US President Joe Biden criticized the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last July, against the backdrop of the passage of a controversial law on judicial amendments in the Israeli Knesset, which divided Israeli society in a way that has not happened since the establishment of Israel seventy-five years ago. It is the same Biden who ordered the movement of the US aircraft carrier (USS Gerald Ford), the largest attack aircraft carrier in the world, to the shores of Israel in solidarity and defense, just two days after the attacks on Israel at the hands of the Palestinian resistance on the seventh of October. He also rushed to visit Tel Aviv just a few days after the attacks, pledging that his country would stand by Israel and fully support it in its war on the Gaza Strip.
What are the calculations and stakes that move the Biden administration regarding the current crisis? Why would Biden risk his political future and his country's interests in favor of Israel?
First, Biden personally believes that the existence of Israel is vital and necessary for the United States, and he has said on more than one occasion - since he was a member of the US Senate, between the seventies and nineties of the last century - that "if there were no Israel ... We would have found it), a phrase he also repeated during his recent visit to Tel Aviv.
Biden's unequivocal support for Israel goes beyond the religious and symbolic dimension, he is not truly religious, nor is he evangelical or Protestant, he is the second Catholic president in the history of the United States to rule America after former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in November 1963. He also considers himself a Zionist even though he is not Jewish, and famously said, "You don't have to be Jewish to become a Zionist." Perhaps this may explain the remarkable rush of Biden and his administration to express their full support for Israel and send all kinds of this support, including weapons, ammunition, warships, teams of experts and American soldiers ready to defend Israel. What struck on the seventh of October was not only the prestige of Israel, but also the United States as the main supporter and incubator of the entity.
Second, Biden's unlimited support for Israel stems mainly from his vision of it, like other American politicians, as a political, security and strategic asset for America in the Middle East that must not be neglected. It is a vision - regardless of its logic and correctness - that is not fleeting or nascent today, but dates back more than five decades, specifically since Israel's victory in the war of the fifth of June 1967, and its emergence from that war as a regional power that can be used and invested in in order to serve and achieve American interests in the region, especially in light of the conflict at the time with the eastern camp led by the former Soviet Union.
Therefore, there is a principled American commitment – from all American presidents and officials, especially in the US Congress – to provide all kinds of military, strategic, and diplomatic support to Israel. This has even been legislated legally, with regard to maintaining Israel's qualitative advantage over its neighbors in the region, to which all US administrations have been committed since the seventies until now. This support has allowed Israel to become the world's largest recipient of U.S. military aid, amounting to about $4 billion a year.
Israel is an important ally of America in terms of intelligence and security activity in all its forms, which supports the protection of American interests and citizens in the region.
Third: Israel represents an important player in the regional balance of power, and a cornerstone in the security construction of the Middle East Security Architecture developed and drawn by America after the October 1973 war, which is based on containing and curbing anti-American forces, especially Iran, and before that was Iraq and Libya, so supporting and arming Israel qualitatively helps achieve a kind of strategic balance that ensures the achievement of American interests in the region.
At the same time, the United States has worked – and continues to support the normalization processes between Israel and the Arab countries, not to achieve the interests of these countries, but mainly to achieve a balance in the regional balance of power on the one hand, and to lift the Arab cover on supporting the Palestinian resistance on the other. Therefore, what we are witnessing today in terms of a timid and weak Arab position is not born of the moment, but began at least five decades ago, when the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed in 1979.
Fourth, support for Israel is an important electoral card for Biden, as it is for other Democratic and Republican candidates, who are currently racing to show support for it and outbid each other in this regard. It is not a matter of moment or new, but rather the result of a great effort by Jewish groups supporting Israel, the most important of which is the American Israel Public Affairs Association (AIPAC), which employs nearly a hundred thousand employees in more than 18 US states, and collects funds and donations for politicians.
While many of those who work in influential places in US sovereign institutions such as the White House, Congress, the US State Department and the Department of Defense are either ideologically and ideologically supportive of Israel, or need the support of the Israel lobby, should they decide to enter the political sphere. In the upcoming presidential election, Biden is keen to win the vote of Jewish voters and, most importantly, to flirt with the hard-right bloc, which often votes for the Republican Party, a bloc that is closer in vote to former President Donald Trump who knows how to flirt with and dominate it with his populist rhetoric.
Finally, Israel is an important ally of America in terms of intelligence and security activity in all its forms, which supports the protection of American interests and citizens in the region. Israel's Mossad plays an important role in protecting U.S. interests by sharing classified information and reports with U.S. security and intelligence agencies on many critical issues, such as extremist groups and the activities of Iran and its proxies in the region. At the same time, it conducts covert operations targeting Israeli and American adversaries in the region. Not to mention the exchange of advanced Israeli technology in the field of cybersecurity.
But the question now is: Will Biden's blind support for Israel's killing machine against Palestinians in Gaza harm U.S. interests both in the region and beyond? We will try to answer this question in an upcoming article with the help of God.