Wars in Israel, Ukraine among mounting foreign policy crises facing Biden
President Joe Biden joins Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the start of the Israeli war cabinet meeting, in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Credit: Pool/AFP via Getty Images/AFP Contributor#AFP
WASHINGTON — Two weeks before the attack by Hamas militants on Israel, President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the UN General Assembly in Manhattan — and both expressed optimism for a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia aimed at promoting stability in the Middle East.
“This is something within our reach," Netanyahu told Biden before a group of reporters.
Those talks appear to have come to a halt since Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7. And tensions remain high in the Middle East region, highlighting just one of several foreign policy tests facing Biden as he attempts to keep the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading and presses for billions of dollars more in aid for both Israel and Ukraine.
The administration is working to secure the release of at least 10 American hostages believed to be held by Hamas, negotiating humanitarian aid for some 2 million Palestinian civilians trapped in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and lobbying Congress for $100 billion in funding to support Israel’s war against Hamas, Ukraine’s war against Russia's invasion and Taiwan’s defense against China.
In the midst of it all, a leadership fight in the House is holding up all legislation there.
“This is an unprecedented convergence of foreign policy and national security challenges,” said former Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat who advised Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. “This is just a multiplicity of events all at once.”
Israel, who was in the running to become Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel before withdrawing his name from consideration, said Hamas’ deadly assault on Israeli civilians has put the Middle East back at the center of U.S. foreign policy.
“I used to think that Ukraine [and] the reorganization of NATO was the defining foreign policy moment of [Biden’s] presidency. Now, Israel is,” he said. “Foreign policy experts were predicting this pivot away from the Middle East toward Asia, and now, the Middle East is at the center of gravity in American foreign policy, and national security.”
Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian and global affairs professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said the Israel-Hamas war was setting U.S. diplomatic efforts in the region “back in time.”
“We’re kind of back to the old story of Muslim and Arab regimes on one side, Israel on the other, with the United States supporting Israel, but also trying to mediate,” Suri said. “We’ve kind of gone back in time here.”
Suri said mounting tensions in the Middle East — highlighted by incidents such as the U.S. interception of missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen that the Pentagon said were potentially headed toward targets in Israel — could help Biden make the case for national security funding he's seeking. That includes Ukraine money tied up in political wrangling between House conservatives who oppose more funding for Ukraine, and moderate Republicans who are adamant the money should continue flowing.
“Biden’s arguing that the world is becoming a very dangerous place, and the United States needs to be more involved, not less involved … ,” Suri said.
In an Oval Office address Thursday night — only the second in his presidency — Biden said he would press Congress to provide a package with funding for Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan, and to boost security efforts on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations,” Biden said.
White House officials on Friday said the $106 billion funding request calls for $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $14 billion for border security, $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific region and $10 billion in overall humanitarian aid.
Senate leaders from both parties have signaled preliminary support for the funding package. But its prospects are less certain in the Republican-led House, which has spent more than two weeks trying to settle on a successor to ousted House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Some Republicans who have questioned more Ukraine funding, for instance, have expressed support for aid to Israel. The border security funding could help win over support among Republicans such as Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), who previously has said he would not support additional funding for Ukraine until more money was directed to the U.S. southern border.
Robert B. Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, said the competing crises shouldn’t impede the United States’ ability to help all its allies.
“We can handle multiple contingencies,” said Murrett, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral who served as director of naval intelligence in the mid-2000s.
“All the planning that we do with the Defense Department, and all the diplomatic activity that we have with the State Department are geared in such a way that the U.S. is able to look at all 24 time zones and handle multiple crises at the same time,” he said.
Murrett said the next diplomatic challenge for the Biden administration is “reducing tensions” in the Middle East and working with other international allies to determine what a “post-conflict era” looks like in Israel.
“We all want to be thinking about the next,” Murrett said. “After the fighting starts … what is it going to look like after that, and what is the future of the Palestinian people in the area going to look like.”
Biden, in a speech delivered during his visit to Israel last week, said the U.S. continues to support a two-state solution that calls for separate sovereign states for Israel and Palestine.
Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., said Arab states in the region such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates likely will play a key role in negotiations over the next steps for the Middle East region.
“The winners and losers of this conflict are going to be determined less by the fighting than the aftermath,” Alterman said in a call with reporters. “There is going to be a role for diplomacy here, and Arab states in particular may play an important role helping create a better postwar reality and legitimating it, and we need to start paying attention to that potential role now.”
