JNS
It’s Biden who’s playing politics with the Gaza war, not Bibi
Jonathan S. Tobin
February 2, 2024

…Netanyahu probably still hopes to salvage his reputation and serve out the rest of his term after being returned to office in November 2022. But the widespread characterizations in both the Israeli and the international press of his stand on the hostage negotiations, the conduct of the war and what will happen in Gaza once the fighting ends, as merely another example of his desperate attempts to cling to office is largely inaccurate. He may be pursuing two goals that cannot both be achieved as well as clinging to his pre-war strategic objective of getting Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. Yet the real scheming going on right now is in Washington, not Jerusalem. It is Biden who is playing a double game in which he seems willing to ensure Hamas’s survival in power in order to settle scores with Netanyahu, as well as to defeat former President Donald Trump in November. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Michael Goodwin: Joe Biden is playing with fire in the Middle East and risking World War 3 With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly objecting on both counts, Biden is offering him a sweetener that would have Saudi Arabia normalize relations with the Jewish state. As its reward, the Saudis would get American civilian nuclear technology and a promise of military protection for the monarchy. The Saudis would also likely be expected to pump more oil to keep the price of gasoline in America from rising during the campaign. Biden aims to get all this done by summer so he can run as the president who stopped the war in Gaza, brought the Saudis and Israelis together and created a Palestinian state.