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When President Biden arrives in France on Wednesday, he will likely rally European leaders to his side and demonstrate the commitment he has fostered for Ukraine.
But he will also be rebelling against those very same leaders and effectively finding himself isolated among Western democracies that still staunchly support Israel in its war in Gaza.
Biden will arrive in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, his first visit to Europe since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terror attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel and prompted military retaliation that left some 36,000 dead in the Gaza Strip. Next week, Biden will return to Europe for a summit with Group of Seven leaders in Italy, and three weeks later he is due to host a summit in Washington marking the 75th anniversary of NATO membership.
The series of meetings will put Biden in a position he has never been in since taking office: simultaneously welcoming and isolating himself from the group of allies he has sought for nearly four years, a challenge that will test his diplomatic skills in an unfamiliar way for a president who has emphasized support for America’s traditional allies.
“Gaza undermines the moral clarity of the argument they want to make about Ukraine,” said Peter Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York who has long analyzed the Middle East and is critical of the Israeli government. “The Gaza war has made that argument significantly less persuasive for a lot of people.”
Ivo Daalder, who served as ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama, acknowledged there are tensions with Biden’s approach.
“Certainly, it seems a little contradictory to have one argument about Russia and another about Israel,” said Daalder, now president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, “but it’s a different situation. One side was attacked and the other attacked. That’s a pretty big deal.”
European allies, with a few notable exceptions, have been strongly aligned with Washington for more than two years in the multinational military operation to defeat Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, largely matching U.S. investment in the war with their own commitment to Kiev. But European countries have become increasingly critical over the past nine months of the way Israel has been conducting its military operations in Gaza, even as the Biden administration rejected attempts by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders on war crimes charges.
The event, aimed at showcasing Western unity and resolve, will reveal different priorities. The Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, will be celebrated as the culmination of the alliance’s defeat of Nazi Germany. French President Emmanuel Macron will host leaders of World War II allies, including King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William, British Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who represent the two nations that joined the United States in the climactic amphibious invasion.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, representing a defeated enemy country, will also attend the ceremony to demonstrate European reconciliation. But Russian President Vladimir V. Putin will not attend, even though the Soviet Union had allied with the West during the war. Macron’s administration initially invited a lower-ranking Russian representative to attend, but rescinded the offer after opposition stemming from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the ceremony, which he says will be an opportunity to press Western leaders for more support.
White House spokesman John F. Kirby said Biden knows not all countries agree with his policies. “Disagreements with allies and partners are nothing new for President Biden,” Kirby said. “This is no different to how the president has fostered unity, cooperation and alignment on a range of issues.”
Biden’s meeting with allies comes at a critical time for both Europe and the Middle East: Ukraine is trying to fend off an escalating Russian offensive that threatens to decisively breach its eastern defenses after two years of hard-fought conflict, while hundreds of miles away, Israel and Hamas are under pressure to agree to a cease-fire that could offer their last chance to pave the way for a more sustainable peace in the region.
Biden on Friday outlined a ceasefire agreement that would ultimately lead to the release of all hostages held by Hamas, a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a “permanent” end to the war. By pursuing an agreement that European countries can support, the president may have found a way to minimize disagreements when he arrives in Paris.
The G7, which includes the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, issued a statement on Monday saying it supported the agreement outlined by Biden and called on Hamas to accept it.
At the same time, Biden addressed another thorny issue ahead of the trip, allowing Ukraine for the first time to use U.S.-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia for self-defense in limited circumstances, something that allies including France, Britain, Germany and Poland already accept.
“The only way out of this dilemma is to address both issues and either make things better for Ukraine or win the war against Israel and put it on the path to peace,” said Dan Fried, a former diplomat now at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “That’s why the decision was made to lift some of the restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons and to move forward with a complex and ambitious peace plan for Gaza.”
Yet differences are real and clear. Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized an independent Palestinian state last week, just days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its military attacks on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Most European governments support war crimes proceedings against Israel at the International Criminal Court. “France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence and the fight against impunity in all circumstances,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
France has not taken any action to recognize a Palestinian state, but in May it voted at the United Nations in favor of admitting Palestine as a full member state of the UN. Britain, which has since left the European Union, abstained in the vote.
Biden’s critics say he has no one to blame for his diplomatic difficulties in Europe, but that he is to blame for an inconsistent approach to international crises.
“I think the contradiction is in U.S. policy,” said Peter Ruff, director of the Hudson Institute’s Europe and Eurasia Center and a former aide to President George W. Bush. “In Ukraine, he’s supporting Ukraine against the Russia-Iran alliance, but in Gaza, he’s controlling and even limiting Israel’s position against Iranian proxies.”
Some foreign policy veterans say Biden is asking for trouble by being too supportive of Israel.
“I’m not at all sure Biden has made the right choice on Israel and Gaza, but I acknowledge that he, like our country, is in a tough spot,” said Eric Rubin, a longtime U.S. diplomat and former president of the American Foreign Relations Association. “Israel has lost the sympathy of most other countries and their people, and I fear it will not regain that sympathy in our lifetimes.”
But ultimately, some diplomats say, France and other allies simply defer to the U.S. on such issues. Despite their differences, Mr. Biden has built constructive relationships with his colleagues, unlike his predecessor and would-be successor, Donald J. Trump, who railed against European allies and threatened to jeopardize his own reelection.
“The United States still plays a vital role,” Daalder said. “Everyone looks to us for how we will deal with Russia, China and, frankly, Israel. We are still seen by friends and foes as the ones to call the shots.”
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