{"id":5592,"date":"2021-07-12T20:43:11","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5592"},"modified":"2021-07-12T20:43:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:43:11","slug":"why-bidens-team-didnt-go-all-in-on-israel-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5592","title":{"rendered":"Why Biden\u2019s team didn\u2019t go all-in on Israel-Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a choice to make. It was mid-May, and in a few days he\u2019d travel to Europe for talks with allies on the Arctic and climate change, and to meet with his Russian counterpart ahead of a presidential-level summit in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a fight broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza<\/a>, threatening to explode into a larger, bloodier conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at his agenda and the events in the Middle East, Blinken consulted with his staff and the White House on what he should do. There were discussions about having him drop everything to shuttle back and forth between Middle Eastern capitals and help broker a ceasefire. Instead, Blinken decided he should keep his long-planned commitments in Europe but, along with other administration officials, get on the phone with key players in the brewing war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made that choice, the opposite of what previous secretaries of state<\/a> had done<\/a> during recent Israel-Gaza conflicts, for two main reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first was that he could still engage in \u201ctelephonic diplomacy\u201d while in Europe, in the words of a senior State Department official, without the risk of having to potentially fly home empty-handed and embarrassed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second reason, though, speaks to the Biden administration\u2019s view of foreign policy writ large: Less is sometimes more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI find that in the current moment in Washington, although it\u2019s been true for a long time, the answer is to do more. Everyone wants more, more, we should be doing more,\u201d said a senior State Department official who, like two others, spoke to me on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. \u201cOf course, more of everything is not a strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blinken and others in the administration simply don\u2019t believe solving a regional crisis requires top officials like Blinken to drop everything and fly to the hot spot, especially if there are larger, more consequential, longer-term issues to focus on elsewhere.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s not that the US was disengaged from the Israel-Gaza conflict. Top administration figures made more than 80 calls<\/a> to world leaders during the conflict \u2014 with Blinken on the phone for at least 15 of them while in or traveling between Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland<\/a> \u2014 in service of the ceasefire reached after 11 days of fighting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“it\u2019s never a good idea to send your top diplomatic official by themselves to solve thorny problems. \u201cThe secretary of state doesn\u2019t always have to be the desk officer of the crisis of the moment,\u201d Conley told me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Martin Indyk, who served as the US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from 2013 to 2014, recapped for me the last two times a secretary of state flew to the region during a flare-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Egypt and other nations in 2012<\/a> when calls to counterparts weren\u2019t working. Her efforts helped secure a ceasefire<\/a>, making it seem like that should be the playbook: When there\u2019s a crisis, send the secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the new secretary of state, John Kerry, wasn\u2019t as successful two years later. Despite drafting a ceasefire document for Israel and Hamas<\/a> to work from, he came back to Washington \u201creally humiliated,\u201d Indyk said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching those events from within the Obama administration was Jake Sullivan, now Biden\u2019s national security adviser. What he took away from both cases, per Indyk, was that the nation\u2019s top diplomat should travel to the area only to finalize terms that could make the ceasefire a success. Otherwise, the chances of in-person engagement working remained low, leading to inevitable embarrassment for the secretary and the administration.”  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u201cA premature intervention would\u2019ve prolonged the crisis, it wouldn\u2019t have ended it,\u201d said Indyk, now at the Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cThe way to move Israel forward is to put your arm around them, reassure them that you\u2019re in their corner, and push them in the direction you want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Threatening to place conditions on arms sales or call for a ceasefire early, as some critics from the left<\/a> wanted, likely wouldn\u2019t have worked. \u201cThe Israelis would dig in their heels and say, \u2018Screw you, we\u2019ve got rockets falling on our people and we\u2019re going to respond,\u2019\u201d Indyk continued. Plus, he and others said, Hamas surely would\u2019ve defied the US by launching more than the 4,500 rockets<\/a> they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That a ceasefire came together after 11 days, and that Blinken was welcomed by both warring parties shortly after the fighting, has led Biden administration officials to consider their efforts a clear success.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22453241\/biden-blinken-israel-gaza-ceasefire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a choice to make. It was mid-May, and in a few days he\u2019d travel to Europe for talks with allies on the Arctic and climate change, and to meet with his Russian counterpart ahead of a presidential-level summit in June.<\/p>\n

