unit building at Halsted Street and 63rd Parkway. | RDL Architects
The 56 units, most at subsidized rents, would go up next to another city-approved project for a commercial kitchen and event space.
City officials are moving forward with approvals of an affordable housing development in Englewood that would arise alongside other improvements near the community’s traditional crossroads of 63rd and Halsted streets.
The housing proposal would cover parcels along Halsted southwest of 61st Street. The vacant land has been city-owned for decades. A Housing Department report said it has environmental challenges because a car repair and painting shop operated there long ago.
Officials have struck a deal with Keith B. Key Enterprises, a developer based in Columbus, Ohio. In a $20.9 million proposal, Key has agreed to build a five-story building containing 56 apartments, all but 16 subsidized to appeal to lower-income renters.
The city is essentially giving the parcels to Key. They’ve been appraised at $80,000 and officials said any sales agreement would absolve the city of costs for environmental work. A Housing Department spokeswoman said the cleanup might cost $200,000.
Chicago’s Community Development Commission endorsed the terms of the property sale May 11. On Thursday, the Chicago Plan Commission is due to review a zoning change to accommodate the project. Both approvals are needed before the matter gets to the City Council.
The building would be a neighbor of another stage of the city’s long-term plans for “Englewood Square,” a reimagining of the old shopping hub. The city’s planning department has approved developers’ plans for a $10.3 million “eco-food” center, converting an old firehouse into a commercial kitchen. A business incubator and event space are promised in a later phase.
The projects seek to capitalize on the 2016 opening of a Whole Foods-anchored shopping plaza and 63rd and Halsted streets. The area also got a boost with the 2007 opening of a new campus for Kennedy-King College.
Key Enterprises is a minority-owned firm that lists projects in Pittsburgh, New Orleans, New York City and Columbus, Ohio. The city has agreed that the project qualifies for low-income housing tax credits, and it also can get a long-term loan of up to $2 million from the Housing Department.
The building would be followed by another, similarly sized apartment structure next door in a later phase, city documents show.
Keith Key, the CEO, could not be reached Tuesday. The project is within the 16th Ward of Ald. Stephanie Coleman, who also could not be reached. However, city documents list her and key neighborhood groups, such as the Greater Englewood Community Development Corp., as backing the project.
Asiaha Butler, CEO of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, praised the development in a letter to the city. “Englewood needs additional high-quality affordable housing, but it also needs to establish market-rate housing to stimulate private-sector investment,” Butler said. “This project will provide both elements and build upon the retail investment made at Englewood Square to strengthen the Halsted Street corridor and help create a positive environment for additional real estate investment.”
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Hotels in downtown Chicago and elsewhere in the city took a hard hit during the pandemic, and still need help if they are to reopen and take advantage of the uptick in tourism, a trade group says. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association wants Mayor Lori Lightfoot to earmark $75 million in federal coronavirus relief to help Chicago hotels staff up for a full reopening. That’s roughly $1,500-per-room at every hotel in the city.
The return of Lollapalooza is a huge boost for Chicago tourism. But if hotels are to take full advantage — by rehiring a full staff — they need federal help, an industry trade group said Tuesday.
Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, is pushing for a hotel-only version of the Payroll Protection Program that helped restaurants survive the pandemic.
Jacobson is asking Mayor Lori Lightfoot to earmark $75 million of the $1.9 million avalanche of federal coronavirus relief on its way to the city to help Chicago hotels staff up for a full reopening. That’s roughly $1,500-per-room at every city hotel.
To provide that same help to hotels outside Chicago, Jacobson is urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to set aside $250 million in federal relief.
“These hotels that are now reopening — they’ve gone a year without a penny in revenue. Just to open their doors, they need 100-to-200 people rehired. And they don’t have the capital on hand after being closed for a year to get those paychecks up and running,” Jacobson said, suggesting “a bridge program” to help hotels rehire those workers.
