Joe Biden has arrived in Israel, the most dangerous trip a US president has made in a long time. Air Force One landed at Ben Gurion Airport shortly before eleven in the morning. Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Erzog were waiting for them at the foot of the plane steps and hugged them both.
The visit, which was already complicated when it was decided, became even more poisoned yesterday afternoon, when Air Force One had not yet taken off from the Andrews base, near Washington. The news that hundreds of people had died from the impact of a missile in a hospital in Gaza added fuel to the fire of a war that, at times, is slipping out of Israel’s hands and, as a result, the United States, its main ally.
After a first meeting with Netanyahu, Biden suggested that Israel was not responsible for the attack. “I am deeply saddened and outraged by yesterday’s explosion at the Gaza hospital. And from what I have seen, it seems that the other team did it, not you,” the American told his Israeli counterpart.
He added, however, that there were “a lot of people who weren’t sure” who was responsible, so leaders had work to convince “skeptics” who believed Israel was to blame.
Biden, shaken by the shock wave of this massacre, now faces an almost impossible mission: safeguarding the interests of the United States in the Middle East without undoing the embrace that unconditionally links him to Israel.
Biden ignored the warnings of his security team, who recommended he not go, and also of his diplomatic advisors, who see much to lose and little to gain, especially after the attack on the hospital.
The president, however, made the decision because he wants to show his solidarity with the Israeli people and, at the same time, ensure that the population of Gaza has safe areas and access to everything they need, especially water, food and medicine, vital supplies that Now they are almost impossible to get due to the total blockage of the strip. The Israeli Government insists that it will not lift the siege until Hamas releases the 199 hostages it captured during the attack on the Jewish populations surrounding Gaza on the 7th.
Joe Biden is today more popular in Israel than Beniamin Netanyahu. Not only because of the unconditional support – which translates into the sending of two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean – but also because of the sensitivity that he has had with the victims. He spoke to them before the prime minister and in Israel everyone has taken note. Biden, much better than Netanyahu, has known how to combine firmness with consolation, the guarantee that he will protect Israel from its enemies with the willingness to work in the long term for coexistence.
The president will take advantage of this popularity to pressure Netanyahu. He will ask to see the plans for the announced ground offensive and will advise that any operation be quick and not involve occupying the strip, something that “would be a serious mistake,” according to what he said a few days ago.
The visit is also a warning to Iran and Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that threatens Israel from southern Lebanon. Biden wants to make it clear that any attack against the Jewish State will also be against the United States.
From Tel Aviv, Biden planned to go to Amman to meet with the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, the Marshal and President of Egypt, Abdul Fatah Al Sisi, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
However, their Arab interlocutors canceled the meeting upon learning of the tragedy suffered at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza, a Christian center managed by the Anglican church. They do not want a photo with Biden, Israel’s main ally, while thousands of its citizens protest in the streets against the Jewish State.
Never mind that the Israeli military is now providing evidence that would blame Islamic Jihad for the attack. Satellite images of the explosion confirm, according to Israel, that a rocket from this armed organization missed its trajectory shortly after launch and fell on the hospital. Israel has no credibility in the Arab nations. Last night’s demonstrations against Israel in Amman, Beirut, Tehran and Ramallah have been the largest since the start of the war.
This cancellation has been a setback for Biden, for his attempt to reduce tension and prevent the conflict from spreading throughout the Middle East. He planned to tell his Arab partners that he knows how to distinguish innocent Gazans from the Hamas movement, an armed group that the United States and the European Union consider to be terrorist.
With the stopover in Amman cancelled, the White House assures that Biden will telephone Abbas, Al Sisi and Abdullah II on his return trip to Washington.