WASHINGTON — Two weeks before the attack by Hamas militants on Israel, President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the UN General Assembly in Manhattan — and both expressed optimism for a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia aimed at promoting stability in the Middle East.
“This is something within our reach," Netanyahu told Biden before a group of reporters.
Those talks appear to have come to a halt since Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7. And tensions remain high in the Middle East region, highlighting just one of several foreign policy tests facing Biden as he attempts to keep the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading and presses for billions of dollars more in aid for both Israel and Ukraine.
The administration is working to secure the release of at least 10 American hostages believed to be held by Hamas, negotiating humanitarian aid for some 2 million Palestinian civilians trapped in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and lobbying Congress for $100 billion in funding to support Israel’s war against Hamas, Ukraine’s war against Russia's invasion and Taiwan’s defense against China.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia have come to a standstill.
- The Biden administration also is pressing Congress for $100 billion to support Israel’s war against Hamas, Ukraine’s war against Russia and Taiwan’s defense against China.
- In the midst of it all, a leadership fight in the House is holding up all legislation there.
In the midst of it all, a leadership fight in the House is holding up all legislation there.
'Unprecedented convergence' of crises
“This is an unprecedented convergence of foreign policy and national security challenges,” said former Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat who advised Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. “This is just a multiplicity of events all at once.”
Israel, who was in the running to become Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel before withdrawing his name from consideration, said Hamas’ deadly assault on Israeli civilians has put the Middle East back at the center of U.S. foreign policy.
“I used to think that Ukraine [and] the reorganization of NATO was the defining foreign policy moment of [Biden’s] presidency. Now, Israel is,” he said. “Foreign policy experts were predicting this pivot away from the Middle East toward Asia, and now, the Middle East is at the center of gravity in American foreign policy, and national security.”
Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian and global affairs professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said the Israel-Hamas war was setting U.S. diplomatic efforts in the region “back in time.”
“We’re kind of back to the old story of Muslim and Arab regimes on one side, Israel on the other, with the United States supporting Israel, but also trying to mediate,” Suri said. “We’ve kind of gone back in time here.”
Looming tussle with Congress
Suri said mounting tensions in the Middle East — highlighted by incidents such as the U.S. interception of missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen that the Pentagon said were potentially headed toward targets in Israel — could help Biden make the case for national security funding he's seeking. That includes Ukraine money tied up in political wrangling between House conservatives who oppose more funding for Ukraine, and moderate Republicans who are adamant the money should continue flowing.
“Biden’s arguing that the world is becoming a very dangerous place, and the United States needs to be more involved, not less involved … ,” Suri said.
In an Oval Office address Thursday night — only the second in his presidency — Biden said he would press Congress to provide a package with funding for Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan, and to boost security efforts on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations,” Biden said.
White House officials on Friday said the $106 billion funding request calls for $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $14 billion for border security, $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific region and $10 billion in overall humanitarian aid.
Senate leaders from both parties have signaled preliminary support for the funding package. But its prospects are less certain in the Republican-led House, which has spent more than two weeks trying to settle on a successor to ousted House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Some Republicans who have questioned more Ukraine funding, for instance, have expressed support for aid to Israel. The border security funding could help win over support among Republicans such as Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), who previously has said he would not support additional funding for Ukraine until more money was directed to the U.S. southern border.
Thinking about 'the next'
Robert B. Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, said the competing crises shouldn’t impede the United States’ ability to help all its allies.
“We can handle multiple contingencies,” said Murrett, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral who served as director of naval intelligence in the mid-2000s.
“All the planning that we do with the Defense Department, and all the diplomatic activity that we have with the State Department are geared in such a way that the U.S. is able to look at all 24 time zones and handle multiple crises at the same time,” he said.
Murrett said the next diplomatic challenge for the Biden administration is “reducing tensions” in the Middle East and working with other international allies to determine what a “post-conflict era” looks like in Israel.
“We all want to be thinking about the next,” Murrett said. “After the fighting starts … what is it going to look like after that, and what is the future of the Palestinian people in the area going to look like.”
Biden, in a speech delivered during his visit to Israel last week, said the U.S. continues to support a two-state solution that calls for separate sovereign states for Israel and Palestine.
Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., said Arab states in the region such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates likely will play a key role in negotiations over the next steps for the Middle East region.
“The winners and losers of this conflict are going to be determined less by the fighting than the aftermath,” Alterman said in a call with reporters. “There is going to be a role for diplomacy here, and Arab states in particular may play an important role helping create a better postwar reality and legitimating it, and we need to start paying attention to that potential role now.”
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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