“Then business will pick up with Lollapalooza and with conventions to sustain those paychecks. We just need that initial influx. We just need a little boost because hotels haven’t gotten a penny of support from the city of Chicago throughout this all.”
Jacobson said the size of the city and state requests was based on a similar program in Washington D.C. last fall, bankrolled by the first round of federal stimulus funds.
The mayor’s office and the governor’s office had no immediate comment.
What happens if both the city and state say no?
“It’ll just slow the rehiring process. Hotels will be forced to do more with less,” he said.
A pending “Right to Return to Work” ordinance would require Chicago hotels to rehire employees based on seniority, regardless of skills. Jacobson argued it would slow the pace of rehiring.
Hotels need and deserve the right to rehire employees to fill the jobs they need immediately. They need to be nimble to meet travel demands. They don’t need to be saddled with a logistical nightmare just when they’re trying to get back on their feet, he said.
“We’re not opposed to the concept. We want the people [who] are trained and are loyal to our hotels back first. It’s just the way it’s actually written that’s unworkable. It doesn’t take into account what department they were laid off from,” Jacobson said.
“If a position opens up in the kitchen as a cook and a housekeeper is next on the list in terms of seniority, according to the ordinance, we’d have to hire a housekeeper to go work as a cook. That just doesn’t make sense.”
Hotel owners have offered to sit down with Unite Here Local 1 and negotiate the final language for the last six months, but those offers have been rejected, Jacobson said.
Union officials could not be reached for comment.
Hotel occupancy rates are “hovering in the high 20% range,” Jacobson said. That’s a vast improvement from the “single digits” of a year ago, but well below the occupancy rates well “in the 70’s” hotels normally enjoy in the days leading up to Memorial Day.
The Westin River North is scheduled to reopen later this week. The Sheraton Grand follows suit June 7. The Palmer House Hilton, mired in bankruptcy, plans to reopen in mid-June, Jacobson said.
It’s no accident the sleeping giant of an industry started to reawaken after Pritzker and Lightfoot announced McCormick Place would reopen with the return of the Auto Show in July.
“That’s what we were saying all along. That we just needed some long-term planning to put them at ease that, if they were going to go through the process of reopening their 1,500-room hotel, that they were gonna have the business to sustain it,” Jacobson said.
“If you look at the various festivals and events throughout this city, there’s very few that generate as much tourism to the city as Lollapalooza. It’s thousands and thousands of visitors coming to Chicago. That’s what we need to reopen some of these bigger hotels.”
Suzy Ishkontana, 7, is kissed by her father Riad Ishkontana, 42, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Suzy and her father Riad were the only survivors of their family after an Israeli airstrike destroyed one of the buildings they lived in in Gaza City early Sunday, killing her mother and four siblings. The man and his daughter were pulled alive from under the rubble after several hours. | AP
Children are being subjected to extensive trauma in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. For some, it’s trauma they’ve seen repeatedly throughout their short lives.
GAZA CITY, Gaza — Suzy Ishkontana hardly speaks or eats. It’s been two days since the 7-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of what was once her family’s home, destroyed amid a barrage of Israeli airstrikes. She spent hours buried in the wreckage as her siblings and mother died around her.
Children are being subjected to extensive trauma in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. For some, it’s trauma they’ve seen repeatedly throughout their short lives.
This is the fourth time in 12 years Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers have gone to war. Each time, Israel has unleashed heavy airstrikes at the densely populated Gaza Strip as it vows to stop Hamas rocket barrages launched toward Israel.
According to Gaza health officials, at least 63 children are among the 217 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began on May 10. On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed by Hamas rockets, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy.
Israel says it does everything it can to prevent civilian casualties, including issuing warnings for people to evacuate buildings about to be struck. As Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, most of them intercepted by anti-missile defenses, Israel’s military has pounded hundreds of sites in Gaza, where some 2 million people live squeezed into a tight urban fabric.
Videos on social media from Gaza have shown the grief of survivors from families wiped out in an instant.
