Biden Waffling on Mideast Visit Shines Light on Perils of Indecision

President Biden’s on-again, off-again Mideast trip makes Hamlet look like the Wild West’s fastest draw, and exposes the perils of indecision in foreign policy. The state of the proposed presidential journey is a definite maybe at this point: “There is a possibility that I would be going to meet with both the Israelis and some Arab countries at the time,” Mr. Biden said Friday, and “Saudi Arabia would be included in that if I did go.” He added, though, that he has “no direct plans at the moment.” It added up to more of the same, this time from the horse’s mouth. Last month, the White House leaked the news that the president in June would travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel and the West Bank. Later leaks had it that the trip was in doubt. The latest whispers have the visit likely taking place, but apparently in July. There are several objective reasons for such tweaks in Mr. Biden’s itinerary. The Israeli governing coalition is teetering, so if a new election is called Mr. Biden could be accused of interfering in local politics. Ramallah demands a strong White House condemnation of Israel, which may be politically hazardous for the president. More pressing, Mr. Biden is getting flak from all sides about his intention to visit Riyadh and meet there with the Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin-Salman. MbS’s role in the 2018 murder of a Saudi Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, has become a red letter at the American capital.In the Washington zeitgeist, the Khashoggi affair marked the Kingdom as a symbol of human rights violations, the worst in the Mideast. A life-long consumer of the capital’s received wisdom, Mr. Biden vowed while on the campaign trail to make Riyadh, and specifically its powerful crown prince, a “pariah.”Now, however, Americans are paying through the nose at the pump even as their environmentally conscious president refuses to allow increased energy production at home. Thus the White House is rediscovering America’s decades-old close ties with the Kingdom: the Saudis own vast fossil fuel reserves; if they are the ones to increase oil production, no one could accuse America of climate crimes, the thinking goes. Mr. Biden wants to repair relations and get the Saudis to help in combating global energy shortages. Prince bin Salman, though, wants something in return. He already offered to raise OPEC’s oil output somewhat and, under Washington’s pressure, agreed to extend a ceasefire in Yemen. Now he is demanding a public meeting with the president at Riyadh, and a reciprocal invitation to the White House. Cue the political outrage. “I wouldn’t go, I wouldn’t shake his hand,” the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Representative Adam Schiff, told CBS over the weekend, referring to the crown prince. “This is someone who butchered an American resident, cut him up into pieces in the most terrible and premeditated way,”Added the Californian: “Until Saudi Arabia makes radical changes in terms of human rights, I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with them.” Mr. Schiff also said he understands that America needs to “wean ourselves” from dependence on foreign oil sources — but he declined to support domestic drilling. The capital’s hometown paper, the Washington Post, published an editorial Monday based on the premise that Mr. Biden’s meeting with the crown prince is a fait accompli. “This is a deeply disappointing reversal,” the editors wrote, calling on Mr. Biden to, at least, throw all diplomatic caution to the wind and publicly denounce MbS while on Saudi soil. Compare that kind of outrage with the ho-hum response to Mr. Biden’s recent presidential decree that eased restrictions on the imports of solar panel parts from Communist China. These parts are mostly manufactured in forced-labor camps by Uighurs. Or compare it to the lack of outrage over Washington’s never-ending diplomatic courting of Iran’s terrorism-supporting Islamic Republic.Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s left flank is firing missiles at the idea of the president visiting Israel. Representative Rashida Tlaib recently proposed a House resolution, supported by her Quad partners, which would force the White House to refer to Israel’s Independence Day in the Arabic term for catastrophe, the Nakba.Additionally, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blames Israel for the yet-unresolved death of an Al Jazeera reporter, Shireen Abu Akleh. “We can’t even get healthcare in the US and we’re funding this” in Israel, AOC said in an Instagram video posting, adding, “There has to be some sort of line that we draw.”A chummy visit to Israel would anger that wing of Mr. Biden’s party. Then again, an icy press availability alongside Prime Minister Bennett would disappoint supporters of Israel.Similarly, a friendly visit with the Saudi crown prince would be criticized by Mr. Schiff, the Washington Post, and the likes. Yet, Mr. Biden believes that if the Saudis help to ease inflationary pressures, it would boost the party in November. Unless the White House makes a public announcement soon, all sides will remain angrily critical. All benefits from going to Saudi Arabia and Israel — or even from not going — will be lost while indecision becomes a signature of Mr. Biden’s foreign policy.

Biden Waffling on Mideast Visit Shines Light on Perils of Indecision

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