A truncated visit, without meetings with Arab leaders. Empathetic gestures for the Israeli victims of the attack committed by Hamas, but an explosive regional context. Joe Biden’s high-risk visit to Tel Aviv, Wednesday October 18, the first of an American president in Israel in a time of open war, cannot be measured in gains, even if the Democrat obtained a green light from the Egypt for the – symbolic – entry of twenty trucks of humanitarian aid through the south of the Gaza Strip.
This passage is above all the measure of the forced return of the United States to the Middle East, from which it believed, wrongly, that it could turn away, in the name of other priorities. It is the mark of loyalty, personal and state, to the security of an ally. But this came at the cost of American diplomatic isolation, while demonstrators denounced on Wednesday, in Beirut as in Amman and Istanbul, the deadly explosion which had taken place the day before at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza.
Upon his arrival, Mr. Biden adopted the Israeli explanation, which denies having hit the hospital and blames a faulty rocket attack by Islamic Jihad. Aware that the systematic denials of the Israeli army in this type of situation, sometimes contradicted by investigations carried out subsequently, have undermined the credibility of the Jewish State, the tenant of the White House later clarified that he was getting this information from the Department of American defense.
Following a classic tactic of his, Joe Biden showed his affection in public before speaking more brutally behind closed doors. He listened to families of victims and hostages, as well as survivors of the attack, who hold their own government responsible for this cataclysm, and who are grateful to the American president for his concern. In the afternoon, Mr. Biden spoke with empathy and sensitivity of the grief felt by Israelis, “the scent when you open the cupboard door, the morning coffee you shared”. But Joe Biden also sought to place implicit limits on American support. Without calling for a ceasefire, he made the humanitarian emergency in Gaza the priority of his trip. Hence his satisfaction at having reached a compromise, by telephone, with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi.
“Clarity on objectives”
The twenty aid trucks, authorized by Israel to transport water, food and medicine, are due to pass from Egypt to Gaza through the Rafah crossing shortly. It is a drop in the bucket, insignificant compared to the needs of Gaza, but Mr. Biden had to apply heavy pressure for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to accept it, despite the demands of severity and of “cruelty” which emanates from his party, the Likud, within which he is weakened, as well as from his far-right allies.
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