“They were four! Where are they? Four!” wailed one father outside a hospital after learning all four of his children had been killed. Another showed a young boy screaming “Baba,” as he ran to the front of the funeral procession where men were carrying his father’s body to burial.
The Ishkontana family was buried under the rubble of their home early Sunday, after massive bombing raids of downtown Gaza City that Israel said were targeting a Hamas tunnel network. The strikes came without warning.
Riad Ishkontana recounted to The Associated Press how he was buried for five hours under the wreckage, pinned under a chunk of concrete, unable to reach his wife and five children.
“I was listening to their voices beneath the rubble. I heard Dana and Zain calling, ‘Dad! Dad!’ before their voices faded and then I realized they had died,” he said, referring to two of his children.
After he was rescued and taken to the hospital, he said, family and staff hid the truth from him as long as they could. “I learned about their deaths one after another,” he said. Finally, Suzy was brought in alive, the second-oldest of his three daughters and two sons, and the only survivor.
Though she had only limited physical bruising from her seven hours under the rubble, the young girl was in “severe trauma and shock,” said pediatrician Dr. Zuhair Al-Jaro. The hospital was unable to get her the psychological treatment she needs because of the ongoing fighting, he said.
“She has entered into a deep depression,” he said. Only today, he said Tuesday, did she eat something after she was allowed briefly outside the hospital and saw her cousins.
As her father spoke to the AP, Suzy sat on the bed next to him, silent and studying the faces of the people in the room but rarely making eye contact. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she turned away. When her father started to answer for her, saying she wanted to become a doctor, the girl began sobbing loudly.
Ishkontana, 42, who recently stopped working as a waiter because of coronavirus lockdowns, said Suzy is smart and tech-savvy and loves smartphones and tablets. “She explores them, she has more experience dealing with them than I do,” he said. She also loves studying and would gather all her siblings into a play “class,” taking the role of their teacher, he said.
The Ishkontanas were just one family destroyed that day.
The strikes Sunday targeted Hamas tunnels running under Gaza City, the Israeli military said. The warplanes pounded al-Wahda Street, one of the city’s busiest commercial avenues, lined with apartment buildings with stores, bakeries, cafes and electronics shops on the ground floors.
Three buildings collapsed, and multiple people from at least three families were killed. In all 42 people died, including 10 children and 16 women.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, called the situation that led to the deaths “abnormal.” He said in one location the airstrikes caused a tunnel to collapse, bringing houses down with it, “and that caused a large amount of civilian casualties, which were not the aim.”
He said the military was analyzing what happened and “attempting to recalibrate” its ordnance to prevent a reoccurrence.
He said the bombing campaign targeting tunnel networks would be expanded to more areas of Gaza and that the military tries when possible to hit tunnels under roads rather than under houses.
Israel and Hamas have fought similar conflicts in 2009, 2012 and 2014, each time wreaking heavy destruction
The Norwegian Refugee Council said that 11 of the children killed so far in this war had been going through its psycho-social programs helping children deal with trauma — a sign of how children repeatedly are victimized by the violence. Among them was 8-year-old Dana, Suzy’s sister.
“It’s the fourth time for many of them to experience” bombardment around their homes, said Hozayfa Yazji, the refugee council area field manager.
Parents in Gaza desperately try to calm their terrified children, as bombs rain down, telling the youngest ones it’s just fireworks or trying to put up a cheerful front.
The violence “will of course affect the psychology of these kids,” he said. “We are expecting that … the situation will be much worse and more children will need more support.”
The refugee council works with 118 schools in Gaza, reaching more than 75,000 students through its Better Learning Program. The program trains teachers to deal with traumatized children and organizes fun exercises to relieve stress. It also does home-checks on children to provide help.
The refugee council works with 118 schools in Gaza, reaching more than 75,000 students through its Better Learning Program. The program trains teachers to deal with traumatized children and organizes fun exercises to relieve stress. It also does home-checks on children to provide help.
