Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated calls for diplomacy between Israel and Hezbollah during a White House press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday as the United States continues attempting to tamp down Israeli desire to attack Hezbollah.
Sixty-two percent of Jewish Israelis support an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon with “full force,” a Jewish People Policy Institute survey released Monday revealed, with 36% of those responded supporting an immediate attack.
However, Blinken said he doesn't believe Israel or Hezbollah wants to see the conflict spread.
"Lebanon certainly doesn't, it would suffer the most," Blinken said. "I don't believe that Iran does and yet you have momentum potentially in that direction."
With the back and forth going on every day, Blinken said there's the possibility of miscalculating and not fully seeing what the other side is doing.
Blinken thinks the sheer number of Israelis who have been displaced from their homes in the North is reason for Israel to avoid war.
Hezbollah threat making life impossible - Blinken
The threat from Hezbollah is making life impossible, Blinken said, as there are many people in Southern Lebanon who are also not able to live in their homes and towns.
We're working diplomatically to find a resolution to this so that people on both sides of the line have the confidence to be able to live in their homes and go back to where they live, he added.
"Now, here again, so much of this comes back to the ceasefire. The most immediate way to empower our diplomacy and to be able to reach an agreement that allows people to return to their homes and live in security would be through a ceasefire in Gaza," Blinken said. "Because Hezbollah has tied the actions that it's committing against Israel to Gaza."