Biden’s Extraordinary Wartime Trip to Tel Aviv to Alleviate Gaza Humanitarian Crisis

2023-10-17 17:04:00

(CNN) — It took an explicit commitment from his Israeli counterpart to open Gaza to humanitarian aid for President Joe Biden to agree to make an extraordinary wartime trip to Tel Aviv.

While the trip will mark a strong show of support for Israel as it prepares its response to last week’s Hamas attacks, it will also act as Biden’s biggest push to alleviate civilian suffering and allow those who wish to leave Gaza. .

The high-stakes diplomacy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his interlocutor for four decades, underscores the delicate balance Biden finds himself in as he embarks on the last-minute wartime visit Tuesday night.

The lives of millions of civilians, including Americans, are currently trapped in the Palestinian coastal enclave, where a humanitarian crisis is taking place while Israeli troops gather at its borders in the face of an announced land invasion.

Although the United States has not explicitly stipulated that Israel not launch its invasion until Biden leaves the region, this is the understanding of US officials who have spent the last few days debating and planning the president’s visit, according to several people familiar with the matter.

US officials want humanitarian plans for Gaza to be fully approved and implemented before the invasion begins, the same sources said, describing that task as one of Biden’s main objectives during his visit to Tel Aviv this Wednesday.

While Biden has not encouraged a ceasefire, the word has not been used at all in the government’s response so far, but he has issued increasingly strong warnings regarding protecting civilian life, including during his phone calls with Netanyahu. .

Traveling to Israel in person may provide Biden, who despises Zoom calls and has long advocated the importance of face-to-face meetings, a better opportunity to convey those views to his Israeli counterpart, a leader with whom he believes. have a deep understanding.

Ultimately, Biden and his senior advisers believe they need to be in the room with Netanyahu to have influence over the prime minister and his team, which requires unequivocal support for Israel’s right to defend itself and eliminate Hamas.

But they are also acutely aware that public support for Israel will not last forever, especially if Gaza civilians bear the brunt of the Israeli response to Hamas attacks, requiring a degree of calibration on the part of the president. .

It’s a stance that one official called an effort to “hug them closely” so they can continue working side by side through what is expected to be a very difficult period.

Late Monday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden would arrive in Israel focused on “the critical need for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, as well as the possibility that innocent people can go out”.

He said the United States had not sought assurances from Israel regarding the timing of its ground invasion before Biden’s trip.

“We are not dictating terms or operational directions to the Israelis,” Kirby said.

Aides said Biden had expressed strong interest in making the trip following Netanyahu’s invitation over the weekend, and there was little doubt he would ultimately make the trip in support of a country for which he has deep personal affection.

He spent Monday deliberating the trip at the White House with his top national security and intelligence advisers.

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken convened a marathon session with senior Israeli officials to discuss opening Gaza to humanitarian aid and preventing civilians from being caught up in Israel’s response to the terrorist attacks. from last weekend.

Although Blinken’s agenda has been very fluid this week, the meeting lasted much longer than initially planned: almost seven and a half hours in a meeting with the Israeli war cabinet. The length of the meeting underscored the magnitude of the task, as American officials and their Israeli counterparts split into separate rooms and exchanged roles to try to reach an agreement.

The proposals included safe zones and relief corridors. Announcing Biden’s trip Wednesday following hours of negotiations, Blinken said the United States and Israel “have agreed to develop a plan that will allow humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza.”

Former US ambassador David Satterfield, whom the president on Monday named his envoy for humanitarian aid in the Near East, will be in charge of turning the conceptual agreement into a tangible plan, people familiar with the matter said.

The goal is to have most of the plan ready before Biden arrives, but officials acknowledge that is an arduous task that will require agreement from other parties. The fear remains that, despite the many, many hours Blinken spent consulting with Israeli officials and others, some things will not get done.

Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy efforts in the Middle East this week offered a preview of sorts for Biden’s own talks. American officials considered his meetings with Arab leaders to be more or less productive, but they were far from conclusive.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s public rebuke of Blinken was a source of particular irritation among US officials.

Sitting in the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt’s strongman told Blinken: “You have said that you are Jewish, and I am an Egyptian who grew up alongside Jews in Egypt… They have never been subjected to any form of oppression or attack and it has never happened in our region that Jews have been attacked in recent or ancient history.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forcing Blinken to wait hours for their meeting was also not appreciated by US officials, but was within expectations.

After his meeting with Al-Sisi, Blinken called Biden to brief him on developments, with a primary focus on the consistent message he heard from Arab leaders that a humanitarian aid plan was necessary.

Biden, who had gone through his own rounds of calls with regional leaders, was aware of the reality and asked Blinken to travel to Israel once more to work on that with his Israeli counterparts.

This Monday, following ruling out a planned visit to Colorado to remain in the White House, Biden himself spoke by phone with Al-Sisi, a fundamental piece, according to officials, to finalize travel plans.

Although the president’s visit to Tel Aviv is — at first glance — the most spectacular public display of support this week, the decision to travel later to the Jordanian capital, Amman, underscores the White House’s strategy to try to balance public support and military with the reality that Arab partners are critical to Biden’s approach.

In Amman, Biden will meet with Al-Sisi, King Abdullah II of Jordan and the president of the Palestinian Autonomous Government, Mahmoud Abbas.

Ahead of Biden’s visit, King Abdullah II warned that the displacement of Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt is a “red line” and said there would be no refugees in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt. “It’s a red line because I think it’s a plan by some of the usual suspects to try to create de facto problems on the ground,” he said alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a news conference in Berlin.

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