The council’s secretary-general, Jan Egeland, called for an immediate cease-fire, saying, “Spare these children and their families. Stop bombing them now.”
But he said, longer term, an end to the blockade on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territory is necessary “if we are to avoid more trauma and death among children.”
MINNEAPOLIS — White Sox manager Tony La Russa apologized to the Twins for Yermin Mercedes swinging on a 3-0 count in the ninth inning of a blowout victory Monday and hitting a home run against Twins position player Willians Astudillo Monday night, an old school response to an unwritten rule of respecting opponents and not showing them up.
“Big mistake,” La Russa said. “Just about the time the guy started making the pitch I took several steps toward the field yelling ‘take, take, take!’ It looked to me like he was going to swing. I was upset, that’s not the time to swing, 3-0.
“There will be a consequence he has to endure here within our family.”
La Russa said third base coach Joe McEwing gave Mercedes the take sign. While La Russa sent a message to the Twins saying he was sorry, Mercedes wasn’t as apologetic.
And a lot of fans, if Monday reaction on social media is an indicator, say that there is no need for him to be.
“The Twins knew I was upset,” La Russa said. “Joe had given him the take sign. I just think Yermin was locked in, they know each other from different competitions and said, ‘I got to get him.’ ”
The homer came on a 47-mph lob pitch in the ninth inning and gave the Sox a 16-4 lead. Astudillo, who shot a glare or two toward the Sox dugout after the inning, retired the other three batters he faced. It was his third relief appearance in a season when teams are saving bullpens more and more by using position players in blowout games. Twins broadcasters saw it La Russa’s way, too.
“There will be a consequence he has to endure within our family,” La Russa said of Mercedes. “But it won’t happen again, Joe will be on the lookout and I will, too. We’ll go running in front of the pitcher if we have to.”
But Mercedes, who talked to media before La Russa, said he would continue playing the way he plays. He has six homers and is leading the American league in batting average, sporting a .364/.410/.574 hitting line.
“I’m going to play like that,” Mercedes said. “You know, I’m Yermin. I can’t be all of the players because if I change it, everything’s going to change. … We’re just having fun. It’s baseball.”
La Russa, the 76-year-old third-winningest manager of all time, will manage like he always has, adhering to the mindset of never show up an opponent. Part of his concern, he said, would be provoking the Twins to retaliate by throwing at a Sox hitter.
“He’s not going to do that again,” La Russa said. “I heard he said, ‘I play my game.’ No he doesn’t. He plays the game of Major League Baseball. Respects the game, respect the opponents and he has to respect the sign. When you get the take sign, take.”
On the flip side of La Russa’s take is the changing view of fans that baseball, in a changing environment where teams such as the Sox themselves roll with a “Change the Game” mantra, should emphasize fun. The matchup of a Twins fan favorite versus Mercedes, the AL Rookie of the Month for April, brought many fans at Target Field to their feet for the first time in a 16-4 loss.
One Sox player asked to comment declined, saying it was a “lose-lose” situation.
“My opinion is if you don’t want him to swing 3-0, don’t throw him a strike,” another player said. “There are unwritten rules in baseball but at the same time you’re throwing a position player out there and if you don’t like it, well, it is what it is.”
“I don’t ever want to give the other team an excuse to take a shot at one of our players,” La Russa said. “You say ‘unwritten rules,’ but they’re just common-sense. We were taught from Day 1: Respect the game, respect the competition, respect your opponent. And the way you respect is you both go out and play as hard and good as you can. And if someday, the other team is having a tough day, and the decision is final, then you don’t steal, you don’t hit 3-0. When is that? That’s every manager’s decision.”
Chicago police investigate the scene where two officers were shot May 16, 2021, in Lawndale. | Anthony Vasquez/Sun-Times
Bruce Lua, 45, was also shot during the incident in Lawndale. He was ordered held on $10 million bail Tuesday.
