Joe Biden canceled his trip to the state of Colorado planned for this Monday at the last minute. Instead, the President of the United States will remain in Washington to hold “national security meetings” on the war between Israel and Hamas, the White House said. The sudden change in agenda fuels speculation about a possible visit by the US President to Israel in the coming days.
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The American president, who had expressed his support for Israel from the very first moment, declared on Sunday against the occupation of the Gaza Strip by that state. “I think it would be a big mistake,” he said in an interview broadcast on CBS’ 60 Minutes, in his clearest attempt to rein in Israel since the crisis began. The White House tenant expressed his opinion in favor of the need to defeat Hamas, but made it clear that this must be achieved through “a path to a Palestinian state.”
The decision to postpone his trip to Colorado, where he planned to promote his economic and clean energy agenda, comes as the crisis in the Middle East deepens following the October 7 attack on Israel by the radical Palestinian militia Hamas . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is preparing to order its troops to enter the Gaza Strip as the humanitarian situation worsens in the Gaza Strip, home to nearly 2.3 million people. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli bombings have already left 2,750 dead and 9,700 injured.
Netanyahu, who has spoken to the US president five times by phone since the crisis began, had invited Biden to visit Israel, according to senior officials in the country. The White House has neither confirmed nor denied that it is preparing a trip in the coming days, limiting itself to publicly indicating that “there are no new trips to announce.” Israeli media, however, claim that the president could arrive this Wednesday.
The announcement of the program change comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel this Monday, where he is expected to advocate for a temporary ceasefire in Israeli air strikes that will allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. It is the second time in four days that the American Secretary of State has traveled to Israel.
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Blinken arrived from Egypt, the penultimate leg of an intensive tour of the United States’ key allied countries in the Middle East. Its aim is to express support for Israel after the Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,400 people, but also to mediate to facilitate humanitarian aid in Gaza and contain what is expected to be a bloody Israeli military operation. The foreign minister also wants to prevent the conflict from spreading and allowing Iran – Israel and the United States’ major archenemy in the region – or its ally, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, to try to intervene.
This Monday, the Foreign Minister also spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan about “diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading and to minimize the humanitarian costs of the war,” according to his spokesman Matthew Miller. Turkey is one of the countries mediating to secure the release of hostages captured by Hamas during its invasion of Israel.
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