The White House announced that Joe Biden would go to Israel on Wednesday, responding to an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s a trip fraught with personal and political risks for Biden. A president announcing ahead of time that he’s flying into a war zone invites an attack of some kind. It’s not likely that Biden is in any serious danger, but the risk is there nonetheless.
But it’s the enormous political risk that Biden is taking that makes the trip a crapshoot. Israel is about to unleash a ground assault that’s going to kill a lot of Palestinian civilians. Biden’s trip appears to give the Israelis his blessing for whatever humanitarian catastrophe occurs — at least in the eyes of Hamas and other Islamic radicals.
Biden is going to have blood on his hands. The probability that his trip will place a terrorist bullseye even more directly on America makes his visit with Netanyahu an unnecessary and unwarranted provocation.
While in Israel, Biden will attempt negotiations to open the Rafah crossing in Egypt — the only viable corridor into Gaza that could deliver humanitarian aid. Israel would be receptive to the idea as long as there are reasonable guarantees that none of that aid would go to Hamas.
Even if there can be no guarantees, the Netanyahu government is leaning toward allowing some aid to enter Gaza — if only to satisfy Biden and the international community.
While Biden has stopped well short of encouraging a ceasefire – the word hasn’t been used at all in the administration’s response so far – he has issued steadily stronger warnings about protecting civilian life, including during his telephone calls with Netanyahu. Biden and Blinken, advisers say, have upheld a moral high ground and cemented credibility with the Israelis by remaining sympathetic to civilian and humanitarian needs, while reinforcing their commitment to the security state.
That’s a load of codswallop. This is an either/or question. Either you allow Israel free rein to destroy Hamas or you demand they take greater care in sparing civilian lives. With Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields, you can’t kill Hamas without killing a lot of civilians. Biden and Blinken are fooling themselves if they think they’ve “upheld the moral high ground” or anything else.
“The most senior representative of the USA comes to Israel for a full report on the war in the Middle East and all the action we have to take,” IDF Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters when asked earlier about a possible visit by the U.S. president. “Right now, we are focusing on Gaza and the steps that we are going to take to prepare for war and that is how we will progress,” he added.
Biden has given the Israelis the green light to use U.S. weapons without restrictions. That, too, could backfire if U.S.-made munitions are used in attacks where a lot of civilians are killed. In fact, the tide of public opinion is already turning against Israel, making Biden’s trip even more problematic.
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The political risks for Mr. Biden are difficult to measure. In his first significant public effort to urge caution on Israel, Mr. Biden warned on “60 Minutes” on Sunday that “I think it’d be a big mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza again, a step Israeli officials say they have no intention of taking. But they have not explained who would run the Gaza Strip in the absence of Hamas, or how they could keep a similar group from arising from the ashes of Gaza City.
He also cautioned that “there needs to be a Palestinian Authority; there needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.” He and others in the administration are repeating, with increasing frequency, that most Palestinians in Gaza do not support Hamas, which has controlled the slice of land now for more than 16 years.
I don’t think Biden understands what he’s putting his stamp of approval on. Netanyahu is going to give lip service to taking care of civilian lives. But, as The Times points out, “American officials have noted that the reservists called back into service by Israel largely have little training in urban warfare and are likely to shoot at anything that moves.”
That’s not a recipe for keeping civilian casualties to a minimum.
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