US President Joe Biden paid a quick visit to Israel on Wednesday. “I want the Israeli people and the world to know where we stand,” he said in Tel Aviv, and so that everyone could see it, he wore a tie in the colors of Israel, blue and white. On the one hand, Washington wants to send an impressive sign of solidarity with this trip. On the other hand, it’s about concrete military aid – and what price Israel has to pay for it.
Biden is the first US president to visit Israel in the middle of a war. In the few hours of his stay, he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and attended a meeting of the so-called War Cabinet at the Israeli army headquarters. Netanyahu thanked him profusely for standing by Israel “today, tomorrow and always.” At the same time, he made it clear to Biden why his country now had to wage a tough fight. “Twenty times 9/11” is how high the number of Israeli deaths from the Hamas terrorist attack is, extrapolated to the population of the USA. “We will defeat Hamas and remove this terrible threat from our lives,” he declared.
For this he will receive full support from Biden – not only in Gaza, but also on the possible second front with Lebanon and beyond with Iran. The US President has already warned these two states briefly and clearly against entering war: “Don’t do it.” Weapons followed words: large quantities of ammunition are already being delivered to Israel by the USA. Israel has reportedly requested $10 billion in additional US military aid. In addition, two American aircraft carriers were sent to the region. This is intended to be a deterrent for Hezbollah and Iran. For Israel, it is a reassurance that should also suppress possible thoughts of a preemptive strike.
Biden wants to influence the course of the conflict
But all the American support does not mean that Washington is giving its ally carte blanche in this war. Biden is not just about helping Israel in unparalleled ways. He also wants to gain influence on the course of the conflict. After all, the Middle East is always about US interests. But you can also see a clear mistrust of Israel’s leadership. Biden has known Netanyahu long enough and well enough to trust him to do something destructive.
American support is therefore generous, but not limitless. Biden is drawing several red lines for the war over Gaza. Even before the start of a ground offensive, he warned the Israeli government that re-occupying the Palestinian coastal strip would be “a serious mistake.” He also focuses on the civilian population affected by the war. “Hamas does not represent the entire Palestinian people,” he said in Tel Aviv, calling on Israel to take “life-saving measures to help all the Palestinians who are innocently caught in the middle of this conflict.”
Drama in a Gaza hospital impacts Biden’s mission
The dangers faced by the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip had become dramatically clear shortly before Biden set out on this trip: almost 500 deaths were reported as a result of the explosion in a hospital in Gaza City. Hamas blames Israel. Israel denies any responsibility and blames the disaster on a misguided rocket fired by Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Biden supported the Israeli perspective in Tel Aviv. “It looks like it was done by the other team, not you,” he said. But he also cautioned that “there are a lot of people out there who aren’t sure.”
A grieving woman stands with a pillow in front of the hit Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.
(Photo: Mahmoud Hams/AFP)
Biden immediately felt the political explosiveness of the bloody incident: the planned second part of his Middle East trip – a four-way summit meeting in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – was canceled. A possible negotiating mission on different sides of the conflict turned into just a short visit to Israel.
Shortly after meeting Biden, Netanyahu announced that his country would not hinder humanitarian aid deliveries from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. This concerns supplies such as food, water and medicine for the civilian population, his office said. “Any shipment that gets to Hamas will be prevented.” At the same time, Netanyahu made it clear that Israel “will not allow humanitarian aid from its territory to the Gaza Strip until our abductees are returned.”
This mission could be difficult for Washington. Despite all of the US President’s political and personal closeness to Israel, he must always keep an eye on his Arab allies from Amman to Cairo to Riyadh. There, the war over Gaza is heating up the mood on the streets. Anger at Israel puts pressure on the rulers to act. With his trip, Biden has now demonstrated that there can be no question of the USA withdrawing from the Middle East. But he also has to recognize what a fine line he is balancing on.