US President Joe Biden (agencies)
On March 25, the United States refrained from using its veto power against a draft resolution in the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the month of Ramadan.
This was the second time that the United States challenged its ally, Israel, in the United Nations, since it refrained in 2016 from obstructing a draft international resolution demanding that Israel stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and affirming the illegitimacy of the settlements that have been established on Palestinian lands since 1967. .
Although the current differences between Washington and Tel Aviv over the backdrop of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip have become public, the late awakening of American conscience in the Security Council should not deceive us.
The fact that the administration of President Joe Biden, which over the past six months of the war, obstructed many draft resolutions calling for a halt to the war, and granted Israel throughout this period full diplomatic cover and unlimited military support; To continue the war on Gaza without any regard for civilian lives and international law cannot be changed simply because Washington began criticizing Israeli attacks on civilians and finally allowed the Security Council to pass a resolution demanding a ceasefire.
First of all, let us agree on two clear points in American policy towards the war: first; The United States is not just an ally that provides political support for Israel and protects it from international pressure, but rather is its partner in the war. A large portion of the weapons used by Israel in its war on the Gaza Strip come from the United States. As of late December alone, Washington had sent more than 230 cargo planes and 20 ships loaded with weapons to Israel since the outbreak of the war.
There is no indication that arms exports have declined since that period, even as tensions exploded between Washington and Tel Aviv. Israel would not have been able to continue this war until now, had it not been for American military support in particular.
As for the second point: It is that the current Israeli-American differences are not about the war itself, as much as they are related to the crisis between the Biden administration and the Israeli Prime Minister, which appeared before the outbreak of the war on the one hand, and Israel’s opposition to the American vision for the future of Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the day after the end of the war, on the other hand. last.
In this sense, Washington has supported, and continues to support, the broad goals set by Israel in this war, but it can no longer bear the cost of silence about the disastrous effects caused by the war in Gaza.
If the shift in the American position towards Israel now is designed, as Washington shows, to put pressure on Tel Aviv; To prevent it from carrying out a comprehensive invasion of the city of Rafah, and to allow humanitarian aid to reach those afflicted in the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration could have prevented this disaster from occurring in the first place if it had shown from the beginning the red lines it now places before Israel.
With the exception of the administration of former President Barack Obama passing a draft resolution in the Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements, nothing has changed on the ground.
Washington is also formulating its shift in position based on Israel's interest in finding a way out of the war before the Palestinians need it. Even as Washington abstained from blocking the latest UN Security Council draft resolution, its abstention, even if it was attributed to the fact that the draft resolution does not condemn the Hamas movement, reflects how the United States is still reluctant to show a position that unequivocally pressures Netanyahu. To end the war.
It is clear that Israel, which treats the United Nations with contempt and has defied international resolutions over the decades of its occupation, will not feel embarrassed enough to change its approach to the war. The only means that will pressure it to change its approach is owned by the United States alone, which is an explicit threat to stop arms exports and economic aid to Tel Aviv. However, such a scenario is not yet taken seriously in Washington.
Biden's deputy, Kamala Harris, recently hinted at American consequences for Israel if it decided to go ahead with an attack on the city of Rafah, but she did not explain precisely the nature of these consequences. The current American pressure on Israel may succeed in preventing another massacre in Rafah, but it will not lead in any way to address the effects of the disaster caused by the Israeli war on Gaza.
Moreover, the main motives that pressured Biden to adopt a changed position on the war lie, on the one hand, in Biden’s quest to attract the votes of progressive Democrats and Arabs in the upcoming presidential elections in November, and on the other hand, to reduce the growing risks that the United States faces in... The Middle East; Because of this war.
Regardless of these motives, what concerns us now is whether the United States has actually changed its approach. In fact, what is clear is that this shift in the Biden administration’s position has not yet risen to the level that pressures Israel to end the war.
Because the failure of the United States over many decades to push the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the stage of resolution played a role in the outbreak of the October 7 war. American politicians are increasingly beginning to realize the responsibility that Washington bears in this conflict.
The Biden administration has begun to embrace the two-state solution project again. But any such path cannot be successful if the appropriate conditions are not present for it. We are not talking here only about the need to end the war on Gaza, but also about the extremism that dominates internal politics in Israel, and about the Israeli settlement that has caused a significant change in Palestinian demography in a way that makes it impossible to achieve a Palestinian state without removing this settlement.
With the exception of the administration of former President Barack Obama passing a draft resolution in the Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements, nothing has changed on the ground. It is also inconceivable that the Biden administration will be able, in the short period remaining until the presidential elections, to work to bring about a shift in the course of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that achieves a two-state solution.
Just as Netanyahu is seeking to buy more time in order to continue this war for as long as possible, the Biden administration is also seeking to buy more time in order to cover up its disastrous role in this war, instead of exerting the most effective means of pressure on Israel to end the war.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.