US president’s Israel visit comes as anger mounts in the region and puts US strategy at risk
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu greets US president Joe Biden on his arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on October 18th, 2023, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. Photograph: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty ImagesBut at a summit with regional leaders in Amman, Jordan, he could assure Arab allies that the US remained committed to their security, too, and keep a broader regional peace push – a central ambition of the administration – intact.
Just weeks ago, the White House was closing in on a grand bargain to normalise ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The administration had also made progress with Iran, agreeing a prisoner swap that brought hopes of a further thawing in relations between Tehran and Washington. Now Biden is fighting to salvage any of that diplomatic progress.
“He would always prefer face-to-face diplomacy, that’s the president’s stock-in-trade. But he also understands in the wake of the explosion at the hospital that it’s not the appropriate thing to do, certainly for the leaders that are there, and he understands that,” Kirby said. The hospital explosion has shattered that planning, leaving Biden to manage a one-sided visit in Israel that risks increasing tensions in the region rather than easing them – and damaging the US effort to project itself as an honest broker.
Kirby echoed that hope. Biden will be “asking some tough questions, but he’ll be asking them as a friend”, he said.
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