United States of America eSeries: 'Working around the clock'

May 17, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'Working around the clock'

It's an emerging and potentially defining feature of Joe Biden's presidency.

The new White House is training relentless attention on issues that Biden believes got him elected. But it also appears wary of spilling political capital in other crises that could deflect attention from his main ambitions or where deeper involvement may not deliver a decisive payoff.

The trend is playing out in the conflagration between Israel and the Palestinians, where Biden has not thrown himself publicly into the kind of ceasefire or mediation effort that many previous presidents might have attempted. It also helps explain why Biden was front and center in battling the pandemic, but was less visible in dealing with the surge of child migrants on America's southern border. In the same way, he chose to prioritize infrastructure reform rather than start his presidency in a bruising fight over voting rights with the GOP and moderate Democrats in Congress. And he's seeking to strengthen the social safety net to benefit working class voters, but has waved off the liberal dream of expanding the Supreme Court.

On foreign policy, most of Biden's initiatives, from confronting China to rejoining the Paris climate accord, can be interpreted through his desire to make diplomacy serve everyday Americans first. It is a coherent but ruthless approach that suggests the President has thought hard about his own coalition, the lessons of the 2020 election, the factors that powered Trumpism and America's relative global power.

In the Middle East, Biden's approach is also conditioned by his own long, staunch support for Israel. It is likely also informed by the view that the days when a US-sponsored peace process seemed viable are long gone. But as Palestinian casualties have mounted under escalating Israeli fire, liberal and even centrist Democrats are calling on Biden to get more involved.

The political backlash may explain the White House's background briefings to journalists, insisting it is toughening US language and undertaking behind-the-scenes presidential and diplomatic activity. But disclosures about private pressure from the US will do nothing to ease the crisis -- soon Biden may not have any option but to become more publicly involved.

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Left: People march in support of Palestinians on May 15 in Minnesota. Right: Pro-Israel supporters hold flags in New York City on May 12.

What American politicians are saying

Political pressures on the Biden administration are growing as the death toll climbs. At time of writing, 197 Palestinians have been killed according to Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. Ten Israelis have died, per Israeli emergency services.

"I will personally be working around the clock with my counterparts to ease tensions, and the crisis, as soon as possible," said Hady Amr, the top US envoy handling the conflict, at a virtual Eid gathering on Sunday. Along with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Amr said he was "conducting an intensive series of high level meetings with the Palestinian leadership, senior Israeli officials and civil society, I'm meeting with UN officials, Arab partners, representatives of the international community, and fellow diplomats to prevent a deepening and worsening of the crisis."

"Thank God we have a responsible president now in the United States," Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, told CNN Saturday, praising Biden as someone capable of helping to end the conflict.

"I think the administration needs to push harder on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to stop the violence," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff in an interview with CBS on Sunday. "I fully defend Israel's right to defend itself, it needs to do what it needs to do to protect its people, I don't want that to be interpreted as support for Israeli settlement policy for the eviction of Palestinians from their homes," he said.

"I will travel to Israel to assess what they need to protect their national security," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Twitter Saturday, emphasizing that Israeli national security is "closely tied to America's national security."

"The White House risks causing severe damage to President Biden's relationship with American Muslims and all others who defend civil and human rights," said the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America's largest Muslim civil rights group, slamming US inaction to stop the violence as it announced its boycott of the annual White House Eid celebration.

"If the Biden admin can't stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?" wrote New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter over the weekend, criticizing the administration's failure to intervene in Israeli airstrikes.

"We must change course and adopt an evenhanded approach, one that upholds and strengthens international law regarding the protection of civilians, as well as existing U.S. law holding that the provision of U.S. military aid must not enable human rights abuses," wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders in an op-ed in the New York Times on Friday entitled, "The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government."

"I think the important thing is for Israel to win and defeat Hamas and for the United States to stand with Israel as she defends herself," said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney to CNN on Friday. "People on the Democratic side of the aisle here in Washington are standing up against Israel, saying that Israel doesn't have the right to defend herself," she also said.

'I had recognized those narratives as being Marxist in nature'

A Space Force officer has been removed from his command after publicly criticizing the US military for falling prey to "Marxist narratives." Speaking on the conservative Steve Gruber podcast, Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier alleged: "Since taking command as a commander about 10 months ago, I saw what I consider fundamentally incompatible and competing narratives of what America was, is and should be. That wasn't just prolific in social media, or throughout the country during this past year, but it was spreading throughout the United States military. And I had recognized those narratives as being Marxist in nature."

Pressed to clarify, Lohmeier cited the New York Times 1619 Project, a historical look at how slavery formed America's institutions. "It teaches intensive teaching that I heard at my base -- that at the time the country ratified the United States Constitution, it codified White supremacy as the law of the land," Lohmeier said. "If you want to disagree with that, then you start (being) labeled all manner of things including racist." He did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.