The eyes of the world will be on President Biden on Wednesday when he arrives in Israel to show America’s support for its closest Middle Eastern ally and seek to prevent the region from spiraling into more conflict and bloodshed.
The trip offers him a golden opportunity roughly a year out from the 2024 election to disprove critics who say he is weak and embarrassing on the world stage.
He also risks proving those critics right if he stumbles or looks at all unsteady or not in command.
“This is a defining moment of his presidency,” said Scott Ferson, a Massachusetts-based Democratic strategist.
Indeed, the stakes are high for Mr. Biden. The 80-year-old Democrat has faced persistent questions about his age and mental acuity. Mr. Biden’s foreign policy moves also have suffered blowback, most notably over the August 2021 final U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Mr. Biden’s trip to the Middle East got off to a rocky start when plans were canceled for a summit in Amman, Jordan. Mr. Biden had scheduled a four-way meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr. Abbas dropped out of the meeting after a massive explosion in a hospital in Gaza City that Hamas said killed at least 500 people. Hamas blamed the explosion on an Israeli airstrike.
Israeli defense officials said they were not targeting hospitals and they were investigating the source of the explosion.
The entire summit was later called off.
The White House put out a statement as Mr. Biden flew toward Isreal aboard Air Force One:
“After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President Sisi of Egypt. The President sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. He looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days.”
Mr. Biden still plans to meet in Tel Aviv with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the Jewish state’s plan to eliminate the threat from Hamas.
In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired over the weekend, Mr. Biden said the U.S. would give Israel “everything they need” but also guaranteed Israel would do “everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians.”
“Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust,” he said. “Israel has to respond. They have to go after Hamas.”
The surprise Oct. 7 Hamas attack left at least 1,400 dead in Israel, including 30 Americans. The brutality of the deadly home-by-home rampage rattled the tiny Jewish state and people across the globe.
It also exposed deep divisions within the U.S. and the Democratic Party over Washington’s continued full-throated support for Israel.
Former President Donald Trump blamed the entire conflict on Mr. Biden, saying the nation’s enemies see him as weak and act accordingly.
An ABC News/Ipson poll released this week showed voters disapprove of the way Mr. Biden is handling issues at home and overseas, including the war in Ukraine and the new war between Israel and Hamas.
Mr. Biden will be stepping into a conflict with rising tensions.
The prospect of an Israel ground invasion aimed at wiping out Hamas appears imminent.
Clifford May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Mr. Biden needs to show Iran and Hezbollah that his administration was not playing around when it deployed aircraft carriers to the region.
“He needs to convey that is not really symbolic,” Mr. May said. “He needs to send a clear warning to Iran and Hezbollah that they will pay a terrible price if they expand the war.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that Mr. Biden would make it clear that “Israel has the right, and indeed the duty, to defend its people from Hamas and other terrorists and to prevent future attacks.”
“President Biden will underscore our crystal clear message to any actor, state or nonstate, trying to take advantage of this crisis to attack Israel — don’t,” he said, echoing the president’s admonishment to Israel’s enemies.
“This is in the United States’ wheelhouse,” Mr. Ferson said. “The president of the most powerful nation in the history of the world going into a combative war zone to put his prestige and power on the line to try to make the situation better is FDR-like.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.