Biden’s stubborn support for Israel’s war on Gaza has not only offended but infuriated crucial constituencies. By: Andrew Mitrovica
It will be remembered, I hope, as the hug that sank a craven president.
It was mid-October. US President Joe Biden made the requisite pilgrimage to Tel Aviv to show that his staunch support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not simply rhetorical.
His grateful host, fidgety with excitement, waited for Biden to emerge from the bulging hull of Air Force One. Apart from the loud harangues of a throng of nearby journalists, the whir of the White House-in-the-sky’s engines muffled much of the chatter below. Netanyahu nodded to his companion, President Isaac Herzog, as an army of stoic Israeli and American bodyguards stood by – at the ready. After a minute or so, Biden appeared with his trademark aviator sunglasses in hand. He paused for a moment at the top of the aircraft’s steps to reach out to Netanyahu, like an expectant bride to his groom. Then, looking pale and tired, Biden walked down the aisle – as it were – and towards his beaming beau. The pair embraced, with Biden patting Netanyahu on the back. The delighted prime minister said something. Biden offered a short, perfunctory reply. As hugs between politicians go, this one seemed long and sincere. Israel’s indispensable patron had arrived in person to verify, once more, that America stood with and by its equally indispensable ally.
But whether Biden and his camp knew it or not, in that instant the president’s already precarious political fate may have been sealed by an image now fixed in consciousness and memory – the unintended consequence of an act of “bro”-like solidarity on an airport tarmac in Israel.
The unmistakable irony, of course, is that Biden had rushed to Tel Aviv to confirm his comradery with an indicted authoritarian whom, for years, he had treated with wariness and, on occasion, contempt.
Bygones were apparently bygones.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
