Israel-Gaza war: how Biden’s approach is hurting America’s reputation

The impact of Biden’s stance on his presidential contest remains unknown but, outside the US, it has dealt a serious blow to America’s global leadership
To ensure the US remains relevant, Biden must adopt a more balanced approach between Israel’s security needs and Palestinians’ desire for statehood

Robert Patman

Published: 7:30pm, 27 Nov 2023

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While no great power can expect to exert dominance permanently, the US response to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7 could prove a significant milestone in the waning of America’s influence.

However, there is only limited awareness of the real reputational damage in Washington. In a recent opinion piece, President Joe Biden said the United States had “Israel’s back” and remained “the essential nation” which the world looks to, “to solve the problems of our time”.

America continues to be the world’s most powerful state, but the latest phase of the Israel-Gaza conflict has shown it can be its own worst enemy in handling a Middle East crisis with global ramifications.

After Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 240 hostages during an armed incursion in southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly vowed “mighty vengeance” and threatened to turn Hamas-controlled Gaza “into rubble”. Israeli President Isaac Herzog has claimed there were no innocent civilians in Gaza.

In this context, the Biden administration, on top of its annual US$3.8 billion military aid package to Israel, immediately pledged to provide whatever military aid was required by the Netanyahu government to exercise its right of self-defence.

Within days, the US sent weapons and navy carriers in support of Israel. An American aid package of roughly US$2 billion in supplementary funding was crafted to help replenish Israel’s stockpile of interceptors for its Iron Dome missile defence system, artillery shells and other munitions.

Over the past seven weeks, the impact of Israel’s massive military campaign in Gaza has become plain.

Having expanded an air, land and sea blockade to cut off food, electricity and water to Gaza, Israel launched a relentless aerial bombardment and then began a ground offensive against Hamas. These have generated a catastrophic humanitarian situation in densely populated Gaza.

According to the United Nations, 67 per cent of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are thought to be women and children, about 70 per cent of the population has been displaced, and Gaza’s health system has collapsed.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has used its diplomatic clout to strongly oppose calls for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council and even vetoed a resolution for a humanitarian pause, though it later reversed its position and even promoted it.

On November 24, a four-day humanitarian pause in Gaza commenced between Israel and Hamas. This potentially shaky agreement, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, envisages the release of 50 Israeli women and children hostages by Hamas in return for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons.

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The impact of Biden’s staunch support for Israel’s brutal Gaza war on his presidential contest next year remains to be seen. But outside the US, there are strong grounds for believing it has dealt a serious blow to America’s international leadership.

First, while there is no justification for the appalling Hamas attacks on Israel, it is clear such violence did not come out of a clear blue sky, as the Biden administration has claimed. It is no secret that Palestinians’ desire for political self-determination in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem has been frustrated by more than 50 years of Israeli occupation.

Repeated warnings by US presidents that the steady expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in areas such as the West Bank was inconsistent with a two-state solution to the conflict were largely ignored in Tel Aviv, particularly in the Netanyahu years.

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Second, Biden’s carte blanche support for Israel’s right of self-defence undermines his administration’s commitment to an international rules-based order.

While Washington says it respects international humanitarian law, this claim is widely seen as diplomatic cover for America’s complicity in the Netanyahu government’s collective punishment of civilians in Gaza.

Israel’s right of self-defence is not limitless, and Biden’s claim that US support for Israel is comparable to its aid to another democracy, Ukraine, is hardly persuasive. Critics point out that Israel is an occupying power while Ukraine is defending against an occupying power.

Third, it is deeply troubling that the Biden administration has shown few qualms about fully backing Netanyahu’s hyper-military approach to the Hamas terrorist threat.

No decision maker, according to the great strategist Carl Von Clausewitz, should ever enter a war without a clear political objective in mind. Yet the Netanyahu government seems to have none except the complete destruction of Hamas.

After seven weeks of war, it is not clear Hamas can be destroyed. How many more innocent Palestinians will have to die before that quest is realised or abandoned?

There is little indication Netanyahu is waging war to advance the two-state political solution that the Biden administration has started promoting.

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Fourth, the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Netanyahu’s war has proven a strategic windfall for America’s adversaries.

Authoritarian states such as China and Russia, backed by many in the Global South, have been able to embarrass the US by demanding an end to the carnage in Gaza.

In addition, Iran’s repressive clerical regime and its militant ally, Hezbollah, have been given the chance to project themselves as defenders of Palestinians in a Israel-Hamas conflict that could yet widen.

If Biden truly wants America to remain essential in international affairs, he will have to adopt a more balanced approach between Israel’s security needs and the Palestinians’ long-standing desire for statehood.

In this vein, Biden might reflect on what president John F. Kennedy said 60 years ago: “If all nations could refrain from interfering in the self-determination of others, the peace would be much more assured.”

Robert G. Patman is an Inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair and a specialist in international relations at the University of Otago