Biden has poor legacy on Israel

Welcome though it is, the decision by the outgoing Biden administration, in its dying days, to provide Israel with a $13bn arms package is unlikely to alter perceptions of failure by the White House to provide the resolute leadership that has been needed throughout the Middle East crisis. In an interview last week, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, named what he said had been the key impediment to a Gaza hostage deal: “Whenever there has been public daylight between the US and Israel, and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, messages sent by former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar before he was killed confirm Mr Blinken’s evaluation of the terrorists’ response to the ebb and flow of the “public daylight” in the frequently testy relationship between the White House and Israel. “Since the first and so far only hostage deal in November 2023 (which released 80 hostages), President Biden has introduced ‘public daylight’ non-stop, restraining Israel, rebuking it, threatening it and demanding an end to its defensive war,” The Wall Street Journal said. “The President used the fights to assuage his party’s anti-Israel activist base before the 2024 election, but as Mr Blinken says, Hamas also got the message.” As Israel battled for its survival, Washington laid down new rules on how Israel could fight its war – making it clear it could not go on fighting as it had been, despite the fact its tactics had forced Hamas into the November 2023 deal that released 80 hostages. Mr Biden lambasted Israel over “indiscriminate bombing”. His unhelpful message to Israel (echoed by Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong) was “transition to the next phase” with fewer troops. Israel’s war effort, he said, was “over the top”. He deemed Israeli settlements illegal and attached new restrictions to further weapons supplies. He blamed Israel for aid supply problems, laid down an absurd “red line” warning that Israel should not enter Rafah (despite it being the key Hamas stronghold). To its credit, the Jewish state sidestepped most of it and got on with the job of destroying the terrorists.

Mr Biden’s announcement of the big arms delivery for Israel in the dying day of his term suggests he is “groping”, as The Wall Street Journal put it, for a positive legacy over his handling of the Middle East crisis. He doesn’t deserve it, as the newspaper said, given that his policy “sought accommodation at every turn and tried to stop Israel short in each theatre (of conflict)”.