FLASH
Shkruar nga Pierre Haski
Biden wanted to move forward in two directions: solidarity with Israel and dialogue with Arab leaders. This second political component fell after the attack on the hospital.
The two million Palestinians living under siege in Gaza will soon be able to access the humanitarian aid that awaits them on the other side of the Egyptian border. Although that was the net result of Joe Biden's whirlwind visit to Israel on Wednesday, the US president had arrived with many other goals – and they are far from being achieved.
To say this trip was affected by Tuesday night's deadly attack on a hospital in Gaza would be an understatement. It changed the nature of the US leader's visit, and Biden found himself embroiled in controversy over the origins of that blow.
Biden supported the Israeli claim that it was a missile launched by Islamic Jihad that malfunctioned and hit the hospital. This is clearly strong support for the position Israel is trying to put forward, which they argue is based on a number of technicalities.
But in the heated context of the Middle East, even those Arab countries that have established diplomatic relations with Israel, such as the United Arab Emirates, or those that would do so, such as Saudi Arabia, are placing the blame squarely on the Jewish state.
To determine whether this trip was a failure, we must consider two objectives. The following days will tell us if one of them has been achieved.
A failed trip
The first was to contain the Israeli military's response: Biden did not deny that Israel had the right to defend itself, but he demanded that it respect the "rules of war."
The second was to avoid a regional outbreak. The entire US military deployment in the region – two aircraft carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean, bombers in Jordan, as well as Biden's own visit – was designed to send a message to Iran that if a front was opened in the north with Hezbollah, Iran he wouldn't walk away unscathed.
Will this message be heard? Tehran's statements are not encouraging at all.
The problem is that Biden wanted to move forward in two directions: solidarity with Israel and dialogue with Arab leaders. This second political component fell after the attack on the hospital.
Israel's biggest supporter
In the eyes of the Arabs, the US now appears to be the main backer of Israel and also bears responsibility for what is happening in Gaza.
This is nothing new, but there has been talk of America's disengagement from the Middle East for years. This was shown when they vetoed a Brazilian resolution in the UN Security Council calling for "humanitarian peace". France voted in favor of the resolution.
This is even more problematic for the US as it is losing a power struggle in the Global South, which it has waged with Russia and China. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have been together in Beijing for the past two days, celebrating their friendship and reaping the rewards of their pro-Palestinian commitment. They have not condemned Hamas and are calling for peace, which doesn't cost them much.
The most incredible thing about this sequence of events is that the horror of the October 7 terrorist attacks has long since passed - and the Palestinian issue has returned to center stage. It puts the West on the defensive in that other battleground, important to world opinion. / Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Worldcrunch"
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