Saturday 6th April, 2024

US President Joe Biden’s come-to-Jesus telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday (04), is said to be yielding the desired results. Biden reportedly warned Netanyahu that there would be a sharp shift in the US policy towards the Gaza war unless Israel heeded Washington’s concerns about civilian lives and acted accordingly. The White House said Biden had “made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action” to curtail the killing of civilians and aid workers and improve the dire humanitarian situation. No sooner had Biden issued that ‘warning’ than Israel opened three routes for aid to flow into Gaza. Netanyahu is expected to soften his stand further on humanitarian assistance in the coming days.

The question is why President Biden waited so long to ‘warn’ Netanyahu if he had been considerate towards the hapless Palestinian civilians. Had he done so a few months ago, tens of thousands of civilian lives could have been saved. US government leaders and their advisors have the blood of Palestinians on their hands. One might say, with apologies to Shakespeare, that all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the hands of hawks in Washington, including Biden.

The western media has claimed Biden used ‘tough language’ in the aforesaid 30-minute telephone call, which is described as ‘tense’. But Joe and Bibi are buddies!

One should not be so naïve as to expect Washington to withdraw support for Israeli attacks on Gaza even if Biden’s so-called warning goes unheeded. Washington has no qualms about continuing to provide military hardware and funds to Israel and vetoing UN resolutions that are detrimental to the interests of Israel. White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby, on Thursday, reaffirmed what he called Washington’s iron-clad commitment to helping Israel.

What prompted Biden to issue a ‘warning’ to Israel was the killing of seven aid workers from US-based charity, World Central Kitchen (WCK), in Israeli attacks recently. CNN quoted Kirby as having said that what happened to the WCK workers certainly was a catalyst for Biden’s call to Netanyahu. Is it that if the WCK personnel had not perished at the hands of the Israeli forces, Biden would not have cared to ‘warn’ Netanyahu? What Kirby has left unsaid is that pressure is mounting on Biden both domestically and globally to make a decisive intervention to rein in Israel.

Biden has not acted out of any concern for the destruction of civilian lives in Gaza. Kirby has claimed that Biden’s “frustration had been growing over recent weeks and months over the dangers to the civilian population in Gaza and to aid workers.” He is trying to have the world believe that Biden had been contemplating tough action to make Israel fall in line. But his claim could be considered an instance of propagandistic misinformation.

President Biden has only sought to pacify the American voters who have turned resentful towards him and the Democratic Party over the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. It is the Democrats that ethnic and religious minorities usually back in the US. But this time around, Biden is losing their support, which will be crucial in the upcoming presidential contest, which the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, is believed to have a better chance of winning. Not that Trump loves Israel less, but he is averse to war.

Both Israel and Ukraine are likely to face drastic cuts in military aid in the event of Trump securing the presidency. This is a disturbing proposition for Netanyahu, who is becoming increasingly difficult for the Biden administration to defend, especially in this election year. However, the opening of a few aid corridors alone will not help improve Biden’s approval ratings affected by his unconditional support for the Gaza invasion, which has already left about 33,000 Palestinians dead since the Hamas incursions into Israel last October.