Gaza War | The Biden administration has a more lenient attitude towards Israel than many previous US administrations, says a Middle East expert

of the United States patience with Israel at war in Gaza appeared to have run out on Thursday when Pres Joe Biden called the prime minister Benjamin to Netanyahu and threatened to stop supporting Israel.

Biden clearly hardened Israel more strongly than in a long time. However, when interpreting the confrontation, it must be remembered that only last week the United States promised Israel billions of dollars worth of fighter jets and other weapons, says the professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Helsinki Hannu Juusola.

“What we should follow are actions. And when additional arms deliveries to Israel are approved at the same time, it takes away the credibility of the talk,” says Juusola.

Israel is a long-time ally of the United States. US military aid to Israel is $3.8 billion annually.

Biden's According to Juusola, the threats are quite vague based on media reports.

“They lack concreteness,” he says. “So far, there is more ranting and criticizing, but no concrete threats.”

Biden warned on Thursday that US aid to Israel would end if the country did not take the necessary steps to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched a counterattack on Gaza in October. Before this, the extremist organization Hamas had made a devastating surprise attack on Israel on October 7.

Office of the Prime Minister of Israel announced After the telephone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu, that Israel will allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza temporarily.

According to Juusola, the hardening reflects the Biden administration's long-standing weariness with Netanyahu's government's policies.

Frustration was expressed earlier in the spring by the March decision of the United States not to use veto when the UN Security Council voted for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the hostages.

According to Juusola, Thursday's phone conversation should therefore not be interpreted as a turning point that would radically change the United States' relations with Israel.

As soon as Friday, the United States stood against, when the UN Human Rights Council voted on a resolution that demands, among other things, the suspension of all arms sales to Israel. This is the first position of the Human Rights Council regarding the war in Gaza. The resolution was passed despite opposition from the United States and five other countries.

Pontimena The telephone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu was from Israel monday strike To the convoy of the World Central Kitchen aid organization. Seven aid workers died in the attack.

“The outrage over the deaths of aid workers is evident in the US and Europe. Unfortunately, it is primarily related to the fact that this time the dead were not local. If a similar number of Palestinian aid workers had died, it would have a completely different political weight.”

Juusola estimates that Monday's attack increased the pressure on Biden. The pressure has also increased within the Democratic Party.

“Biden has to do something, but so far I don't see a big change. If you think about the long history, the pressure from the United States has many times been of a completely different order.”

of the 1990s at the beginning the president of the United States George HW Bush and Foreign Minister James Baker pressured Israel to attend the Madrid Peace Conference. “Back then, the pressure was hard, and it paid off.”

Known as a pro-Israel president in the early 1980s Ronald Reagan pressured Israel about the Beirut bombings, says Juusola.

Examples of pressure can also be found in the 1950s, when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip for the first time in 1956.

“[Dwight D.] Eisenhower's during his presidency, the US unequivocally forced Israel to withdraw. From the perspective of the 1950s, these current measures that the United States is targeting Israel are really weak.”

Thursday according to Juusola, the phone call is still important, because it forces Israel to do something. How the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza will be implemented will become clear in the coming days and weeks, says Juusola.

The New York Times reported on Friday, citing his sources, that the head of the US Central Intelligence Service CIA by William J. Burns is expected to travel to Cairo on Saturday to continue talks on the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

The newspaper writes that, according to the US authorities, negotiating a cease-fire and exchanging hostages is the only way to achieve a temporary ceasefire in Gaza and enable more humanitarian aid to the region.

Juusola describes Biden's pressure as limited. If the United States were to play a “really tough game”, the means could be, for example, an arms embargo or the termination of economic support.

“But there has been no talk of such a thing,” he says. “From Israel's perspective, we are used to barking but not biting.”