Biden’s trip to Israel may prevent wider MidEast conflict, but intensify Cold War

(Originally published Oct. 17 in “What in the World“) U.S. President Joe Biden accepted an invitation to visit Israel tomorrow to try to prevent the war against Hamas from becoming a humanitarian debacle or spilling over into a wider war between the U.S. and its ally Israel against proxies of Tehran, Beijing and Moscow.

Biden’s visit comes as Israel continues air strikes against Gaza in preparation of invasion, while also conducting retaliatory air strikes against attacks by militants in southern Lebanon.

Washington has dispatched the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group to join the USS Gerald R. Ford in the eastern Mediterranean as it tries to dissuade Iran and pro-Palestinian militants in the region from escalating attacks against Israel. The Pentagon has even selected 2,000 troops to send to Israel for non-military assistance, where they can also serve a dual-use purpose as pretexts for escalation if injured, captured, or killed.

The war in Israel is being cast as a new front in the new Cold War between the U.S. and Beijing, Moscow and Tehran—adding to the one already being played out next door in Syria, Ukraine and the Pacific. Observers point to statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sympathetic to Hamas, and their failure to label the militant group as terrorists, as an attempt to marshal Arab support for Palestinians against Israeli oppression into wider opposition to the U.S. and its support of Israel.

Reinforcing that linkage, the White House plans to ask Congress for an emergency military aid package for both Ukraine and Israel. Doing so, the Biden Administration hopes, could overcome growing Republican opposition to escalating aid to Ukraine.

The White House has confirmed that North Korea has begun shipping weapons to Russia to help alleviate shortages of ammunition in its war against Ukraine. American officials said Pyongyang had shipped more than a thousand containers of weapons by sea to a Russian port, where they were then shipped by rail across Russia to a depot near Ukraine. Increased rail traffic across North Korea’s border with Russia had earlier sparked speculation that Pyongyang had begun funneling ammunition to Russia following last month’s visit there by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. officials worry that Moscow will repay Kim with sophisticated weaponry of its own, including fighter jets, missiles, and equipment for making more.