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Just Because Biden Isn’t Announcing It From the Truman Balcony Doesn’t Mean He Isn’t Negotiating a Cease Fire
Joe Biden is not a bombastic leader, and confronted with a media structure requiring bombast to feed its insatiable appetite for ratings, this is a perceived weakness.
So it’s no surprise the narrative since the terror group Hamas’ attack on Israel on October fourth has been stubbornly obsessed with President Biden’s failure to utter the shibboleth “cease fire”.
American foreign policy toward the Middle East, particularly Israel, is complicated, to put it mildly. For months the conundrum has been the president’s consternation over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indiscriminate assault on Gaza while the United States continues supplying Israel materiel to perpetuate it.
Even if Biden had publicly called for a cease fire, Netanyahu would likely have ignored it, as the Israeli prime minister fights to keep himself out of prison for his own corruption. Over seven decades of “unconditional support” cannot be halted with two words nor immediately, lest it destabilize the region and--pardon the pun — blow up in our face.
But last week there was a turning point.
Biden’s behind-the-scenes negotiations have allowed the president an opportunity to take a hard…
