Washington | US President Joe Biden was betting that a whirlwind visit to the Middle East this week could help prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spreading across the region, temper its ally’s response to the October 7 attacks and soothe fears in Arab capitals of a widening conflagration.
From the start, it was a diplomatic mission fraught with risk, and potential reward – and as Biden left Tel Aviv to fly back to Washington on Wednesday, he could not be certain that it had succeeded.