A convicted felon was awaiting trial for a pending misdemeanor assault case when he shot two Chicago police officers in Lawndale over the weekend, Cook County prosecutors said Tuesday.
Bruce Lua fired at a 26-year-old officer Sunday morning, striking him in the hand and a 28-year-old officer was hit in the hip and shoulder, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.
The officers were treated and released from Mount Sinai Hospital later in the day.
While the bullets did not break any bones or damage any vital organs, the officers will need additional treatment and physical therapy, Murphy said.
Lua, who was also shot when the officers returned fired, was not at his bond court hearing since he was still recovering at Stroger Hospital.
Last month, Lua was released on his own recognizance for misdemeanor aggravated assault charges for allegedly threatening two women with a knife in separate incidents, court records show.
On Sunday, shortly after 7 a.m., two other officers responded to calls of a gunshot in the 3600 block of Douglas Boulevard, and were directed to Lua by a person on the street, Murphy said.
The uniformed officers who were in a marked police vehicle followed Lua at a distance for several blocks, commanded that he show his hands, and offered to provide help if he needed it, Murphy said.
Lua allegedly continued to walk away without responding.
Tom Schuba/Sun-TimesMembers of the police department salute the two wounded officers after they were discharged from Mount Sinai, May 16, 2021.
Then the two uniformed officers who were eventually wounded responded to the scene in a marked vehicle, Murphy said.
When those officers saw Lua approaching in the 1500 block Douglas Boulevard, they drew their weapons, told him to stop and remove his hands from his pockets, Murphy said.
The injured officers and another officer returned fire, Murphy said.
After he was hit, Lua fell to the ground and was taken to the hospital.
The incident was captured on the officers’ body-worn cameras, Murphy said.
The three officers’ use of force is being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Both wounded officers joined the force in 2017, according to CPD.
Lua pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2007 and has convictions for misdemeanor gun and driving under the influence charges, records show.
Judge Arthur Wesley Willis ordered Lua held on $10 million bail for attempted murder, aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon charges.
He also ordered that Lua be held on $100,000 bail for his pending misdemeanor assault case.
Lua is expected back in court for the shooting on May 24.
Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble shows still images from police body camera footage after announcing he will not charge deputies in the April 21 fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. during a news conference Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at the Pasquotank County Public Safety building in Elizabeth City, N.C. Womble said he would not release bodycam video of the confrontation between Brown, a Black man, and the law enforcement officers. | AP
District Attorney Andrew Womble said that Andrew Brown Jr. used his car as a “deadly weapon,” causing Pasquotank County deputies to believe it was necessary to use deadly force.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — A North Carolina prosecutor said Tuesday that sheriff’s deputies were justified in fatally shooting Andrew Brown Jr. because he struck a deputy with his car and nearly ran him over while ignoring commands to show his hands and get out of the vehicle.
District Attorney Andrew Womble said at a news conference that Brown used his car as a “deadly weapon,” causing Pasquotank County deputies to believe it was necessary to use deadly force.
Womble, who acknowledged Brown wasn’t armed with guns or other weapons, said the deputies will face no criminal charges after he reviewed a state investigation of the shooting, which sparked weeks of protests. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II said in a video statement Tuesday afternoon that the deputies will keep their jobs but will be “disciplined and retrained.”
Brown’s family released a statement calling Womble’s decision “both an insult and a slap in the face.” Attorneys for the family who watched body camera footage have said repeatedly that he was trying to drive away from deputies serving drug-related warrants and posed no threat.
The prosecutor declined to directly release copies of bodycam video of the April 21 shooting, but he played portions of the video during the news conference that media outlets broadcast live.
The multiple angles of the footage, projected onto a screen behind Womble, depicted a chaotic scene of about 44 seconds. After six deputies approach Brown’s car with guns drawn, the video shows one of them putting his hand on the driver’s side door, then yelling and recoiling as Brown backs up.
