Total solidarity with Israel, support for its security, warning to other armed actors in the region: The Biden administration responded quickly and decisively to Hamas’s multifront terrorist attack on October 7. The gravity of the events mobilized the National Security Council from the start. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stepped up contacts with Palestinian officials and Middle Eastern leaders, trying in vain to secure clear condemnations. On Sunday, the diplomatic chief told CNN that the government was reviewing information about possible American deaths as well as nationals kidnapped by Hamas.
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The same applies to the White House as to the Israeli political parties: the criticism of the Netanyahu government and its illiberal judicial reform projects in recent months has been brushed aside in view of the extent of the trauma suffered. Likewise, the question of the failure of the intelligence service and the military system in the Gaza Strip is not on the agenda. It is time for a united front.
After speaking with the Israeli prime minister, Joe Biden gave a speech in which he renewed the classic terms of American engagement alongside the Jewish state when its security is at stake. The president supported passage. “Let me say this as clearly as possible: now is not the time for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to gain an advantage. » The warning is primarily aimed at the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which could be tempted to open a front in the north in the event of a ground invasion by the Israeli army in Gaza.
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Washington’s top priority is to prevent the conflict from spreading regionally. Iran is being closely watched. Cautious clarification from a senior American official on Saturday: “It is still too early to say whether the Iranian state” is involved in the preparation and execution of the attack. After the restructuring of the Iranian nuclear agreement (JCPoA) failed by Tehran, Washington has to be content with modest goals here too: to prevent an escalation with this hostile regime, to practice hostage-taking like Hamas, beyond the formalized bilateral prisoner exchange on September 18th .
A foreign policy full of iron realism
Consultations on providing security assistance to Israel are accelerating in both Congress and the White House. However, behind this demonstrated solidarity, the government is confronted with the limits of its commitment: a House of Representatives in the doldrums, without a speaker, facing the prospect of a shutdown of government activities in mid-November due to the lack of a budget agreement; the absence of an American ambassador to Israel, whose post was held by a chargé d’affaires; Very complex, even tense relations with two of the main regional players, Egypt – traditional mediator with the Palestinian armed factions – and Turkey.
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