Explore the complexities of U.S. foreign policy as Washington calls for a regional ceasefire while simultaneously providing military and political support for Israel. Is the expanding war a failure of diplomacy or a reflection of deeper strategic interests?
Is the Biden administration seeking de-escalation — or driving Middle East war?
As Washington calls for a regional ceasefire, it continues to provide political and military support for Israel. Is the expanding war failed diplomacy — or what the US really wants?
Washington, DC – Holding an ice cream cone, United States President Joe Biden declared in February that a ceasefire in Gaza is so “close” that it may materialize within days.
More than seven months later, not only has Israel’s war on Gaza continued but it has expanded, with Israeli troops invading and bombing Lebanon as tensions and violence boil over across the Middle East.
The Biden administration has continued to verbally call for de-escalation while also providing Israel with political support and a steady supply of bombs to sustain its wars.
Washington has welcomed armed resistance to nearly all of the escalatory and horrific steps Israel has taken this year: the killing of Hamas leaders in Beirut and Tehran, the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and the invasion of south Lebanon.
Israel is continuing its catastrophic rampage in the Gaza Strip, nearly one and a half years since the start of its war there, the killing of nearly 42,000 Palestinians and bombs dropping on Beirut every day as it prepares to strike Iran.
As the conflict in Gaza expands and overtakes the rest of the region, the gap between US rhetoric and policy increasingly comes into view.
Is the Biden administration merely reneging on its right to rein in Israel – as many liberal commentators have argued? Or is it more the driver of rising tensions, taking advantage of chaos to promote a hawkish agenda against Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah?
The short answer: The US is currently still a significant contributor to the escalation of violence in the region given its continued military and diplomatic support for Israel, even as analysts say it touts itself to be restrained and asking for a ceasefire.
It is quite hard to speculate on the administration’s motive or true intention, but this body of evidence is now growing clearly that indicates the Biden administration is in lockstep with Israel and not a passive ally being defied.
What has the US said about regional ceasefire and done so far?
After months-long public campaign to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza, the US has now focused on supporting the Israeli assault on Lebanon.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signaled last week that an Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon – which has risked evolving into a full-scale invasion of that country.
I made it clear the United States supports Israel’s right to defend itself, Austin said in a statement on September 30 after a call with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.
“We agreed on the need to destroy attack infrastructure along the border so that Lebanese Hezbollah could not conduct October 7-type attacks against northern Israeli communities,” Austin said, referring to an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel in which at least 1,139 people were killed.
The Lebanese group had started its attacks against Israeli military positions last October as a measure to compel the Israeli government to stop the war it had initiated against Gaza after that little strip of land was attacked by the Hamas resistance movement.
For months, the near-daily clashes were largely contained to the border area. The violence pushed tens of thousands of people from both sides of the border to flee.
Hezbollah argued that the residents of Israel’s north can return only when the country ends its war on Gaza.
After a killing campaign against Hezbollah’s top military leaders, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign across Lebanon, destroying civilian homes across hundreds of villages and towns late on September 23.
Since then, Israeli violence has displaced over 1 million people in Lebanon.
Ahead of this Israeli escalation, the White House had been claiming for months that it was doing everything in its power to bring a diplomatic solution to the crisis at the Lebanon-Israel border.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was repeatedly visiting the region allegedly to warn against escalation.
As low-level hostilities rapidly escalated into an all-out war over Lebanon, the Biden administration mustered Arab and European countries and proposed, on September 25, an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire to stop the fighting.
Related: Hezbollah Conflict Escalates: Israel’s Ground Offensive and Iran’s Looming Threat
Yet two days on, when Israel assassinated Nasrallah in a massive bomb attack that razed several residential buildings in Beirut and killed off all hope of an imminent ceasefire, the White House praised the attack as a “measure of justice”. Nasrallah’s killing was ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from US soil, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
History Professor Osamah Khalil of Syracuse University questioned whether Biden was sincere about his diplomatic efforts. He reiterated reports surfacing that Hochstein pressed Israel to dial back its attacks.
“Member of his own team was urging restraint from Israel,” Khalil said of the Biden administration, yet the US had remained an active participant and supporter of the actions of Israel in Gaza and across the region.
The Biden administration only played for the talks as a ploy for “domestic politics” to save themselves from homegrown criticisms, he added.
“All this was negotiations for the sake of negotiations, particularly as the war became increasingly unpopular,” Khalil told Al Jazeera last month.