DANIEL WILLIAMS
US President Joe Biden gave a televised speech Thursday night, providing a verbal tour of his thoughts on both the Hamas-Israel war and Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
His speech vividly described the horrors visited on civilian victims of both conflicts when Hamas invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip and Russian President Vladimir Putin made war on Ukraine 22 months ago.
Biden offered sympathy to Palestinian civilians not associated with Hamas and mentioned conversations with leaders of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, which runs parts of the West Bank. He proclaimed it America’s duty to help Israel and Ukraine in their fights because the US is the “beacon to the world.”
He backed the Ukrainian goal of ousting the Russians from their country. He did the same for Israel, but there was a difference between Ukraine, which is defending its own sovereign territory, and Israel, which is ousting an armed group from land it has agreed is not its own and which it does not want to occupy.
In short, what happens after the war’s end? Biden made only fleeting reference to his own desire once the Israel-Hamas war, now entering its third week, is over. He devoted one sentence to his preferred outcome: adherence to what is known as the two-state solution—i.e. the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing the Gaza Strip and the West Bank alongside Israel.
“We cannot give up on a two-state solution,” he said.
It is a concept actively favored by the United States since at least 1991. Biden outlined no road map on how to make it a reality.
Hamas, created during a Palestinian uprising in 1987, opposes the two-state solution, while the Palestinian Authority accepts it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also opposes it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution.
Netanyahu has fought against the two-state solution his entire political career, which includes five stints as prime minister. Since 1993, the first time Netanyahu took power, the Israeli population of the West Bank has grown from about 115,000 to more than 465,000.
During Biden’s visit, Israeli officials said that talk of a search for a solution to the long-running Palestinian conflict would have to wait until Hamas is defeated.
In any case, Biden’s mind seemed less on future peacemaking than on politics in Washington. He dedicated part of his speech to an appeal for the US Congress to approve joint aid for Israel and Ukraine, combined in a single legislative package.
Aid to Israel incites almost no opposition, but there is skepticism among opposition politicians in the Republican Party about the efficacy and size of aid to Ukraine. Biden hopes to avoid a heated debate, so he wants to harness the Ukraine request to the popular one for Israel.
This might seem an unimportant debate, but the money issue underlies concerns over not only US involvement in current armed conflict but also potentially other ones in a world of mounting warfare.
Then there’s the perceived threat from China, which both political parties consider a major security issue. When he took office in 2020, Biden had planned to perform a so-called “pivot to China” of military resources to beef up the defenses of East Asia.
But, in the meantime, the US has pledged to back Ukraine for as long as it takes to oust the Russians. It is now providing tons of weapons to Israel, already the most powerful military force in the Middle East. And Biden has threatened military action against Iran if it intervenes in the Hamas fight.
Rising global instability has prompted concern whether the US can carry the burden of being what was once called the “world’s policeman.”
In addition, journalistic and scholarly commentary warn of the possibility of the end of a quarter century of Pax-Americana, an era after the Cold War’s end when only the US possessed the military power, resources and will to dominate global politics.
Recent funeral-themed titles of articles dedicated to the decline of US influence and power include: “The Last Days of Pax Americana,” “Towards the End of Pax Americana?” and “The Death Throes of Pax Americana.”
Biden has rejected such concerns. Besides his “America is a beacon” comment, he also harkened back to early post-Cold War years when US influence seemed limitless.
He quoted the late Madeleine Albright, President Bill Clinton’s hawkish secretary of state, who when publicly defending a four-day US bombardment of then bête noire Iraq described the United States as the “indispensable nation.”
Biden’s short trip was designed not only to show support to Israel, but also to mold its way of making war in order to limit harming civilians. In his televised speech, Biden said he told Netanyahu not to be “blinded by rage” and follow the “laws of war.”
Sympathy for Palestinians is in short supply across Israel; about 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas during its raid into Israel, many in brutal fashion.
Two specific requests by Biden quickly became subjects of controversy. He announced that Israel would ensure the passage of food and water supplies into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Before Biden’s visit, Netanyahu had announced he would not let food and water from outside to enter Gaza.
However, no sooner had Biden spoken on TV than Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi were squabbling over who would inspect the cargo to ensure no weapons were hidden aboard the shipments.
Before his visit, Israel had informed Palestinians to leave northern Gaza neighborhoods in order to avoid heavy danger from combat when Israel strikes back on the ground. There was little outcry among Israelis against the orders, but human rights campaigners abroad pointed out that such actions were tantamount to war crimes.
The lethal aftermath of a hospital bombing in Gaza both sides blamed on the other. Civilians are in the crossfire of the war.
In a message to Palestinian civilians, Biden offered comfort by sympathizing with their suffering and tried to distinguish the general population from Hamas. So far, about 4,000 Palestinians have died under the rain of Israeli missiles and artillery. There has been no word from Hamas about how many of them were combatants.
Besides stopping short of laying out how the Israelis and Palestinians would arrange a two-state solution, Biden also made no mention of who would run Gaza should the Israelis succeed in destroying Hamas, as Netanyahu has pledged.
The ambiguity harkens back to the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 after having ousted Saddam Hussein from power. US General David Petraeus, who commanded US forces in northern Iraq, expressed worries at the time about a lack of clarity regarding the country’s future.
“Tell me how this ends,” he asked with exasperation. The same question might be asked and ought to be answered for Israel and the Palestinians.
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