The Very Hard Truth About America’s Role in the Israel-Hamas War
Joe Biden needs Benjamin Netanyahu more than Benjamin Netanyahu needs Joe Biden
Joe Biden just drew a hard line in America’s assistance to Israel as it wages war against a terrorist enemy. “I made it clear…if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used.” With that, Joe Biden just broke with Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s been a long-time coming. The diplomatic marriage of Biden and Netanyahu has been one of historical convenience, more than personal loyalty. America needs Israel and Israel needs America. But many Americans, particularly Democrats and Biden, would prefer that the alliance not require working with the hardline Netanyahu.
It’s certainly understandable. The United States benefits from peace in the Middle East. Peace is always better achieved through leaders with a penchant for diplomacy and negotiation. That’s not Netanyahu. But where the Israeli leader lacks diplomacy, he does understand realpolitik — and the realpolitik for a generation has been that peace in the Middle East forestalls war, forestalls hard decisions, and deters strongman actions.
But that peace was broken on October 7. Hamas terrorists, safe-harbored in Gaza, attacked Israel in an act of war. A thousand civilians were slaughtered, and more than 240 were cowardly taken hostage. It was a declaration of war against a stable Israel by the ruling faction in neighboring Gaza. War, not terrorism.
Israel’s only understandable response has been to destroy their enemy, to occupy their land, and to ensure Israel is never again the victim of a Hamas war. Israel’s response has been, as George W. Bush declared following the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, to “find those who did it, smoke them out of their holes, get them running and bring them to justice.”
Biden well knows this. It is why he immediately cautioned Israel following the events of October 7, 2023 to heed the lessons of America. “Justice must be done,” said the American President. “But while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it.” But that is about as effective as asking the parent of a murdered child to simply turn the other cheek. It may be noble, but it doesn’t restore justice.
The reality is that Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza will be executed as Netanyahu and his war cabinet see fit. It will not be executed through the edicts of the Biden Administration or the US Congress.
Israel has historically been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, by some accounts nearly $300 billion in current dollars. It has also been one of America’s strongest allies. A bedrock of American foreign policy, and American electoral politics, is the survival of Israel, the strength of Israel, and the regional leadership of Israel. Those dynamics are not mere conveniences for American politics, they are truisms.
For Joe Biden to now abandon Israeli leadership, to withhold military aid during a time of war, resets that political truism — it casts Israel as a pawn of United States foreign policy, not an ally. The decision shreds an historic alliance of mutual independence and benefit, and instead suggests a relationship of U.S. dominion — that Israel, and Netanyahu, are mere actors of American interest in the region, not allies whose bonds are impenetrable.
The problem for Joe Biden is that most American voters believe the relationship to be the latter — an impenetrable alliance. Most American voters understand that the Netanyahu-led war, while vicious, will not end until Netanyahu says it’s over, and that Israel will not stop until Gaza, the safe haven for Hamas, is under full operational control of Israel. Most Americans understand this was not a scenario of Netanyahu’s making, but a scenario ordained by Hamas’ actions on October 7.
Joe Biden drawing a redline at Rafah would only matter if the American voter knew or cared where Rafah was. They don’t. It would matter if the American voter was sympathetic to the innocent casualties of a war fought exclusively in the homeland of the terrorists who attacked an ally. They’re not. It would matter if the American voter thought that terrorists should be afforded refuge by embedding in civilian corridors. But they don’t. The broad swath of American voters believe in the alliance with Israel and historically support Israel’s leadership, regardless of who occupies the post.
Perhaps this is now a Presidential moment where Joe Biden sees his place in history and has chosen the hard course of leadership. Bill Clinton faced a similar moment with the Balkans. George Bush did as well with the global war on terror.
But leadership comes at a cost. Joe Biden just turned his back on Israel. Joe Biden made Israel’s execution of its war more difficult, he eased the burden for Hamas. Campus protestors and opinion makers who proliferate Elon Musk’s social media platform may feel redeemed by Biden’s decision, but the wound the President just opened in American politics is real. For those whose vote is informed by continuing America’s historic alliance with Israel, they understand Biden’s concern, but not his decision.
Those voters tonight are with Netanyahu, and they just left Joe Biden.
