Domestic and international anger over Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks has complicated President Biden’s diplomatic and re-election efforts.
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Palestinians surrounded by the rubble of buildings in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
Nearly five months since Hamas militants attacked and killed about 1,200 people in Israel, President Biden has been swept into the resulting upheaval in the region. As he prepares to address the nation, he finds himself navigating a wider Middle East emergency with profound moral, political and security implications for his presidency.
Early sympathy for Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks has given way to domestic and international anger over the suffering in Gaza. Israel’s subsequent military campaign to crush Hamas has now killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to officials in Gaza, with dire shortages of food, water and medicine creating a humanitarian crisis.
Because Israel’s military heavily depends on American-supplied weapons and munitions, Mr. Biden is under pressure at home and abroad to rein in Israel and alleviate the suffering in Gaza. But despite increasingly adamant calls for Israel to do more to protect civilians and provide them with aid, U.S. officials say that is not happening.
Even so, Mr. Biden has restrained his criticism of Israel’s right-wing government and resisted demands for restricting American aid to Israel, often reminding the world that Israel was brutally attacked and has a right to self-defense. He has ordered airdrops of aid into Gaza to supplement the limited truck convoys that enter the territory from Israel. But aid workers say those aerial supplies will make little difference.
Seeking to do more, Mr. Biden will announce a plan for the United States to build a floating pier off Gaza that can receive more supplies.
U.S. officials say their best hope is to help broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to pause the fighting for several weeks, allow for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and enable a surge of humanitarian supplies into the territory. Some U.S. officials think that such a pause in combat could evolve into a longer-term cease-fire. Talks among several nations to strike a deal have been underway for weeks, and U.S. officials say that Israel has signed off on an offer. But Hamas has yet to agree.
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Source: nytimes.com
