“Diplomacy: the art of restraining power” is an infamous word of wisdom by the late former American Secretary of State and grandmaster of diplomacy Henry Kissinger who played an instrumental role in defusing tensions following the outbreak of the October War of 1973, which also known as Yom Kippur war. Through his shuttle diplomacy, the art of possibilities and clear negotiation, Kissinger could curve out peace and stability among Egypt, Syria and Israel by returning Sinai to Egypt which led to normalization between Israel and Egypt through a peace treaty in 1979. This was an unprecedented breakthrough in that era when rivalry between Israel and Arabs was at its zenith.
However, one question strikes me: Does current American leadership have any Nixon or Kissinger? Can the Biden Administration carry President Nixon’s legacy in the international arena, especially in the Middle East?
Since the 7th October attacks and following the invasion and bombardment of Gaza by Israel, the key objective of the Biden Administration revolves around getting a ceasefire agreement and the release of Israeli captives, which also includes seven American citizens. However, even after one year of war, the American administration and diplomacy have failed to achieve these objectives, which raises an eyebrow about the seriousness of American commitment to ending the Gaza conflict and regional war.
Joe Biden was the first American president to pay a visit to Israel during a war he proudly announced that he is Zionist and firmly believed in the defense of Israel against any hostilities, his famous words with his counterpart Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu “ Israel is not alone” and at same time he advised Israeli government don’t commit same mistakes in anguish as American did following the 9/11 attacks.
Even before the outbreak of the Gaza war, Biden was an advent supporter of Israel and a poster boy for Israel’s adventurism, militancy and illegal settlement of the Jewish community of Palestinian territories, mainly in the West Bank. Not to forget Biden’s approval of Bush’s invasion of Iraq (2003) on the pretext of possession of N-weapons by Saddam’s regime. Therefore, naturally, a powerful neo-conservative group within America, which has a keen desire to reshape Middle East dynamics, politics and security along with American and Israeli national interests, has aligned itself with the Biden Administration and now lines up behind Kamala Harris for continuous of his predecessor policies.
In February 2024, Biden made the vivid claim that the peace truce was the nearest ever before which ceases the onslaught of the Israeli campaign in Gaza. However, even passing seven months, with the killing of 42,000 and wounded 97,000 Palestinians, Israel has stretched its adventurism towards Southern Lebanon and direct military confrontation with Iran while the Biden Administration explicitly provides political and military support to Israel.
Analysts viewed that the Biden administration shifted its bit stance towards staunch support of Israel following the negative approval rate of the American public towards the Israeli genocidal campaign against Palestinians and many young Americans stood for the self-determination of Palestinians. Resultantly, at least for lip service and consumption of the American audience, Biden doubled down his rhetoric for peace talks and release of American hostages and terminating the war scenario in the Middle East.
However, in hindsight, American artillery, bombs, shells and intelligence continue to provide Israeli counterparts in the elimination of Hamas, Hezbollah and militia based in Syria, Iraq and Yamen which is collectively known as the “Axis of Resistance” and serve as a source of power, dominance and influence by the Iranian regime. Therefore, since the outbreak of war, the Biden administration released billions of American dollars for military and economic support of Israel in their campaign of wider war beyond the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, since the theatre of war has shifted from Gaza to Southern Lebanon, the Biden administration has lauded the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, who was iconic, political and religious giant of Hezbollah, during the airstrike of Israeli at Southern Beirut on 27th September and termed it “Justice for measure”. Surprisingly, the killing of Nasrallah was initiated by the Israeli PM on American soil, just a few hours after his speech at the 79th session of the UNO General Assembly in which most of the leaders from Global South boycotted his speech. Most analysts argued that the killing of Nasrallah was the highest point of ongoing escalation between Israel and the Axis of Resistance as Hezbollah indulged in a dogfight with the Israelis at the border to pressure the Israeli government to halt its military operation in Gaza against Hamas.
The natural response came from Iran in the form of 200 Ballistic Missiles to show capabilities and deterrence against growing Israeli adventurism. However, the Iranian airstrike won’t cease the ground invasion of Southern Lebanon, which is also supported by the Biden Administration, and for the moment claimed 2000 lives of people of Lebanon.
Meantime, Israel wanted to take on the nuclear and oil facilities of Iran with the help of the USA following the 1st October attack by Iran. However, the question still arises does America see eye to eye with Israel on that serious escalation when all efforts of peace truce have become dead horse and even pro-American allies in the region like Qatar and Egypt felt disappointment with Israeli adventurism, with the help of USA, for expansion of regional war.
At the moment, it seems that American diplomacy is at odds with global peace and stability in the region. Firstly, it has been unable to stop Israel from launching a brutal campaign of genocide against Palestinians, which is termed a “war against humanity” by many international humanitarian organizations. Owing to the relentless political and military support of the USA to Israel, a large majority of Palestinians and the international community have shattered their belief in American peace broker and neutrality in the Palestinian-Israel conflict in which the American government stand for “Two State Solution” and self-determination of Palestinian, despite having strong ties with Israel. Secondly, despite American warning of expansion of regional conflict, Israel continued its adventurism, militarism and jingoism in the name of “self-defence” which makes the perfect argument that on that stance American diplomacy has also failed to uphold its object; resultantly, Israel continues to penetrate Southern Lebanon with the mission of total annihilation of Hezbollah, although it unable to eliminate Hamas which is weak organized and less powerful proxy compared to Hezbollah. Thirdly, from starting day of the war, America tried its best to avoid confrontation with Iran, however, owing to the continued onslaught of the Axis of resistance and its leader’s assassination, Iran was left with no option but to retaliate which directly drag the USA into the battlefield of Middle East on the false pretext of regime change operation in Tehran. These developments demonstrated that American diplomacy has its lowest ever in the region.
And 5th November presidential election of the USA makes no difference when it comes to American foreign policy in the Middle East and continual support of Israeli jingoism because of the strong Jewish lobby inside America. Both presidential candidates are accusing each other of being less supportive of Israel and make a strong case that which one of them will better serve the interest of Israel after winning the White House, rather than serving the American interest and the American public. Analysts opined that owing to the constant flow of money and funding from the influential American Jewish Lobby, American Presidential candidates are becoming puppets of Israel to win the White House.
Despite the strong political, economic, military, diplomatic and strong presence of the Jewish lobby, famous American Professor John Mearsheimer make an argument that the UAS-Israel equation heavily favours Israel and these ties don’t serve any strategic purpose for American interests in the Middle East. Eminent American scholar Chomsky opined that even after the establishment of Israel, it was the American Pentagon and Military which wanted strong ties with the newly born state of Israel, rather than the State Department. This also raises strong questions about the American Deep State, Establishment and Military Complex ties towards the state of Israel.
Nonetheless, the American public and intellectual class could make a difference by staging protests and marching on the streets to pressure the American administration to halt its staunch support of Israel’s adventurism in the region. Otherwise, ongoing war in the Middle East will be zero-sum for all involving governments and non-state actors which will jeopardise global peace and the global economy.