The US president had hoped to disentangle himself from the Middle East. But widening turbulence in the region could influence the election and define his legacy.
After Bill Clinton’s first official meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, he turned to an aide and said: “Who is the f---ing superpower here?”
Four US presidents later, nobody would think of posing that question about Israel’s pugilistic prime minister. Netanyahu long ago established what military analysts call “escalation dominance” over whoever sits in the Oval Office – none more so than Joe Biden.
