Europe hesitates in the conflict in the Middle East, Biden sets the pace: how the US creates facts behind the scenes

Switzerland sets up a task force, America sends aircraft carriers

Europe has still not learned a lesson from the war in Ukraine. Without the powerful brothers from abroad, the Old World would once again be helpless and helpless. The idea that we could maintain our ideal world without the good will of Washington evaporates like the smoke from Europe’s peace pipes.

Let’s look at the reactions: Germany condemns Hamas violence and stops payments to the UN Palestine Relief Agency (as does Austria). France uses the army to protect Jewish institutions and cultural sites in its own country. Britain is shocked by the terror. And Switzerland emphasizes that Israel has the right to self-defense. Whether or not Hamas is considered a terrorist organization is now being discussed in a ‘Middle East Task Force’.

In contrast to the European slip, there is the ultra-sharp American response: US President Joe Biden (80) allows not one, but two of his eleven aircraft carriers, along with their accompanying armadas and thousands of soldiers and special forces, to appear off the coast of Israel.

America sent tons of defense missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and ordered its defense industry to prioritize Jerusalem’s orders. Not to be forgotten is the $3.8 billion in direct military aid that America reliably sends to Israel every year: one-sixth of the Jewish state’s entire military budget.

Israel’s ‘bad weather’ excuse

An impressive threat, made in a very short time, with only one goal: to make it crystal clear to Iran, the main backer of Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah, that they must get back to work immediately after their short uprising. Joe Biden said early last week that he had only one word for all countries, organizations and units that would now think of attacking Israel: “Don’t!” It couldn’t be clearer.

The weight of the American word in the Middle East and the impression its weapons have on the mullahs in Tehran and the terrorists in the political leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, despite their grandiose anti-American tirades, is becoming clearer today than ever before. Hezbollah has so far exercised restraint, apart from some tragically deadly provocations along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

And Israel is also subordinate to its main donor. Israel has so far complied with America’s urgent request to halt the ground invasion of Gaza and establish a humanitarian corridor for those fleeing in the northern Gaza Strip. The ‘bad weather’ Jerusalem cited for delaying the invasion: little more than a pseudo-meteorological cover-up.

We have exactly one month left

America is still the main pacesetter in the Middle East, even though the country has not yet had its own troops present on Israeli territory at Israel’s request. Europe should be grateful that America has once again woken up from its dream of leaving the Indo-Pacific.

But instead of continuing to dream itself, the Old World should end its deep geopolitical slumber now. The interim budget, on which the American Democrats and Republicans recently had difficulty reaching an agreement, expires on November 17. What happens next in the US is completely unclear. If there is no domestic political breakthrough, the American state and with it its entire military power will fail.

By then, Europe itself will need some answers about how to tackle the threats in the east and south-east. There is not much time left for debate – neither for the centers of power in Paris, Berlin and London, nor for the ‘Middle East Task Force’ in Bern.