The tone-deaf Biden administration is pushing a deal in Gaza that doesn’t solve any problems. Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire so that it can reconstitute its fighting forces and continue to attack Israel. The Jewish state wants a pause in the fighting to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and to accede to the wishes of Washington for secure distribution of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian refugees in Gaza.
For Biden, halting the fighting in Gaza is all about the politics of Nov. 5. After the White House’s constant meddling in the war between the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and the terrorist group Hamas, Biden’s team has little to high-five about. Running up the flagpole now is a three-phase plan the president announced on May 31:
The Biden team has been pushing the plan hard, putting pressure on neighboring Arab countries and other Middle Eastern nations to support it. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on the phone with his counterparts in “Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Algeria, according to the State Department,” reported the Associated Press, but so far the persuasion blitz has been unremarkable in impact.
Biden seems to willfully ignore that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists “that Israel will not stop fighting in Gaza until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities are destroyed,” according to The New York Times. Whether Netanyahu has faith in the Biden administration at this point is also questionable. The NYT explained that “political complications have given rise to questions about where the Israelis truly stand on the ceasefire plan outlined by Mr. Biden — even though the president has described them as the plan’s author.”
More likely, the Biden proposal is wishful thinking. Or as The Wall Street Journal noted, the White House is trying to “box both Israel and Hamas into talks on halting a war that neither side seems in any rush to end.” Further, in a recent Time magazine interview, when asked if he thought that Netanyahu was prolonging the war to shore up his “own political self-preservation,” Biden gave a typical obfuscated response: “I’m not going to comment on that. There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
The Wall Street Journal noted that, “For Biden, the continuing war in Gaza is a political liability before presidential elections in the fall, dividing his base, which has criticized him for supporting Israel too much or too little.” In psychological parlance, what Biden is doing is called projection. He projects onto others that of which he is most guilty. The president views nearly every issue through a political lens, not what’s good for Americans of the United States. Setting the timetable for the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan in 2021 is a good example. The president initially wanted to make Sept. 11 the withdrawal date. When it became apparent that the 9/11 anniversary was garnering a politically questionable response, he moved the date to Aug. 31. Another bad decision.
With Biden’s penchant to see the Israel-Hamas war as a political liability for himself, he has shifted his stance multiple times to protect his flank. He will sound sympathetic to Israel’s plight to appeal to one constituency, and then later he ignores that to decry the suffering of the Palestinians to please some protesters and politicians on the far left.
The long eight months of the Israel-Hamas war have dampened the enthusiasm of the Biden administration to support the IDF objectives. Pushing for a ceasefire without the elimination of Hamas is simply setting the stage for continuous terrorist violence against Israel.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.