CNN Meanwhile in America - October 19, 2023 : Was Biden's trip worth it?

 

View in browser  October 19, 2023       Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose Was Biden's trip worth it? US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embrace on the tarmac in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. President Joe Biden left for home after seven hours in the Israeli war zone with an increasingly tense Middle East in worse shape than when he arrived.   Biden told reporters on his flight that he was satisfied he got a job done -- notably on the issue of unblocking humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza, which has been under heavy Israeli bombardment since the horrific Hamas terror attacks on October 7.   But his mission also showed the limits of US leverage in a region on the brink of wider violence as conflicting narratives between Israel and Arab states about a blast at a hospital in Gaza City believed to have killed hundreds of people deepened the crisis.   The president did accomplish one key goal of his mission -- expressing his deep respect for Israel, movingly shouldering the country's trauma and grief and invoking Holocaust analogies in vowing to stand forever with the Jewish people. But he also pleaded with Israeli leaders not to allow the rage over the killings of "your fathers, your grandparents, sons, daughters, children, even babies" to blur the clarity over their objectives in trying to destroy Hamas.   Still, given the huge political investment of American prestige and leverage involved in a sudden presidential trip, it's fair to raise the question of what exactly Biden's trip delivered.   If 20 trucks of humanitarian aid do cross into Gaza from the frontier with Egypt at Rafah in the coming days in line with undertakings Biden secured from Israel and the Cairo government, his mission will have made a tangible difference. But compared to the vast needs in Gaza and the fast rising tensions across the region, it's hard to say if it will have changed much in the long run. Sign up for Meanwhile in America The world and America Israel, Egypt and the US are getting closer to a deal that allows humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.    China hosted a shindig of global leaders to mark the ten-year anniversary of its Belt and Road Initiative.   And eight French airports were forced to evacuate for security reasons.   Meanwhile in America, the US vetoed a UN draft resolution calling for a "humanitarian pause" to the bloodshed in Gaza and Israel.   Joran van der Sloot confessed to the decades-old murder of American Natalee Holloway in Aruba.  And the US is receiving dozens of UFO reports a month. There are no Republican votes in empathizing with Gazan civilians The plight of Palestinians caught between their Hamas rulers and Israel’s bombardments aren’t getting much sympathy on the campaign trail.   Biden made sure to draw a firm distinction between civilians in Gaza and Hamas militants during his visit to the Jewish state on Wednesday.   “The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Hamas uses innocents, innocent families in Gaza as human shields, putting their command centers, their weapons, their communications tunnels in residential areas,” Biden said. “The Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well.”   But there’s no such nuance among Republicans who want the president’s job.   Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has spent days warning that the US shouldn’t accept any refugees from Gaza, slammed Biden’s “$100 million gift to Hamas” after the president unveiled a humanitarian aid package for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.   “We know Hamas is going to commandeer that money, and Hamas is going to use it to advance terrorism. I say no US tax dollars to the Gaza Strip. We still have hostages being held by Hamas,” DeSantis said.   South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, another GOP candidate, joined the growing bidding war on the GOP campaign trail for hostile statements about Palestinians trapped in the densely populated enclave with nowhere to flee. For days, the Egypt, Israel, the US and United Nations have been in intense negotiations over how to get food, water and electricity to Gazans cut off from the world.   “You’re not helping them. You’re helping Hamas, you’re helping the Palestinian Authority,” Scott said, when asked about aid to Palestinians. “I mean, you’re giving money to help Hamas to go kill more babies and destroy more babies and destroy more families. That’s exactly what you’re doing.”   The GOP front-runner Donald Trump earlier responded to Hamas terror attacks by promising, if elected in 2024, to reinstate his ban on immigration from some Muslim states and to introduce new measures, including an ideological screening to bar anyone who denied Israel’s right to exist. Thanks for reading.   On Thursday, Biden is expected to deliver a prime time address on the Israel-Hamas war from the White House. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visits Israel and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visits Egypt.