In wartime visit, U.S. president offers Israel support but advises caution
Biden tells Israelis he has their back but to proceed cautiously in Gaza
As U.S. President Joe Biden boarded Air Force One on Tuesday evening, his dual mission to support Israel's war on Hamas while trying to alleviate the crushing humanitarian situation in Gaza appeared precarious.
By the time he landed at Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday morning, the significance of a U.S. president arriving in Israel during wartime had been eclipsed by reports of hundreds of casualties from an explosion at a Gaza hospital while Biden was on his way.
But his early pronouncement on the validity of the Israeli investigation that concluded a misfire by Palestinian militants, and not an Israeli missile, caused the deadly explosion at the hospital would be just the first of many shows of support on Biden's brief visit.
"It looks like it was done by the other team and not you," Biden said to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv as he began his visit.
At the same time, Biden also noted that with emotions in the region at a boiling point, perceptions may matter as much as whatever the evidence indicates.
"We've got to overcome a lot of things," he said.
At a briefing on Wednesday morning, a few hours before Biden landed, an Israeli military spokesperson attempted to build a case that the explosion at the al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza was caused by a rocket fired at Israel by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which had hit the parking lot of the building instead of its target in Israel.
The military shared satellite photographs of the blast area, audio recordings allegedly made by militants discussing the wayward rocket and a detailed timeline of when rockets were observed being launched from Gaza, all of which it said backed its claim.
Hamas, whose hideous attacks on Oct. 7 killed at least 1,300 Israelis and foreigners in southern Israel, has thus far not countered the specifics of Israel's evidence.
Instead, the militant group is pushing a broader narrative — that because Israeli missiles have flattened countless residential buildings, schools and government offices in Gaza over the past 12 days, killing more than 3,300 people, the rocket had to have come from them.
Receptive audience
Nonetheless, Hamas's unsupported version has found a receptive audience with many in the region and beyond who have criticized Israel's conduct of the war and blamed its military for the catastrophic humanitarian plight of Gazan civilians.
Large, angry crowds protested in cities across the occupied West Bank overnight and again on Wednesday.
In Turkey, thousands of protesters tried to break down the doors of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday night, touching off ferocious encounters with riot police.
And the leaders of key Arab states quickly staked out positions against Israel, including cancelling a summit in Jordan that Biden was supposed to attend after his meetings in Israel.
In a statement, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi strongly condemned what he called Israel's deliberate bombing of the hospital, as did a statement from the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia categorically rejected "this brutal attack," said a statement from that country's Foreign Affairs Ministry.
In the aftermath of Israel's strident efforts to shift the blame to Islamic Jihad, none of those same countries appear to have issued retractions or attempted to walk back their remarks.
Israeli political commentator Nadav Eyal says Biden's visit comes across as reassuring.
"The fact that [Biden] sent those aircraft carriers here and the fact he came here himself and is giving his backing makes Israelis feel more secure about the future," Eyal said.
U.S. soldiers, warships off Israel
The U.S. military has stationed two of its most powerful warships, the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, off Israel, along with several thousand soldiers.
Eyal, a prominent columnist with Yedioth daily, Israel's largest newspaper and online news site, told CBC News that the risk that Iran or its proxies, such as the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, will join the conflict to support Hamas represents the most immediate and worrisome threat of escalation.
Iran's foreign minister was quoted by Reuters news agency as warning that Iran would not watch from the sidelines if Israeli troops move into Gaza.
Hezbollah forces on the Lebanon side of the border have been firing artillery rounds at Israeli positions with increasing frequency, and Israel has evacuated 28 communities as a precaution.
"It's Tehran that will make the decision whether it orders its proxies to join this war. If it does, all hell will break loose," Eyal said.
"And it won't be a regional issue — it will be global. Which is why President Biden came here to deter Tehran from making the wrong choice."
Support with qualifications
Biden's words of support, however, came with several qualifications.
In a statement before he left Tel Aviv, he appeared to urge Israel to pay more attention to the damage its attacks on Gaza are inflicting on civilians.
"You live by the rule of law and when conflicts flare, you live by the law of wars," Biden said.
"If you give that up, the terrorists win."
Israel is facing international condemnation for the deaths of huge numbers of Palestinian civilians as part of its attacks on Gaza.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 3,300 people have been killed in the last 12 days, including more than 900 children.
Deteriorating conditions
Living conditions in the territory are terrible and getting worse by the hour, with food, water and fuel all running out.
One immediate consequence of Biden's visit may be that an impasse over allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza via Egypt may have finally been addressed, although it was not immediately clear that the crossing at Rafah had reopened.
American officials have been trying for days without success to convince Egypt and Israel to let supplies pass through.
Later, a release from Netanyahu's office said Israel would not stop shipments of food, medicine and water as long as they were destined for civilians only.
The Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank had initially been planning to meet with Biden at the summit in Amman, Jordan's capital, but the hospital attack scuttled those plans.
'Hurting the image' of the U.S.
Authorities in the occupied West Bank say at least 64 Palestians have been killed by gun-carrying Israeli settlers or the military since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, including two more deaths on Wednesday.
Speaking to a team from CBC News in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, prominent Palestinian activist Mustafa Barghouti said Biden's visit would not help save young Palestinian lives or the cause of peace.
"He is unfortunately hurting the image of the United States," Barghouti said. "It cannot be a mediator. It cannot be fair. It cannot be supporting international law."
He said Israel's many foes won't accept the findings of the hospital attack if the Israeli military is behind the investigation.
"I challenge them, let them bring an international independent commission."
Words of caution
During his brief visit to Tel Aviv, Biden also took a seat at the cabinet table of Netanyahu's new unity government.
Afterward, he offered words of caution about the scope of Israel's ground offensive against Hamas, which military leaders have suggested could be imminent.
"It requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment," Biden said.
That may suggest Israel's leadership is still uncertain about its strategy for defeating Hamas, said Eyal, the political commentator.
"There is a vagueness in the Israeli decision-making."
Middle East analyst Nomi Bar-Yaacov, with Chatham House in London, told the BBC that Biden has already said any Israeli military action should not involve trying to take over and hold onto the territory.
"He has ... said he is against an Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip," Bar-Yaacov said.
"We need to think about how we resolve the situation and get all the key Arab states involved, as well as the U.S. and European states and work out how to get out of this quagmire."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