But a fight broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, threatening to explode into a larger, bloodier conflict.<\/p>\n

Looking at his agenda and the events in the Middle East, Blinken consulted with his staff and the White House on what he should do. There were discussions about having him drop everything to shuttle back and forth between Middle Eastern capitals and help broker a ceasefire. Instead, Blinken decided he should keep his long-planned commitments in Europe but, along with other administration officials, get on the phone with key players in the brewing war.<\/p>\n

He made that choice, the opposite of what previous secretaries of state had done during recent Israel-Gaza conflicts, for two main reasons.<\/p>\n

The first was that he could still engage in \u201ctelephonic diplomacy\u201d while in Europe, in the words of a senior State Department official, without the risk of having to potentially fly home empty-handed and embarrassed.<\/p>\n

The second reason, though, speaks to the Biden administration\u2019s view of foreign policy writ large: Less is sometimes more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find that in the current moment in Washington, although it\u2019s been true for a long time, the answer is to do more. Everyone wants more, more, we should be doing more,\u201d said a senior State Department official who, like two others, spoke to me on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. \u201cOf course, more of everything is not a strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blinken and others in the administration simply don\u2019t believe solving a regional crisis requires top officials like Blinken to drop everything and fly to the hot spot, especially if there are larger, more consequential, longer-term issues to focus on elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not that the US was disengaged from the Israel-Gaza conflict. Top administration figures made more than 80 calls to world leaders during the conflict \u2014 with Blinken on the phone for at least 15 of them while in or traveling between Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland \u2014 in service of the ceasefire reached after 11 days of fighting.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“it\u2019s never a good idea to send your top diplomatic official by themselves to solve thorny problems. \u201cThe secretary of state doesn\u2019t always have to be the desk officer of the crisis of the moment,\u201d Conley told me.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Martin Indyk, who served as the US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from 2013 to 2014, recapped for me the last two times a secretary of state flew to the region during a flare-up.<\/p>\n

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Egypt and other nations in 2012 when calls to counterparts weren\u2019t working. Her efforts helped secure a ceasefire, making it seem like that should be the playbook: When there\u2019s a crisis, send the secretary.<\/p>\n

But the new secretary of state, John Kerry, wasn\u2019t as successful two years later. Despite drafting a ceasefire document for Israel and Hamas to work from, he came back to Washington \u201creally humiliated,\u201d Indyk said.<\/p>\n

Watching those events from within the Obama administration was Jake Sullivan, now Biden\u2019s national security adviser. What he took away from both cases, per Indyk, was that the nation\u2019s top diplomat should travel to the area only to finalize terms that could make the ceasefire a success. Otherwise, the chances of in-person engagement working remained low, leading to inevitable embarrassment for the secretary and the administration.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201cA premature intervention would\u2019ve prolonged the crisis, it wouldn\u2019t have ended it,\u201d said Indyk, now at the Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cThe way to move Israel forward is to put your arm around them, reassure them that you\u2019re in their corner, and push them in the direction you want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Threatening to place conditions on arms sales or call for a ceasefire early, as some critics from the left wanted, likely wouldn\u2019t have worked. \u201cThe Israelis would dig in their heels and say, \u2018Screw you, we\u2019ve got rockets falling on our people and we\u2019re going to respond,\u2019\u201d Indyk continued. Plus, he and others said, Hamas surely would\u2019ve defied the US by launching more than the 4,500 rockets they did.<\/p>\n

That a ceasefire came together after 11 days, and that Blinken was welcomed by both warring parties shortly after the fighting, has led Biden administration officials to consider their efforts a clear success.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[272,355,1302,314,194,780],"class_list":["post-5592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-gaza","tag-international-relations","tag-israel","tag-joe-biden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5593,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions\/5593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}