Seconds later, the same deputy appears to be in the path of the car as Brown moves forward, though it’s not clear how fast the car is moving. The deputy appears to avoid a direct hit after pushing his hand onto the moving car’s hood and quickly moving aside. Gunshots are then heard, and officers appear to continue firing as the car moves away from them.
The quality of the projected video, even replayed later on news websites that filmed it, made it hard for a viewer to glean the level of detail described by either the Brown family or prosecutor when they watched the footage in person. The family continued its calls Tuesday for direct release of the video, which would make longer and higher-quality versions public.
During his news conference, Womble said the deputy who tried to open Brown’s car door was jerked over the hood when the car backed up, and the deputy’s body was struck by the vehicle. The deputy then had to push off the hood with his hand “to avoid being run over” when Brown drove forward, Womble said. He said that was the moment when the first shot was fired by a fellow deputy.
“I find that the facts of this case clearly illustrate the officers who used deadly force on Andrew Brown Jr. did so reasonably and only when a violent felon used a deadly weapon to put their lives in danger,” Womble said, referring to Brown’s car. He added that “Brown posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officers and others.”
“Federal courts have held that the Constitution simply does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm,” he said.
Though Womble said at least two deputies were endangered by Brown’s driving, the sheriff has said his deputies weren’t injured.
In a statement released a couple of hours after the news conference, attorneys for Brown’s families decried Womble’s conclusion.
“To say this shooting was justified, despite the known facts, is both an insult and a slap in the face to Andrew’s family, the Elizabeth City community, and to rational people everywhere,” the statement said. “Not only was the car moving away from officers, but four of them did not fire their weapons — clearly they did not feel that their lives were endangered. And the bottom line is that Andrew was killed by a shot to the back of the head.”
Many of the two dozen people who gathered outside the municipal building where Womble held his news conference said they were disappointed by his decision. Some said they would hold a protest march in Elizabeth City on Tuesday evening.
Keith Rivers, president of Pasquotank County’s NAACP chapter, said he was frustrated and angry.
“Andrew Brown Jr. is the victim,” Rivers said. “It’s not a district attorney’s job to defend sheriff’s deputies. It is his job to get justice for the victim. It is the court’s job to decide whether or not it was reasonable or unreasonable.”
The State Bureau of Investigation, which conducted the state review, issued a statement Tuesday noting that it investigates the facts but “does not make any determinations as to whether criminal charges should be filed.” The statement said its investigative report isn’t a public record and won’t be released.
The three deputies who fired shots — Investigator Daniel Meads, Deputy Robert Morgan and Cpl. Aaron Lewellyn — have been on leave since it happened. The sheriff’s office said Morgan is Black, while Meads and Lewellyn are white. Womble said the deputies have no prior use-of-force complaints.
Four other deputies involved in serving the warrants were reinstated after the sheriff said it was clear they didn’t fire shots.
A lawyer who represented some of the deputies during a court hearing on petitions to release the video didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Womble said a medical examiner working for the state found that Brown died from multiple gunshot wounds after being hit in the back of the head and right shoulder. Womble said the medical examiner, who spoke to him by phone, also described superficial “abrasions” to his arm, leg and back from bullet shrapnel. The state’s written autopsy hasn’t been released yet.
Two deputies fired nine shots from Glock handguns and the third fired five rounds from an AR-15 rifle, according to Womble, based on spent shell casings.
An independent autopsy released by the family found that Brown was hit by bullets five times, including once in the back of the head.
President Joe Biden speaks about distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, in the East Room of the White House, Monday, May 17, 2021, in Washington. | AP
Top Biden administration officials underscored to the Israelis that time is not on their side in terms of international objections to nine days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets, and that it is in their interest to wind down the operations soon.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and administration officials have encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials to wind down the bombardment of Gaza, a person with knowledge of the discussions said Tuesday, as the Israeli and Palestinian death tolls mounted and pressure grew on Biden to move more forcefully to stop the fighting.
