The White House announced Monday the cancellation of a trip that Joe Biden was to make the same day to Colorado, in the west of the United States, ensuring that he wanted to remain focused on the war between Israel and Hamas and on the risk of regional escalation of this conflict.
The announcement reignited speculation about a trip to Israel, where the American president was officially invited.
“There was an invitation from Prime Minister” Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu, said a White House spokesperson, John Kirby, on CNN, adding however: “There is no trip that I could tell you about. speak now “.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, on tour throughout the region, returned to Israel on Monday, where he held various talks.
The American president will stay in Washington on Monday to “participate in meetings on national security subjects”, specifies a very short press release from the White House.
He intends to “stay focused on what is happening between Israel and Hamas,” said John Kirby, principal communicator for the American National Security Council.
Joe Biden, who very quickly presented himself as Israel’s first ally, invoking the country’s “duty” to defend itself against Hamas, fears that the conflict will spread via a large-scale offensive by Hezbollah in the north, as deadly clashes increase between the pro-Iranian group and the Israeli army on the border with Lebanon.
“The possible opening of a front in the north is worrying,” acknowledged John Kirby, adding nevertheless: “Until this morning we have not seen firm signals showing that Hezbollah has decided to enter completely” into the dispute.
Joe Biden, candidate for a second term, was to go to Colorado to visit a factory manufacturing wind turbine towers, in order to praise his economic and social policy on the land of a particularly virulent Trumpist elected official.
The American executive had already released language on this trip, before announcing at the last minute that it was “postponed” and would be “rescheduled to a new date”.
“Humanitarian crisis”
Several media outlets, including Axios and CNN, assure that Israeli and American authorities are discussing a possible visit by the president, who has promised Israel the unfailing support of the United States since the deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
This would not be Joe Biden’s first trip to a country in conflict after his trip to Ukraine in February. This historic visit to a country at war had been prepared in the greatest secrecy.
He also visited Israel in July 2022, when Yaïr Lapid was still prime minister.
Relations between the White House and Israel then experienced a chill with the return to power of Benjamin Netanyahu, at the head of a very right-wing government, which Joe Biden openly criticized.
The American president, however, has completely put aside his grievances, at least in public, to present himself as Israel’s leading international supporter.
In recent days, he has also insisted on the need to respond to the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
But Israel said Monday that no truce was in progress to allow aid into Gaza, where a million desperate Palestinians have massed on the border with Egypt, fleeing bombings launched by the Israeli army in response to the bloody offensive by the Palestinian Islamist group.
More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel since the attack. Hamas also captured 199 hostages, according to Israel.
Israeli retaliations have killed at least 2,750 people in Gaza, the majority Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, according to local authorities.
The army announced that it had recovered the bodies of 1,500 Hamas fighters on Israeli soil.