'Leader of the Free World' Biden Fails to Stop Netanyahu from Destroying Gaza and US Foreign Policy

By Armin Sijamić

In the past three years, US President Joseph Biden has built an image of the "free world" leader, and in the past three weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nullified that effort. The longer the war in the Gaza Strip lasts, the greater the consequences for Biden and the United States will be.

For the last three weeks, a political agenda has been buried in the ruins of the Gaza Strip. While the Israeli army is bombing the Gaza Strip, this policy has no strength to resist; on the contrary, it provides protection with aircraft carriers and troops on the ground, diplomatic support, and sends weapons, ammunition, and money.

When Biden came to power, optimism spread throughout much of the world that the world's largest power would have a different policy than the unpredictable Donald Trump, who led the country in an unusual way. He dismissed associates via social media, broke economic and other agreements, and undermined ties with his closest allies.

Biden's team began working on their vision of the world even before they formally took office, visiting allies. After Biden took office, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the United States had returned as a "cooperative leader of the free world."

Biden's work paid off at the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine – NATO and the West were more united, and it seemed there was nothing that could crack the bloc. Then Netanyahu returned to power, coming into conflict with Biden, and his far-right coalition and judicial reform distanced them from the West. When Hamas attacked soldiers and civilians on October 7, Biden abandoned all distance from Netanyahu. He told Iran and others that he would go to war to defend Israel.

Delaying the Invasion of the Gaza Strip

After Hamas's incursion, Israel consolidated, and within days, there were no attackers outside the walls surrounding the Gaza Strip. The air force operated, and ground troops waited for the command to move into the territory controlled by Hamas, which is six to twelve kilometers wide. For a superior and more numerous army, cutting off the Gaza Strip is an easy task. Nevertheless, ground troops stood for days because Biden was exerting pressure. American officials and Biden himself said they advised Israel not to enter Gaza, but they did not demand it. Such a formulation is about preserving their own and Israel's credibility.

At the same time, Western media spoke of a network of tunnels hundreds of kilometers long where Hamas fighters were hiding. Hamas also made such statements, and the media reported them without reservation. It is true that Hamas uses tunnels, primarily towards Egypt, but it is hard to believe that hundreds of kilometers of tunnels could have been dug and brought to perfection. The Israeli army has been monitoring the Gaza Strip from the air for at least seventeen years, and any large tunnels would have been discovered and then destroyed.

However, the story about the tunnel network is a great excuse for a bombing campaign with projectiles carrying up to a ton of explosives. Witnesses from the Gaza Strip say these projectiles destroy entire neighborhoods. Some have calculated that the power of all these projectiles is equal to the power of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Hamas is also credited with a strength it realistically does not possess, and the only advantage they might have is the ruins in which they can hide and use the element of surprise, and that they have nothing to lose, as the Israeli army has come to eliminate them and previously announced it. In addition, Hamas's supplies are not comparable to Israel's, and it is questionable what the training level of fighters is when aircraft fly overhead every day.

Even such fighters can inflict losses on the Israeli army, which did not distinguish itself on October 7, or in the war against Hezbollah in 2006. Israel's superiority comes from air supremacy and American aid, and because their opponents are mostly weak. But isolated Hamas can only win battles if the Israeli army does everything wrong.

Before the Eyes of the World

With the spin about well-armed and trained Hamas members emerging from secret tunnels, the Palestinians' hands are tied. The Israeli army will decide when the tunnels are finally destroyed and when troops can enter the Gaza Strip to confront Hamas. Palestinian civilian casualties are already enormous. According to United Nations information, which numerous media outlets have cited recently, in the last fifteen years, the ratio of killed and wounded Israelis to Palestinians has been one to twenty. In the attack on October 7, Hamas killed over 1400 Israelis.

There is no ceasefire in sight, and it cannot even be accepted in Washington as a UN resolution. Opposition Republicans and the Biden administration are competing to support Israel, while promising humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and urging the Israeli army to be careful of civilians.

Biden's aid to Palestine is lacking, which is particularly striking after the aid the West provided to Ukraine. What is also different is that Western unity has been lacking, and Israel has not received support from all countries; some societies are polarizing, and sometimes Jewish citizens who are not responsible for events in the Middle East become victims of attacks. There has been an increase in antisemitism in some countries, and one of the reasons is that no culprit on the Israeli side can be named by Western leaders, so extremists and the uneducated unjustly attribute blame to the Jewish people.

The war in the Gaza Strip did not suit Biden, and as time goes by, this is becoming increasingly clear. The unconditional support for Netanyahu's government from Washington is causing increasing dissatisfaction with Biden's policies, and just a few weeks ago, they stood behind him. Boycott campaigns against American companies are being launched, protests are taking place worldwide, and Muslims from key states for Biden's victory over Trump say they may not vote for Biden in the presidential elections.

At the same time, Republicans are pressuring Biden to help Israel more. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, following former President George W. Bush, has declared China, Russia, and Iran a new "axis of evil" that must be dealt with. Senator Lindsey Graham has included Turkey in the "squad" with Republicans and Democrats who have reservations about Israel, saying it is "very disappointing and destabilizing," and House Speaker Mike Johnson says he is a "Christian" whom the Bible "very clearly teaches that we must stand with Israel."

Leader of the Free World

When Putin's tanks stormed Kyiv, the term "free world" returned to Western media. With this term, former US Vice President Henry Wallace designated countries fighting against Nazism and fascism, alluding to the American Civil War in which the "free world" fought the "slave-owning world" of the South. During the Cold War, the term designated the West against the USSR, and later the title "leader of the free world" was attributed to various politicians.

Russia's attack on Ukraine turned Biden into the "leader of the free world" in the West. There were few doubts about the decisions of the experienced politician. The leadership of the United States was desirable for many, especially for those resisting Russia and China. Numerous countries near China sought American aid, and Finland and Sweden sought NATO membership, which Biden gave meaning to after the alliance experienced "brain death," according to Macron.

However, on the issue of Palestine and the Gaza Strip, that leadership is absent, or if it exists, it raises the question of what the "free world" is. Around four thousand children have been killed in the Gaza Strip in three weeks. Many of them have lived their entire lives under siege, and those who are now fifteen years old are experiencing bombing campaigns for the fifth time (2008/2009, 2012, 2014, 2022, and 2023). The vast majority of Palestinian children have never left the walls surrounding the Gaza Strip.

"You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist," is one of Biden's statements, adding that he is a Zionist and that Israel has his support. At the same time, Biden has been a critic of Netanyahu's current policies and the far-right in power. Not inviting Netanyahu to the White House led to Republicans threatening to invite him to Congress. After Hamas's attack on Israel, Biden went to Netanyahu and gave him his support. Thus, Biden changed his policy towards Netanyahu in a short time, and it remains to be seen how many countries of the "free world" will follow him this time. Many outside that part of the world have already made their choices.