Biden’s courage and leadership in the wake of Russia’s brutal, unprovoked invasion and massive escalation of its war in Ukraine is in the best tradition of American presidents. Revitalizing and expanding NATO will—unless undone by Donald Trump and the MAGA GOP—bear national security benefits for all in the Western alliance for decades to come. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA Director Bill Burns, and their associates are quite simply the very best, most experienced, wisest group of foreign policy and national security professionals the U.S. has seen in over three decades. They’re among the best ever.
But their Israel-Gaza policy now threatens to overshadow all of that and to become a mistake that haunts them into the pages of history.
Like many such errors, it began with a sound impulse. Israel, a close ally, had been brutally attacked. It was only natural that the U.S. would respond in their moment of need with an offer of assistance. But almost from the outset, the degree to which that assistance was offered without clear conditions opened the door for Netanyahu to take advantage of the U.S. and to do so in ways that would result in a devastating loss of innocent human life, an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, and deep damage to America’s standing in the world and the Biden administration’s standing with millions of U.S. citizens.