He came to support Israel’s fight against Hamas and offer help to Palestinians suffering under the Israeli siege, but by flying to Tel Aviv, US President Joe Biden has inextricably linked himself to any battle that might occur.
Biden’s eight-hour visit came a day after the attack on a hospital in Gaza City that killed hundreds of Palestinians quickly became the subject of criticism in the Arab world.
“From a risk perspective, Biden is now tied to what the Israelis decide to do in Gaza,” said Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Biden is betting that consoling, negotiating and helping Israel will give him maximum leverage to shape his actions, he said.
His plans to quickly push billions more dollars in aid to Israel through Congress are likely to fuel debates over American taxpayer funding. Meanwhile, the US veto of a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire has angered allies.
Biden said the United States would provide $100 million in new resources for humanitarian aid in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The United States has asked Israel to allow humanitarian aid to help the Palestinians.
The White House recognizes that it is necessary to better explain Biden’s Israel policy in his country.
Biden will give a prime-time speech from the White House on Thursday to “discuss our response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel and Russia’s brutal ongoing war against Ukraine,” the White House said Wednesday.
After leaving Tel Aviv, Biden held his first news conference in the Air Force One press room as president to tell reporters that he had worked with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to open the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Maintaining credibility could become even more difficult for Biden when a ground invasion increases the number of civilian casualties, said Ezra Cohen, a fellow at the Hudson Institute and former U.S. undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
He said Biden “is going to have to be very concerned about explaining to the American people that Israel follows the law of armed conflict.”
Numerous critics argue that Israel does not follow.
The situation threatens to undo years of diplomatic work to woo partners in the Arab and Muslim world, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia and from Egypt to Qatar, in hopes that deeper ties would make Israel safer and fight America’s enemies, from Tehran in Moscow and Beijing. and would keep U.S. gas prices in check.
Diplomacy aimed at normalizing ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel is now frozen as Biden tries to contain a spiraling crisis engulfing the Middle East and triggering a direct confrontation with Iran.
“Being president means taking bets, and Biden has made one,” Alterman said. “We’ll see how it turns out.”
Source: Terra
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