On board Air Force One:
US President Joe Biden’s wartime trip to Israel and Jordan faltered before getting off the ground on Tuesday after the Amman leg was canceled following an attack on a hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of people.
The trip was always going to be the riskiest period of Biden’s presidency, as he tried to balance support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks with efforts to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and avert a broader war .
But his regional balancing act was undone on the eve of his visit with news of the hospital explosion – for which Hamas blamed Israeli attacks, while Israel said it was caused by a rocket fired by militants in Gaza.
As the 80-year-old Biden climbed the steps of Air Force One, Jordan announced that a planned quadruple summit with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was canceled.
It would take place “when the decision has been made to stop the war and put an end to these massacres,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
Biden later said he was “outraged” by the “explosion” at the hospital and that he had instructed his national security team to get more information about what happened.
‘Solidarity’
However, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard the presidential plane that the Israelis “strongly believe this was not of their own making.”
He added that it was a “mutual decision” to cancel the trip to Jordan after Abbas said he wanted to return home for three days of mourning, and that Biden would speak to him and Sisi by phone on the plane home.
Yet Biden will now find himself in an even more volatile situation than before, with the hospital strike causing anger across the region.
Angry protesters tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman, where Biden was due to meet the other leaders, while in Tehran hundreds gathered outside the French and British embassies.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah called for a “day of anger” over the strike to coincide with Biden’s arrival, fueling fears of the escalation by Tehran and its allies that Biden’s visit should warn against.
The White House said Biden wanted to “continue to show solidarity with Israel” after Hamas stormed through the heavily fortified border with Gaza and shot, stabbed and burned more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
Biden would hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and his war cabinet, as well as meet with the families of some of those killed and missing in the attacks, the report said.
However, Kirby insisted that Biden would ask Netanyahu “tough questions” about his plans for the war.
‘Risks’
The NSC spokesman added that he was “optimistic” that aid would reach stricken Gaza.
The Democratic president carefully deliberated before accepting the invitation to visit from right-wing Netanyahu, who has ordered preparations for what is expected to be a bloody ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
There was always the risk that Biden, by coming to Israel, would become too closely involved in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, which has caused massive destruction and killed more than 3,000 people, and the siege of the enclave.
Even before the hospital attack, the New York Times called it a “journey full of risks.”
Anger over the hospital strike, meanwhile, could undermine the broader purpose of Biden’s visit as he tries to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from engulfing the broader Middle East.
Biden has warned Iran and Hezbollah not to get involved and has sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean to deter them.
Kirby again said there were no plans to put U.S. boots on the ground, but added that U.S. military assets were there to “demonstrate a genuine ability to protect and defend U.S. national security interests.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
