US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will offer robust support to Israel on a trip timed before French-led moves for a Palestinian state, the State Department said Friday, despite US unease over Israel’s airstrike in Qatar.
US President Donald Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff meanwhile had dinner Friday with the Qatari premier in New York, after Trump gently chided Israel for the attack Tuesday on Hamas in Qatar, a key US military and diplomatic partner.
But Rubio, who along with Vice President JD Vance met earlier at the White House with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, will go ahead and leave Saturday for Israel.
He will speak to Israel leaders about “our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
France will lead a UN summit on September 22 in which a number of Western countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state centered around the West Bank.
France, exasperated over Israel’s massive offensive against Hamas in Gaza, has rejected US and Israeli criticism and says there must be a new path for the Palestinians.
France, Britain and Germany on Friday also called for an “immediate” halt to a new Israeli operation aimed at taking over Gaza City, with the Europeans warning of mass civilian displacement and casualties in a territory which is already mostly in rubble as a result of the war started by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror assault against Israel.
The State Department said only that Rubio would discuss “operational goals and objectives” with Israel and show “the US commitment to Israeli security.”
“He will also emphasize our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again and bringing all the hostages home,” Pigott said, adding that Rubio will meet families of hostages.
“The secretary and Israeli leaders will discuss Israeli operational goals and objectives related to Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, and our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions, including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism, and lawfare at the ICC and ICJ,” the State Department additionally said.
Gideon’s Chariots II is the Israeli military’s operational name for the takeover of Gaza City. It follows Gideon’s Chariots I, which was launched in May with the goal of occupying 75 percent of the Strip to coax Hamas into releasing hostages — an objective that was not met.
The US statement on Rubio’s visit made no mention of the strikes in Qatar, in which Israel targeted Hamas leaders gathering to discuss a new ceasefire proposal put forward by the Trump administration.
Trump called the attack unfortunate and said that the United States found out too late to stop it.
Trump has repeatedly offered strong backing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, doing away with most of the public concerns, however cautiously expressed, of his predecessor Joe Biden.
The State Department did not immediately confirm reports that Rubio would take part in the inauguration of a new tunnel in Jerusalem’s Old City for visitors approaching the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, which is also sacred for Muslims as the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“Rubio’s visit is nothing less than American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the most sensitive part of Jerusalem’s Holy Basin, contradicting Washington’s long-standing position since 1967,” anti-settlement advocacy group Peace Now said in a statement.
Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it and declared Jerusalem its indivisible capital, a step not recognized by most of the world.
But Trump during his first term bucked the international consensus and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem while recognizing the city as Israel’s capital.
The Trump administration has declined to criticize ramped-up Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. Netanyahu vowed Thursday there would be no Palestinian state and “this place belongs to us” at a signing ceremony for a major settlement project.
But Netanyahu has walked back from far-right calls for a wide annexation of the West Bank after warnings by the United Arab Emirates, which took the landmark step five years ago of normalizing with Israel.