A bitter irony of this war is that Benjamin Netanyahu may have trusted foreign allies too much.
That is not usually the case with Bibi, who has been in open conflict with three different U.S. presidents over the decades and has usually governed in a cautious manner that reflects his skepticism of others’ promises. But by now it should be clear that indulging President Biden’s wishes to repeatedly pause the war in Gaza has not only undone some of Israel’s gains but has also encouraged other countries to run interference for Hamas without consequence.
That’s the upshot of the latest reporting on Egypt’s role in the conflict. CNN reports:
Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, ultimately scuttling a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The ceasefire agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not what the Qataris or the Americans believed had been submitted to Hamas for a potential final review, the sources said.
The changes made by Egyptian intelligence, the details of which have not been previously reported, led to a wave of anger and recrimination among officials from the US, Qatar and Israel, and left ceasefire talks at an impasse.
It also appears that, aside from potentially scuttling the hostage talks, Egypt has been withholding humanitarian aid from going through the Rafah crossing right at the moment of the U.S.’s flatfooted launch of its $300 million Gaza pier-to-nowhere. The result is that after months of hectoring the Israelis to increase aid deliveries, the Americans’ first attempts floundered while additional aid sat in Egypt instead of moving into Gaza’s south.
“What should be going into Kerem Shalom is the UN assistance, which is now in Egypt. Egypt is holding that back until the Rafah crossing situation settles out,” a senior administration official told reporters, according to the Times of Israel. “We do not believe that aid should be held back for any reason whatsoever. Kerem Shalom is open. The Israelis have it open. And that aid should be going through Kerem Shalom.”
Above and beyond everything else, then, Egypt had the chutzpah to humiliate the Biden administration. And if the reports about the hostage deal are true, Cairo plainly embarrassed the American president there, too.
The Egyptians aren’t the only ones to put the Biden White House in a tough spot these past few days. The International Criminal Court’s announcement that it will seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (in addition to Hamas leaders) hits uncomfortably close to home for the president. Just three months ago, a California court heard and dismissed a suit against Biden alleging his complicity in genocide.
The judge in that case seemed to agree with the basic assumptions of the charges but begged off on a question of jurisdiction: “Foreign policy is constitutionally committed to the political branches of government, and disputes over foreign policy are considered non-justiciable political questions.” Biden is often greeted by protesters chanting or holding signs calling him “Genocide Joe.” The last thing he wants is to give even the impression of legitimacy to the ICC, a mock-trial, play-pretend “world court” run by the same sort of people who would bring a genocide case against Biden here at home.
Nor can Biden be too pleased by this morning’s stunt by three European governments to recognize a “state of Palestine.” Yet in all these cases, the world seems to be following Biden’s lead. As my colleague Abe Greenwald has been saying on the daily podcast all week: What, exactly, did Biden expect? The ICC’s description of the war isn’t too far off from Biden’s harshest criticism of Israel. The administration talks constantly about a path to a Palestinian state; Ireland, Spain, and Norway are just taking the handoff and carrying the ball downfield. The White House has done more to blow up hostage talks than Egypt has. And the instinct to blame everything on Israel would surely suggest Egypt could simply throw up its hands in Rafah and stay out of the aid game.
For all the talk about Israel “defying” the world on this or that element of its war management, the hard truth is that the Jewish state is paying a high price for its multilateralism. This week has been a wake-up call. Now let’s see who hears it.
