US President Biden wants to travel to Israel tomorrow – a visit not without risk in terms of security but also politically. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Biden to maintain the full support for Israel that he initially emphasized.
Since the beginning of the new war, Joe Biden has strongly supported Israel. Israel must defend itself, said the US President in his most recent interview with the television station CBS. Hamas’ behavior is “no longer even human, but pure barbarism.”
But now, with a view to the situation in the Gaza Strip, more and more cautious, warning tones towards Israel are mixed into Biden’s statements. He emphasized several times on CBS that the protection of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip must be ensured: “I am confident that Israel will act in accordance with the rules of war. There are standards that democratic institutions and countries adhere to,” said the President . He is sure that the innocent in the Gaza Strip will be given access to medicine, food and water.
“Road to one Palestinian Country”
Biden has sent a new special humanitarian envoy to the region, diplomat David Satterfield, in addition to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. And the US President has surprisingly clearly warned Israel against re-occupying the Gaza Strip, as was the case until 2005: “I think that would be a big mistake,” said Biden.
This was the first time he spoke publicly about the period after the Israeli counteroffensive. The fact that the USA has neglected the core of the Middle East conflict – a compromise between Israel and the Palestinians – for many years is now being criticized more and more loudly.
That turned out to be a mistake, says Leon Panetta, who was CIA director and defense minister under President Barack Obama: “In the end, regardless of the outcome of this war, we have to find a peaceful solution to the question, like Palestinians, Israelis and Arabs “Everyone lives together in this part of the world,” Panetta told CNN.
Biden put it this way in the interview: “There has to be a path to a Palestinian state.”
Biden trusts in the strength of the USA
Politically, the new war in the Middle East is both an opportunity and a risk for Joe Biden. This applies to the visit to Israel announced for tomorrow, but also in the long term. On the one hand, Biden has the chance – as he did after the outbreak of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine – to score points with his foreign policy experience. On the other hand, the danger of attempts at mediation in the Middle East failing has always been great.
And Biden depends on Congress for both future aid to Ukraine and additional funds for Israel. The Republicans in the House of Representatives do not yet have a new chairman who will make the parliament able to act again. When asked whether the US could handle both wars – Ukraine and the Middle East – at once, Biden said indignantly:
We are the United States of America, for God’s sake – the most powerful country in the history of the world. We can take care of both while maintaining our own ability to defend ourselves.