Top Biden administration officials underscored to the Israelis on Monday and Tuesday that time is not on their side in terms of international objections to nine days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets, and that it is in their interest to wind down the operations soon, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the private talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The account shows Biden administration officials going further privately in messaging to Netanyahu than they have previously revealed. A White House readout of a Biden call to Netanyahu on Monday said Biden had expressed support for a cease-fire, but said nothing about the U.S. urging Israel to bring fighting to a close.
The fighting has killed at least 213 Palestinians and 12 people in Israel, and tested both Biden’s reluctance to publicly criticize Israel and his administration’s determination not to bog down its foreign policy focus in Middle East hot spots.
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday challenged the Biden administration to show any results from what it is calling its quiet diplomacy to stop the new Israeli-Hamas battles. Ambassador Riyad Mansour pointed to the U.S. repeatedly blocking a U.N. Security Council action on the conflict, and he urged the Biden administration to do more.
“If the Biden administration can exert all of their pressure to bring an end to the aggression against our people, nobody is going to stand in their way,” Mansour said.
The White House has so far resisted the calls for ramping up public pressure on Netanyahu. It has made the calculation that Israelis will not respond to international resolutions or public demands by the U.S. and that its greatest leverage is behind-the-scenes pressure, according to the person familiar with the administration’s discussions.
The person said that the Israelis have signaled that it is possible their military campaign could end in a matter of days.
The effort to press U.S. ally Israel to find an endgame to the military campaign in Gaza came amid a split this week among House Democrats on whether to step up pressure for a cease-fire and call for more forceful U.S. diplomacy to end the fighting.
Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee weighed — but on Tuesday shelved — writing Biden to demand that he delay a pending $735 million sale of precision-guided missiles to Israel.
Dozens of progressive and mainstream Democratic lawmakers already have called for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas militants, and some Democrats are demanding Biden push harder for an end to fighting.
Committee member Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, was among the Democrats seeking a harder line, saying he has “serious concerns about the timing of this weapons sale, the message it will send to Israel and the world about the urgency of a cease fire.” He said late Monday that the Biden administration “must use every diplomatic tool to de-escalate this conflict and bring about peace.”
Committee chair Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. said the lawmakers expect an administration briefing Wednesday on the crisis. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday acknowledged the difference between a growing number of progressive Democrats and the Biden administration on the U.S. approach to the conflict, but played it down.
“Every Democrat, and I think every Republican, wants to minimize the exposure of both sides in Gaza and in Israel,” Hoyer told reporters. “There’s a difference about how that can be done.”
Biden did not join in the calls by some of his party’s lawmakers and by many foreign governments to demand a cease-fire, however.
In talks with the Israelis, administration officials have pointed to Hezbollah’s stature rising in the region after their 34-day war with Israel in 2006 to make the case for limiting the time of the military action. But Israeli officials have argued to the administration that a slightly prolonged campaign to degrade Hamas’ military capabilities is necessary and in their interest, according to the person familiar with the talks. Hamas operates in the crowded Gaza Strip, a 25-by-6-mile territory crowded with more than 2 million people.
Hamas has sought to portray their rocket barrages as a defense of Jerusalem. The Israelis have made the case to Biden administration officials that that message is losing resonance as mob violence against Arabs in mixed Israeli cities, including Lod, has been tamped down.
Administration officials are defending Biden’s decision to avoid ratcheting up public pressure on Israel for its role in the fighting. The U.S. this week killed a proposed U.N. Security Council statement that would have expressed concern for civilian deaths and raised the issue of a cease-fire.
“The president has been doing this long enough … to know sometimes diplomacy has to happen behind the scenes,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday.
She spoke as Biden headed to a Ford electric vehicle site in Michigan to promote a green infrastructure plan.
Pressure on the White House to do more in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dogged the trip, with protesters in communities with large populations of Arab Americans shouting condemnation of Biden.
___
Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Edith Lederer contributed to this report.
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