Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel, Ukraine’s use of ATACMS against Russia, and Venezuela’s new 2024 election framework.
Middle East Tightrope
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday with part of his original agenda scrapped and tensions skyrocketing in the war against Hamas. Now, he’s walking a fine line between supporting the right of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to defend itself and appealing to Israel’s leaders to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza as well as exercise restraint in conducting the war.
Biden originally intended to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before traveling to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. By the time he landed in Israel, though, a devastating hospital bombing had occurred in Gaza City that killed hundreds of Palestinians. Hamas immediately blamed Israel for the blast, sparking protests in several Arab countries, including Jordan, and causing the White House to cancel the Jordan leg of the trip.
Israel said the explosion was caused by a failed rocket fired toward Israel by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist militant group based in the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, Biden took Israel’s side, saying intelligence showed that the devastation was “done by the other team, not you.” However, he acknowledged that “there’s a lot of people out there who’re not sure” who caused the bombing, in a seeming nod to the protests.
In remarks delivered in Tel Aviv, Biden compared Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to “fifteen 9/11s” given the size of Israel’s population and said he and many other Americans understand the pain Israel is feeling right now. “You can’t look at what has happened here … and not scream out for justice,” Biden said. Yet he went on to caution: “While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
Biden also urged the Israeli military to be “deliberate” in identifying the war’s objectives, protect civilians, and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Following Biden’s statement, Israel said it would remove blocks on food, water, and medicine from Egypt to residents of southern Gaza so long as aid only goes to Palestinian civilians, not members of Hamas. Biden also announced $100 million in new U.S. funding for humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank. However, the United States was the only U.N. Security Council member on Wednesday to vote against a resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid to be delivered to Gaza. Russia and the United Kingdom abstained.
While in Israel, Biden also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog as well as families impacted by the violence and first responders. And although the summit in Jordan was scrapped, Biden said he would hold a phone conversation with Abbas on his flight back to the United States.
Today’s Most Read
- Will Hezbollah Hold Back or Escalate? by Hanin Ghaddar
- Vengeance Is Not a Policy by Ian S. Lustick
- Why the U.S. Tolerates Qatar’s Hamas Ties by Steven A. Cook
What We’re Following
ATACMS enter war. Ukraine has a new weapon in the war against Russia: U.S. Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS—a surface-to-surface long-range missile system provided by the United States. On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces deployed the coveted missile system’s armaments against Russian troops for the first time since the war began almost 20 months ago. Dozens of Russian soldiers were killed or wounded and nine helicopters destroyed in one of the deadliest attacks in history on Moscow’s air force.
The U.S.-Ukraine ATACMS deal was long in the making, with Washington delivering the missiles in secret in recent days. And the successful assault on reportedly unprotected Russian forces shows that the Kremlin may not have learned to disperse its troops despite repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, told Foreign Policy.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has downplayed the significance of Ukraine’s new weapons. On Wednesday, Moscow retaliated by targeting civilian locations across Ukraine, including killing at least five people in a strike against an apartment building in Zaporizhzhia.
Prepare the ballots. Top Venezuelan government and opposition figures agreed to a framework for next year’s presidential elections on Tuesday. The breakthrough follows an 11-month period of stalled talks. Election observers from the European Union and U.N. will be allowed to oversee the vote—a necessity after Caracas’s 2018 election was determined by the international community not to be free or fair.
As part of the agreement, all candidates will receive access to the media and will be guaranteed safe movement across the country. Voter registration logs will also be updated. The agreement could see the Biden administration lift some of its current sanctions on Venezuela.
Hostage diplomacy. French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah returned to Paris on Tuesday after being imprisoned in Tehran for almost four years and spending time under house arrest, French officials announced on Wednesday. Iranian officials charged the Shiite religion and politics expert with colluding to “undermine national security” and use propaganda against the state.
Experts, however, believe her capture was part of Iran’s larger hostage strategy to force concessions from the West. Tehran has engaged in numerous high-profile prisoner swaps in recent weeks, including one with the United States last month. But numerous foreign hostages remain in Iranian captivity, including four French citizens.
Odds and Ends
Don’t squash your Olympic dreams yet. Your weekend flag football team may finally get its chance to join the elite. For the first time in Olympic history, the International Olympic Committee announced on Monday that flag football and squash will be included in the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028. Baseball, softball, cricket, and lacrosse will also join the competition. Let the games begin!
