The New Yorker:

The President, fresh off a grim trip to the Middle East, makes the case for funding Israel’s war—and Ukraine’s, too.

By Susan B. Glasser

Has President Biden ever had a more high-stakes week of personal diplomacy in such uncertain circumstances? On Monday, a leader whose international travel is generally planned months in advance decided that he would leave—the very next day—to go to the Middle East to consult with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and with Arab leaders about the new war in the region. By Tuesday evening, as Biden was headed for Air Force One, his meeting in Jordan with the Arab leaders was cancelled in the wake of reports about a deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza. On Wednesday, Biden’s emotional embrace of Netanyahu on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport became a photo seen around the world. The American President’s grief at the brutal Hamas terror attack on Israel came through in a speech that day to the Israeli people. So did his warning about the perils of unrestrained military retribution amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “Justice must be done,” he said. “But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11 we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

Biden’s bear hug for Bibi was a remarkable show of support. It was also an attempt to create more space for the airing of Biden’s private concerns to the Israeli Prime Minister. But it’s not at all clear yet what results were achieved. Hours after Biden landed back in Washington, I heard a grim prognosis about the conflict from a source familiar with the President’s trip and the days of intensive shuttle diplomacy to seven countries in the region by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that preceded it. How grim? Some senior Israeli officials told the Americans to expect a war that could last as long as ten years. To describe the threat posed by Hamas and the reason the status quo in Gaza has, post-attack, become unacceptable, the Israeli officials asked the Americans how they would feel about having the terrorist group isis headquartered in a safe haven in Mexico. No wonder, then, that Israel’s aims against Hamas were presented as maximalist, and that it took days just for Biden and Blinken to get an agreement for Egypt to open its border crossing with Gaza to let in an initial twenty trucks of humanitarian aid.

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