Tension in the Middle East: another poignant moment of Biden’s tacit foreign policy failure
By Dr. Adnan Pavel
Tension in the Middle East: another poignant moment of Biden’s tacit foreign policy failure
By Dr. Adnan Pavel
Biden’s Middle East policy has been subjugated by Netanyahu completely. Bibi is sailing too close to the wind, but how can he act like a mafia gangster in the name of “self-defence”? When Lebanon was first invaded by Israel in 1982, President Ronald Regan called then Israel PM Menachem Begin to stop the invasion immediately citing that Isreal’s actions reassembled “the holocaust”. I doubt if Biden is using the same leverage as other US Presidents like Ronald Regan to hold Isreal to task!
“All roads lead to Rome”, mother of all problems concerning the current tension in the Middle East leads to Gaza. Isreal’s continuous indiscriminate bombing killing more than 43,000 people, many of whom were children, women, elderly, journalists, aid-workers and UN staffers. The history of the Middle East is complicated. However, conflict between Israel and Lebanon and Israel and Palestine leads to illegal occupation by Israel and the failure of the International Community to stop it. Israel has the right to defend itself but how it does matters greatly. I highlighted in my Op-Ed for The Business Standard Isreal’s actions in Gaza is testing the limits of the international system. It has been more than a year since the terrorist attack of 07 October. We all condemn the killings of any innocent people. We are also feel deeply concerned about the hostages that are being held by Hamas. No doubt, the primary responsibility of a state is to ensure safety and security of its citizens. But does Israel’s action in Gaza killing more than forty thousand people among whom many were children, women and elderly makes Israel safer? Is it ok to breach international humanitarian laws by using hunger as a tool to punish civilians? Isn’t collective punishment prohibited by Geneva Convention? Is it not the breach of international law to attack foreign embassy in another country? Does creating this circle of hate by Netanyahu make Israel anymore safer? Muslim countries in the Middle East don’t see eye to eye on every matter but Israel’s important neighbouring countries including Saudi have signalled strongly that it will not normalise its relationship with Israel unless there is space for an independent Palestinian state. In fact, Israel’s recent invasion in Lebanon has brought the two regional hegemons aka Saudi and Iran together although they have enmity. The killings of civilians in Gaza needs to be stopped and illegal occupation needs to be stopped. The UN and the international community understand it, recognise it to be one of the core problems but Biden administration hasn’t been strong enough to take plausible actions regarding this ongoing conflict. Biden promised that his Middle East policy will be better than Trump to bring peace to this region. Has he relocated back US Embassy in Israel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv? Biden’s Middle East policy hasn’t been any better than Trump. Same old same old. Biden administration has given too much leeway to Netanyahu. It seems that Israel has become the senior partner in US-Israel relationship and Biden’s fragile leadership has aided it. Biden should have created more pressure on Netanyahu to commit for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but he hadn’t. Supporting or proposing an UN resolution isn’t enough. Far too many civilians have been killed and it must be stopped immediately.
Fight between Israel and Hezbollah has been escalated drastically since October last year as a spillover from Isreal’s Gaza invasion. Arguably more than 80,000 Israelis had to flee their homes in Northern Israel as Hezbollah continues its rocket attack. Israel started ground invasion in Lebanon in October 2024 but how it would all end? Hezbollah is more formidable force than Hamas. Hezbollah has indicated that they would stop rocket attacks to Israel if there’s any ceasefire in Gaza. Same lines have been said by Hotis. Netanyahu is using this moment for his political gain. His leadership was untenable due to many of his catatonic actions, and he is using Gaza to sweep all these under the carpet. Iran has been profiting vastly from selling oil to China. Iran has also been supplying drones to Russia to its war effort in Ukraine. Attacking Iran’s nuclear facility by Isreal as a retaliation will be catastrophic. All parties are advised to practice caution, but I think Biden’s Middle East policy has been subjugated by Netanyahu completely. Although foreign policy matters less in the US Presidential Election, but Kamala Haris lost support of many young, progressive and Muslim minority voters in the last US presidential election due to Biden’s foreign policy failure in the Middle East. The Middle East crisis is a poignant moment of Biden’s tacit foreign policy failure in the Middle East.
Dr. Adnan Pavel is an academic and political commentator based in the Uk.
