Analysis Foreign Policy Don’t Blame Biden for the Yearlong War in Gaza Yes, the United States has leverage—but not like you think. October 2, 2024, 12:15 PM

Analysis

Foreign Policy 

Don’t Blame Biden for the Yearlong War in Gaza

Yes, the United States has leverage—but not like you think.

October 2, 2024, 12:15 PM

By Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Lauren Morganbesser, a junior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smile as they stand side-by-side in the Oval Office in front of framed photos of former presidents, including Abraham Lincoln. Both men wear dark suits and ties.

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 25. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

FP Live: Aaron David Miller joined FP’s platform for live journalism on Oct. 7 for a look back at the last year of the conflict in the Middle East and what might happen next. Watch the interview here. 

The story is told of the U.S. Secretary of State, who on a diplomatic mission to London, Moscow, and Jerusalem, decided to take a break and look for some new clothes. In each city, the secretary went to the tailor to ask, “For $100, what can you make me?” The British tailor offered to make a sweater and a tie. The Russian tailor could make a vest and a pair of pants for that sum. But in Jerusalem, the answer came as a surprise. “For $100 I can make you several shirts, a sport coat, and I’ll throw in a few pairs of pants,” the Israeli tailor said. Stunned, the U.S. diplomat asked how the same money could buy so much more in Israel. “It’s really quite simple,” the tailor replied: “Out here, you’re not so big.”

As we mark the first year of the Israel-Hamas war and the escalating crisis on another front between Israel and Hezbollah, nowhere is the United States’ “out here, you’re not so big” problem more stunningly and tragically apparent. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has not been a potted plant. While the flow of assistance to the suffering population of Gaza has been galactically insufficient, not a scintilla of aid would have gotten through without U.S. pressure. Nor would negotiations to secure the release of 105 out of roughly 252 hostages during the temporary cease-fire in late 2023 have succeeded without a central U.S. role. The Biden administration has also been successful through deterrence, pressure, and diplomacy in preventing the escalation of the Israel-Hamas war into a broader regional war—until now, that is.

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