LOS ANGELES.–All calculations about the economy and U.S. foreign policy are tied to 81-year-old President Joe Biden’s reelection, gotten more complicated by his chief rival, 77-year-old former president Donald Trump but by 70-year-old independent candidate Robert Kenney Jr. [RFK Jr.], now looking like H. Ross Perot in 1992. Whether hard to believe for not, H. Ross Perot got 20% of the vote keeping President George W. Bush from a second term and handing the White House to 77-year-old former President Bill Clinton. Biden walks or stumbles through a mine field, filled with booby-traps of his own making, trying to boost his sagging approval ratings now around 40%. Biden biggest foreign policy disaster is by far Ukraine where the U.S. has all but wrecked U.S.-Russian relations for the conceivable future. But Biden hopes he can salvage a foreign policy win in Gaza.
With the Gaza War dragging on over five months, Biden’s political calculation involves winning back the U.S. Arab community, concentrated in Michigan and Minnesota, two battleground states. So, Biden figures if he can get a ceasefire in Gaza, he can win back some of the fence-sitting Arab voters pressuring him to get Israel to end its war with Hamas. Only last week, Biden used 73-year-old Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), testing the water with Arab Americans calling for new elections to get rid of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu. Schumer’s speech went over like a lead balloon, drawing strong condemnation from liberals and conservatives. Both sides know that without getting rid of Hamas in Gaza, there can be no peace in the region. Biden hopes with a little luck, his 61-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken can succeed.
Blinken has been playing shuttle diplomacy, trying unsuccessfully to put out foreign policy fires all over the planet. Hoping to get results in Gaza, he’s been in furious discussion with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to come up with some solution. Blinken said March 20 he was “getting closer” to a hostage release and six-week ceasefire deal to get humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, where some 2.1 million Palestinians suffer from dislocation and famine. “I think the gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Blinken said to Saudi Press in Jeddah. “We worked very hard with Qatar, with Egypt, and with Israel to put a strong proposal on the table. We did that: Hamas wouldn’t accept it. They came back with other requests, other demands. The negotiators are working on that right now,” Blinken said, hopeful of an eventual breakthrough.
Despite Schumer embarrassing himself calling for Netanyahu’s ouster, Blinken sounds far more realistic about working with Arab partners to get a deal that can finally end the destructive war that’s left the Gaza Strip in ruins. White House officials panicked over holding the left-wing base together, knowing they support the Palestinian cause. Anyone with any knowledge of the Gaza problem knows that that Gaza has no future with Hamas ruling the seaside Mediterranean territory, once controlled by Egypt before the 1967 Six Day War. When Israel defeated the militaries of six Arab nations, including Egypt, in the Six Day War, no legitimate Arab country wanted to go to war with Israel. Only Palestinian groups pushed Arab nations to return to war with Israel, eventually losing all interest in Palestinian fantasies to destroy the Jewish State.
Blinken’s been reading the situation more realistically lately, with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all wanting to silence more radical Palestinian voices, especially Hamas that has battled Israel since they seized Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Chartered for the destruction of Israel in 1987, Hamas has only watched its leadership, destroyed periodically, all seeking to erradicate Israel. Blinken realized that while sympathies exist for besieged Palestinians, there’s less sympathy in legitimate Arab states for Hamas or other radical Palestinian groups. Since the Gaza War started Oct. 7, not one Arab State has come to rescue Hamas, including its chief sponsor Iran. Iran’s 84-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Hamas leader in exile Ismail Haniyeh there there’s nothing Iran will do to save Hamas from their latest war with Israel.
Blinken walks a tightrope, detaching politics from the reality of high-wire diplomacy to end the Hamas War. “A very strong proposal was put on the table, and we have to see if Hamas can say yes to the proposal. If it does—if it does—that the most immediate way to alleviate the misery of people in Gaza, which is very much what we want,” Blinken said, mindful of the election politics back at home. Many Arab Americans are behind the times when it comes to the the U.S. dealing with the old Israeli-Palestinian question. Long gone are the days when Israel would return to Palestinian demands to return to pre-1967 War borders, returning Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan. Many American Arabs still think it’s possible for Palestinians to drive Israel into the sea. Blinken sees light at the end of the tunnel as long as Hamas agrees to accept exile and leave the Gaza Strip.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
