Opinion | A Year after Israel-Hamas War, Biden Mute Spectator as Netanyahu Remains on Offensive

“I had faith in Israel before it was established. I have faith in it now” – Harry Truman, May 14, 1948

“There needs to be a two-state solution—a transition to a two-state solution. And that’s my biggest disagreement with Bibi Netanyahu” – Joe Biden, June 3, 2024

The two quotes encapsulate the dramatic change in the deep US-Israel relations in more than seven decades on the first anniversary of the Israel-Hamas War.

Israel has been America’s steadfast ally in West Asia—during the Cold War and the later years to counter the Soviet/Russian influence and subsequently to maintain control in a volatile and strategically important region that has the biggest oil reserves and the most important supply route.

Despite no mutual defence pact, the US provides cutting-edge military platforms and technology worth billions to Israel. According to the United States Agency for International Development and the Congressional Research Service, Israel has received $310 billion in foreign aid since its founding with an MoU to receive $3.8 billion annually through 2028. America spends an extra $500 million annually on joint Israeli missile defence programmes, like Arrow II and David’s Sling.

Since the Israel-Hamas War, the US has provided more than $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel with the latest package worth $8.7 billion in September.

However, the Gaza human catastrophe following the Israel-Hamas War, the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and top commanders and the ground operation in southern Lebanon have soured relations between the two partners and exposed America’s weakness as the upholder of world order, especially its slipping control over Israel.

What has made matters more complex is that the two countries are led by leaders who have known each other for more than four decades.

Joe Biden was a senator and Benjamin Netanyahu was the deputy chief of Mission under then-ambassador Moshe Arens in the US. Their rise in politics was parallel.

Their relations soured for the first time during the Barack Obama presidency when the US opposed Israel’s increasing West Bank settlements and Bibi opposed the Iran nuclear deal. “He’s been a friend for over 30 years,” Biden said in November 2014. “I said, ‘Bibi, I don’t agree with a damn thing you say, but I love you.’”

Netanyahu exposes Biden’s weakness

The blow to the US-Israel ties couldn’t have been worse with the two leaders nearing the end of their political careers. Biden’s career will end in January. Netanyahu, the longest-serving Israeli prime minister in his sixth term, has remote chances of another stint after his ‘Mr Security’ image was shattered following the October 7 Hamas massacre and the failure to bring the hostages home.

One leader is trying to stay in power and take his final shot to the top post. The other one is desperate for an elusive peace in the region that could be his swan song and the hallmark of his career.

In the process, Netanyahu exposed America’s weakness as the most powerful nation in general and Biden’s ineffectiveness, in particular, as the world’s most powerful man. His use of excessive force to annihilate Israel’s sworn enemies, Hamas and Hezbollah, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives in Gaza and Lebanon and brought West Asia to the brink of a bloody disaster, could turn out to be the biggest blot on Biden’s career.

A year into the war with Hamas, Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza has killed more than 41,500, wounded 96,625, displaced, at least, 1.9 million people (9 out of 10), destroyed 63 per cent of the infrastructure and triggered a famine-like situation with more than 50,000 children having acute malnutrition. Due to the lack of potable, sanitation and healthcare, cases of jaundice, chickenpox, scabies and Hepatitis A are increasing with poliovirus found in sewage.

When Biden needed to act to stop Gaza’s humanitarian disaster, he appealed and warned Israel. When the US should have supported the two ceasefire resolutions at the UNSC, it opposed them. When Biden should have put riders on Israel’s use of lethal arms against Gazans, he bypassed Congress to permit two emergency weapons sales to Israel worth $253.5 million last December.

In May, after Biden said that he wouldn’t provide offensive weapons to Israel for its Rafah assault, Netanyahu snubbed him in an address to the nation on Holocaust Remembrance Day. “I say to the leaders of the world—no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself. If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”

Netanyahu exposed Biden’s weakness but the president should be equally blamed for projecting American indecisiveness.

Three sets of email exchanges between senior US administration officials which began on October 11, 2023—Israel’s fifth day of airstrikes on Gaza—and ended on 14, show internal concerns in the State Department and the Pentagon about the American support for the Israeli attack and the impending human disaster.

Dana Stroul, the then-deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East, wrote in an October 13 email to senior Biden aides warning that the mass evacuation ordered by Israel before the bombing would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war crime charges against Tel Aviv, according to Reuters.

Though some officials wanted Biden to show sympathy for Palestinians and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, he continued supporting Netanyahu, who ordered the ground invasion despite US reservations.

As Israeli bombardment razed hospitals, schools and mosques, Bill Russo, the then-assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs, emailed top State Department officials: “If this course is not quickly reversed by not only messaging but action, it risks damaging our stance in the region for years to come.” When Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, forwarded his email to White House officials, including Brett McGurk, Biden’s top adviser for West Asia affairs, with a warning, he replied that the US supported humanitarian corridors and was concerned for civilians but ruled out a ceasefire.

Failing to strike a balance between supporting Israel and protecting Gazans, Biden continued supporting Netanyahu, which eroded America’s image as a superpower.

TIME magazine’s June cover couldn’t have been more ironic with its headline: ‘We Are the World Power.’ How Joe Biden Leads.

