US making miscalculation by not reining in Israel: China Daily editorial

As long as the United States does not adjust its stance and continues to give one-sided support to Israel in the Gaza Strip conflict, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will likely be greeted with cold shoulders during his ongoing seven-day visit to the Middle East.

As of Monday, the conflict in Gaza had dragged into its fourth month, having claimed more than 22,000 lives and creating a grave humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. The rising death toll and worsening sufferings of people in Gaza are primarily attributable to Washington's unconditional support for Tel Aviv's continuing military operations that have gone far beyond "self-defense".

Were it not for the timely and sustained military and financial assistance provided by the US, much of which the Joe Biden administration has provided bypassing congressional approval, Israel would not have been able to carry out its campaigns on the scale and with the intensity it has for so long.

Had the US not vetoed or obstructed relevant proposals of the international community, the United Nations Security Council would have been able to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire, and gained the authority to oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

If the US had not sent at least two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Middle East soon after the conflict broke out in a move to protect Israel, not from Hamas, but its angry neighbors, Tel Aviv would not have been able to carry out its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which some have described as genocide and ethnic cleansing, in defiance of other countries' strong opposition. That around 140 UN work staff have been killed in the conflict in Gaza over the past more than three months exposes how helpless Palestinian civilians are in the face of the ruthless offensive by Israel.

Were it not for the US' acquiescent indulgence of Tel Aviv, some Israeli politicians would not have had the audacity to suggest that the Palestinians in Gaza and even beyond should be relocated somewhere else, and Tel Aviv would not have opened new fronts in Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Iraq, Yemen and Iran, as its defense chief admitted shortly before Israel pulled some of its troops out of northern Gaza.

Blinken has visited the Middle East three times before over the past three months. It is a pity that he is still not there to try and broker a cease-fire.

As a matter of fact, what the Biden administration is concerned with most is by no means the civilians in Gaza or even the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, but the expansion of Gaza conflict into one that is uncontrollable while the conflict between Ukraine and Russia that it has orchestrated shows no sign of a quick victory of its proxy.

With Israel taking advantage of that and the unwavering support it is being given by the Biden administration, there are signs indicating the conflict in Gaza is swiftly spilling over across the whole of the Middle East after Hamas' senior leaders were killed by drone strikes in Lebanon, deadly explosions were set off in Iran, and US targets came under intensive attacks in Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea.

The worsening situation in the Middle East is another bloody mess of the US' making.