Following the successful Israeli military operation that resulted in the death of Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar, it is clear that US influence in the Middle East is declining.
President Joe Biden reportedly excoriated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s targeting of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter threatening an arms embargo against Israel in 30 days unless their demands to improve the “humanitarian situation” in the Gaza Strip are met.
Biden reportedly urged Netanyahu to refrain from attacks on Beirut against Hezbollah, which followed with the terrorist group launching a suicide drone attack last month, south of the Israeli city of Haifa, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring 58 more.
By pressuring Israel to refrain from attacking Hamas and Hezbollah in the middle of a war, the Biden administration “casts doubts on America’s dependability as an ally and its commitment to defend the Free World,” according to Dr. Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the US.
Through his ultimatums against Israel, Biden is seemingly continuing former president Obama’s failed strategy of “leading from behind,” an unattributed phrase describing the former president’s distrust of American power in world affairs.
By empowering Iran, American political analyst Michael Doran writes that Obama “dreamed of a new Middle East order.”
Obama's election and the problems that followed
Since Obama’s election in 2009, the US has militarily left a vacuum in the Middle East that has been filled by the hostile forces of China and Russia.
These anti-American regimes have encouraged Iran’s Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist proxies to cause chaos throughout the region by attacking Israel and US military bases.
From forcing Iraqi Christian militias fighting against the Islamic State terror group to join the Iranian proxy Popular Mobilization Force to qualify for American support, to letting Hezbollah off the hook for its billion-dollar criminal enterprise, we now see that the Obama administration’s dream has become the Middle East’s nightmare.
While former president Donald Trump ushered in the Abraham Accords, which brought about Israel normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, the Biden Administration has reversed course and brought back many of the same advisers responsible for Obama’s doctrine.
For the first time in its history, Iran has directly attacked Israel without its proxies – in April and then last month, by launching hundreds of ballistic missiles and suicide drones.
Providing billions in sanctions relief and downplaying Iran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah has done little to assuage its desire for regional dominance.
Israel must be encouraged to destroy Hamas and Hezbollah while they are still reeling from the deaths of dozens of their leaders and it is still hard to replace them.
This is especially true of the deaths of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Sinwar, both of whom would still be alive and drag the conflict even further if Israel had heeded Biden’s ultimatums since October 8, 2023.
Biden must not continue with the Obama policy of appeasing Iran and turning a blind eye to its terrorist proxies.
Now is the time to support Israel and those moderate Arab countries which seek to reshape the Middle East for the peace and welfare of its people.
With US presidential elections around the corner, both Vice President Harris and former president Trump must take a different direction and stay away from the failed Obama doctrine.
Bradley Martin is the executive director of the Near East Center for Strategic Studies. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter @ByBradleyMartin. Dr. Liram Koblentz-Stenzler is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University, Herzliya, and a visiting scholar at Brandeis University. Follow her on LinkedIn.