However, Netanyahu’s action has belied the headline—the US is neither a world power anymore nor Biden is leading. Netanyahu is prolonging the war to avoid being indicted for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three cases involving media moguls and rich associates. Biden knows this yet he wasn’t direct when asked by the TIME. “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”

Israel’s action against Iran and Hezbollah without consulting the US showed Biden’s powerlessness and weakness. Netanyahu made the following deadly decisions without consulting Biden:

• On April 1, the IRGC’s top commander Major General Mohammad Reza Zahedi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
• On July 31, Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in an airstrike/bomb explosion in Tehran. A few hours ago, top Hezbollah commander and Nasrallah’s right-hand man Fuad Shukr had been killed in an airstrike in Beirut.
• On September 17, around a dozen people were killed and around 3,000 injured when thousands of pagers, mainly belonging to Hezbollah members, exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria.
• On September 18, 20 people were and 450 injured killed when walkie-talkies exploded in Lebanon.
• On September 20, wanted Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil was killed in an airstrike in Beirut.
• On September 27, Nasrallah was taken down in an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah underground headquarters in Beirut.
• On October 1, Israel launched a “limited, localised and targeted” ground invasion of south Lebanon.

Netanyahu’s defiance was more prominent when he ordered Lebanon’s invasion hours after Biden stressed the importance of a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Bibi snubbed Biden with Nasrallah’s killing

Netanyahu’s biggest snub to Biden was the assassination of Nasrallah despite the Hezbollah chief agreeing to a ceasefire.

In an interview aired on October 2, Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told [Christiane] Amanpour & Company-PBSthat Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire with Israel proposed by the US, France and other nations on September 25.

“He agreed, he agreed,” he said. “We agreed completely. The [Lebanese House] Speaker Mr Nabih Berri consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French what happened. And they told us that Mr Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both presidents [Biden and Emmanuel Macron.]”

Subsequently, White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was ready to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire. “They told us that Mr Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then,” Habib added.

One day later, on September 27, Netanyahu ordered Nasrallah’s assassination from a New York hotel after his UN address.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell admitted that Israel has kept the US in the dark in the last couple of months about its sudden attacks. “There have been moments of surprise. I don’t think that’s a secret over the course of the last couple of months,” he acknowledged.

The US turns into a spectator, Israel takes advantage

Ironically, while the world was shocked at Netanyahu ordering Nasrallah’s assassination without US knowledge, American-made 2,000-pound bunker buster BLU-109s were used to flatten the six Beirut buildings, including the underground Hezbollah headquarters. The bombs were fitted with US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition, which turn dumb bombs into precise munitions. Israel might have also used another US-made 2,000-pound bomb called the MK84.

On one hand, Biden looks impotent in the face of a defiant Netanyahu, on the other hand, US weapons are being used for targeted assassinations and bombing of civilian areas without his knowledge and despite his opposition.

Israel escalates tension without US knowledge but receives American help to counter it. Israeli assassinated Zahedi without US knowledge but American warships USS Carney and USS Arleigh Burke shot down four to six of the 300 missiles and drones fired by Iran in retaliation at Israel on April 13. Similarly, when Iran launched around 180 missiles at Israel in retaliation against the attacks on Hezbollah on October 1, USS Bulkeley and USS Cole fired around 12 interceptors.

What’s more confusing is that Biden wants an Israeli ceasefire with Hamas and Hezbollah to prevent the conflicts from consuming the whole of West Asia, but has also promised an iron-clad defence of Israel.

The US has deployed a staggering amount of military assets in the region to deter a massive attack by Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and Syria against Israel.

As of August, around 40,000 American troops, including 12,000-15,000 conventional Army personnel and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, were deployed in West Asia.

The US Navy and Air Force firepower and striking range in the region is unmatchable. The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group comprises three guided-missile destroyers USS O’Kane, USS Spruance and USS Frank E Peterson Jr.. Its Carrier Air Wing 9 comprises an airborne command and control squadron, an electronic attack squadron, a Marine fighter attack squadron, a helicopter marine strike squadron, a helicopter sea combat squadron and three strike fighter squadrons.

Other US Navy assets in West Asia include five guided-missile destroyers USS Michael Murphy, USS Stockdale, USS Bulkeley, USS Arleigh Burke and USS Cole; the littoral combat ship USS Indianapolis, Amphibious Ready Groups Wasp comprising amphibious assault ship USS Wasp and amphibious transport dock ship USS New York.

Air Force assets include A-10s, F-16s, F-15Es, F-22s KC-135s, C-17s, C-130Js, E-11As, HC-130Js, MQ-9s and HH-60Ws.

US Army assets include the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System air defence and the new mobile counter-unmanned aerial system M-LIDS.

The US image as the global police has been shattered with Biden sending his Secretary of State Antony Blinken for several trips to West Asia to cement a ceasefire deal but failing disastrously. Biden’s appeals, requests and warnings have failed to deter Netanyahu from expanding the campaign against Hamas to Hezbollah and directly with Iran.

The latest and the deadliest danger looming over West Asia is the impending Israeli response to the second Iranian missile barrage. Shockingly, Biden is clueless about the way Netanyahu will retaliate—a strike on Iran’s military assets, oil fields or nuclear facilities.

Biden’s helplessness in the face of Netanyahu’s aggression was evident when a top State Department official told CNN that Israel hadn’t assured the US that attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities was off the table on the October 7 anniversary.

Instead of stopping Netanyahu from taking such a drastic step, all Biden said was that the US wouldn’t support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear plants.

The TIME cover photo was the best portrayal of Biden’s weakness and the US loss of dominance in West Asia. The US president stares at the camera with his hands resting on the Resolute desk—a sheer lack of confidence and an abundance of weakness.

The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.