US President Joe Biden once famously told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing him by his nickname, Bibi, that he did not agree with a “damn thing” he said, but he loved him. This was in response to Netanyahu’s endearing words for Biden whom he described, using the Hebrew word, “mishpucha”, meaning family, as part of Israel’s family.
The same symbiosis is still working when Biden declared May 21, a day after Israel and Hamas declared an unconditional ceasefire ending an 11 day-long bloody conflict, that a two-state solution was the ‘only answer’ to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He thus emphatically iterated the US’ decades-old policy that had been reversed by his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, who had batted for Israel ignoring the Palestinians. In the same breath, Biden did not deviate from the position he had been consistently taking in favour of Israel that “there will be no peace” in the region if Israel’s right to exist as an independent Jewish nation is not acknowledged and accepted.
This is typical of Biden who, throughout his political career, advocated a US policy that never flinched from providing billions of dollars of aid to Israel to equip and defend itself from attacks from Palestinians and the Hamas.
Biden was sceptical of President Barack Obama’s advocacy for the nuke deal with Iran as well. He, as Vice President, argued that a nuclear-powered Iran would harm the interests of Israel. However, taking a middle of the road position, he did argue with his friends in Israel that a nuke deal with Iran with proper restrictions would help promote peace in the region.
With the US mentoring and Egypt brokering peace, Israel and Hamas declared ceasefire. Strangely enough, Hamas even went ahead to claim victory. If the unrelenting bombardment by Israel on the Hamas’ “infrastructure of terror” represents Israel’s victory, the firing of rockets by the Hamas into Israel is being construed as a signal of triumph for the Palestinians. But, the situation is still fragile. Palestinians are waiting for the Supreme Court verdict on Israel’s plan for evicting Palestinian families in East Jerusalem.
On the other hand, the increased assertion of rightists in Israel demanding total occupation of East Jerusalem to the exclusion of the Palestinians poses a real danger to the peace plan. Netanyahu had unnecessarily sided with these elements when trouble broke out in East Jerusalem during the Ramadan month and started bombarding the Hamas “infrastructure” in Gaza after the latter fired rockets in protest against harassment to Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The precarious position of Netanyahu’s party in the March election prompted him to take the calculated risk of military engagement with the Hamas.
President Biden finds himself in an unenviable position as his top priority now is to focus on passing trillions in economic packages at home while competing with China abroad. Wading into yet another Middle East conflict is the last thing the Biden government would want. Moreover, Biden has also time and again championed the rights of the Arabs residing in East Jerusalem whom Israeli authorities had been evicting to settle Israelis there, instead. This is the reason that triggered the conflict on May 6 that led to the killing of at least 240 people, mostly Palestinians, and including about a dozen Israelis. In the past, Biden had tried to convince Israeli leadership that its policy of evicting Palestinians from East Jerusalem to occupy the entire territory won’t receive support from the US administration. Because of his empathy for Israel, which he inherited from his parents, he has always adopted a soft policy officially towards Israel and mounted pressure on the latter “privately”. This time too, US efforts to end the Israel-Palestine strife included upwards of 80 phone calls made by its officials to their counterparts in the region and six between Biden and Netanyahu to agree to a peace plan.
Two things become clear about Biden’s current handling of the Israel-Gaza crisis. First, Biden is unlikely to back away from defending Israel when it’s faced with a security threat. Incidentally, Israel had got the Iron Dome defence system, that it used to intercept Hamas rockets, thanks to lobbying by Biden as Vice President. Second, if Biden disagrees with his friend Netanyahu, he might keep it private and not articulate his position publicly. This seems to be the case so far with the current conflict. But, it is questionable how long the ceasefire will continue.
Facing a wave of criticism from US legislators about US weapons sale to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the Biden administration remains committed to “giving Israel the means to defend itself.” Hamas, on the other hand, is now seeking to unite Palestinians and is positioning itself as a leader in the political scene rather than just a party or a movement. This truce could be short-lived.