The US military is back in the Middle East. It’s not going very well, according to Bloomberg.
It confirmed that the American-led airstrikes against Yemen haven’t stopped the attacks on ships. As long as the Israeli war rages, Yemen insists it will maintain their campaign against Israeli shipping.
Critics say that anyone who followed Yemen’s hardened resistance to years of US-Saudi aggression should have known the US and UK attacks would have little impact.
In the same context, Biden’s calls for an eventual state for the Palestinians to ensure a lasting peace in the region have been flatly rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken came on stage at the World Economic Forum this week, saying he was hearing from almost all countries that “they want us present, they want us at the table,” what was most striking to many in the room was the seeming helplessness of the US.
A Washington-backed plan by five Arab nations for postwar Gaza stands no chance because Netanyahu, who’s heading the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, won’t accept it.
Back home where Biden faces a tough reelection battle, while most Democratic and Republican lawmakers back the administration’s pro-Israel policy, polls show substantial public disapproval of his handling of the conflict in Gaza, especially among young voters.
By the time Blinken left Davos, and his plane broke on the runway, one observer at the gathering of global elite quipped that it might as well be a metaphor for the US’s own damaged foreign policy in the region.
