President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on Oct. 2. The deadly Hamas militant attack on Israel and the massive retaliation it provoked from Jerusalem have thrust President Joe Biden into a Middle East crisis that risks expanding into a broader conflict and has left him fending off criticism from GOP presidential rivals that his administration's policies led to this moment.Susan Walsh/The Associated Press
President Joe Biden is dispatching U.S. warships to the eastern Mediterranean and scrambling military aid to Israel as Hamas’s surprise attack threatens to derail his bid for a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Sunday call that he would immediately send help for the Israeli military, the White House said.
“The President emphasized that there is no justification whatsoever for terrorism, and all countries must stand united in the face of such brutal atrocities,” the summary of the call said. “The President also conveyed that additional assistance for the Israel Defence Forces is now on its way to Israel with more to follow over the coming days.”
Hamas’s attack has killed at least 700 Israelis since Saturday and Israel’s retaliation has killed more than 400 Palestinians. Israel, which is currently carrying out air strikes on Gaza, may also be preparing for a ground invasion.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. aid will include munitions and equipment, but did not detail what specifically that will entail.
Mr. Austin said he had also ordered six warships to the eastern Mediterranean and was ready to send fighter jets, too. Among the U.S. forces is the USS Gerald R. Ford, the country’s newest aircraft carrier, with a crew of 5,000 and the ability to transport as many as 90 planes.
It was not immediately clear what the U.S. forces would do, but they could serve as a deterrent to further attacks on Israel or help evacuate U.S. citizens. Mr. Biden warned Saturday that “this is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage.”
What we know so far about Hamas’s attack, Israel’s response and international reaction
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was investigating reports that its citizens were among those killed and kidnapped by Hamas. Washington has information that four Americans are dead and seven others unaccounted for. If Americans are among the hostages Hamas abducted to Gaza, observers say it could pull the U.S. into the fighting.
It is not yet clear whether Iran played a role in organizing the attack, Mr. Blinken said, but it was possible that it was a deliberate attempt to thwart a Saudi-Israeli rapprochement.
“Those who are opposed to the talks, those who are opposed to Israel normalizing relations with its neighbours and the countries beyond the region are Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” he said on CNN. “It is entirely possible that one of the motivations for this attack was to try to derail these efforts to advance normalization.”
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in Hamas and Hezbollah, reported that officials in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps helped plan the attack since August and gave a final go-ahead last Monday in Beirut.
The contention, if proven true, could provoke a wider war between Israel and Iran.
The attack launched from Gaza, which caught both Israel and the U.S. off-guard, adds another foreign military complication for Mr. Biden, who is already facing domestic opposition to his funding of Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
In recent months, Mr. Biden had been pushing for a deal in which Saudi Arabia and Israel would normalize relations in exchange for the U.S. giving Saudi Arabia security guarantees and support for a civilian nuclear-power program, and Israel making concessions to the Palestinians.
He met last month with Mr. Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and warmly greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a G20 summit in New Delhi.
The Israel-Gaza war will have grave repercussions in the Middle East and beyond
In the aftermath of the attack, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries rejected or ignored Mr. Blinken’s requests to condemn Hamas’s actions. In a statement, the office of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said the bloodshed was a consequence “of the situation of the continued occupation” by Israel of the Palestinian territories and “the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights.”
In an appearance on Fox News, U.S. deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer said he was still holding out hope of a possible deal. “We think it would be in both countries’ interests to continue to pursue this possibility,” he said.
If Mr. Biden needs help from Congress to fund further help for Israel, he could run into additional problems with gridlock in the House of Representatives. The Republican majority in the lower chamber is currently mired in infighting that last week saw the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. The House has not yet chosen his replacement.
While the Republican Party has generally been supportive of Israel in the past, the drama in the GOP caucus, caused by a far-right-wing faction, is currently holding up all budget bills. Some Republicans have also tried to block continued military aid to Ukraine, with a large funding package for Kyiv among the legislation stuck because of the current impasse.
The U.S. has regularly provided Israel with military aid, supplemented at key moments. In 2021, after a series of rocket attacks by Hamas and retaliation by Israel, the U.S. spent US$1-billion to replenish Israel’s stocks of Patriot missiles.
Israelis recount terrified flight as Hamas gunmen attack dance party
Mr. Biden is also likely to face at least some opposition from the left of his own caucus. In a statement, Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American Democratic congresswoman from Detroit, called for the U.S. to stop helping Israel as long as the country continues its blockade on Gaza.
“I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,” she said. “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”
Republican presidential candidates, meanwhile, lined up to claim that the Hamas attacks were tied to a deal Mr. Biden made with Iran last month. Under that agreement, the U.S. unfroze US$6-billion in Iranian funds in exchange for Tehran releasing five U.S. citizens detained by the theocratic dictatorship.
“As president, I will once again stand with Israel and we will cut off the money to Palestinian terrorists on Day One,” former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, said on the campaign trail in Iowa this weekend.
The Biden administration said the US$6-billion has so far not been touched and can only be used by Iran for humanitarian purposes such as food and medicine. “Not a single cent has been spent from that account,” Mr. Blinken said. “Those who are saying otherwise are either misinformed or misinforming.”
Adrian Morrow