US President Joe Biden has shown to the entire world that his mind is still quite ‘fertile’ despite old age. The first-ever American president who has visited Israel during war times Biden seems to have improved his electoral prospects at home on the one hand, and sent a strong message to China and Russia that the US will not concede any space in the Middle East and North Africa to either, on the other.

While putting his full weight behind Israel, he seems to have successfully persuaded Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to allow humanitarian aid, albeit in modest quantities initially, into Gaza though Egypt.

Buying into Israel’s claim that it had no role in the Gaza hospital explosion that has claimed lives of over 500 people the other day and that Islamic Jehad is in fact responsible for the hospital carnage is a price that Biden has paid, although reluctantly, to prime minister Netanyahu with a view to de-escalating the situation in the Middle East, starting with resumption of supplies of medicines and food to the besieged Gazans.

It is, however, not known whether or not Israel will ultimately carry out ground offensive into Gaza. But it increasingly appears that Biden has refused to acquiesce to the Israeli plans to fully occupy the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

That the US is trying to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians by showing a strong pro-Israel bias is obvious.

The beleaguered Palestinians do not have any option but to succumb to the US stipulations through Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, so to speak.

Despite its historic October 7 achievement of carrying out attacks across Israel, Hamas is likely to face massive censure even in Gaza, its power base, because the sheer scale of human misery that Israel has caused or created through its unprecedented belligerence combined with bellicosity presents extremely and unimaginable consequences for the residents of this enclave.

Nasim Haider (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023