Biden Made Israel’s War on Hamas into a Political Liability

The announcement by an Israeli government official on Wednesday that the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip will involve “another seven months of combat” is bad news for Joe Biden. But it didn’t have to be.

The Biden administration did not have to bend to “pressure from members of Congress and the progressive wing of his party” and, as early as in January, project dissatisfaction with the way Israel was defending itself against a demonstrably genocidal terrorist organization. It did not have to castigate Israel for overseeing the disbursement of humanitarian aid in Gaza in ways that failed to meet the White House’s subjective criteria for acceptability. It didn’t have to highlight every Israeli misfire on the battlefield or withdraw the diplomatic cover it provides Israel at the United Nations. It didn’t have to establish contradictory conditions on the final assault on Rafah designed to delay that operation when Israel still had momentum on its side. It did all this and more of its own accord.