US reputation stands battered after Biden’s Gaza carte blanche for Israel

America’s adversaries have often criticized US foreign policy for interfering with the domestic affairs of other countries. However, Washington’s approach, as ordered by President Joe Biden and which paved the way for Israel to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza indiscriminately, has put what some believe a permanent stain on US claims to being a champion of human rights.

Biden repeatedly said on his campaign trail that he was an ardent supporter of human rights and after he took office, he halted arms sales to traditional US allies in the Gulf, thereby pushing them to look to US adversaries, including Russia and China, for help.

In recent years, even Arab states with notable differences have drawn closer in a clear rebuke of US policy on the region.

Randa Slim, a program director at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said US policy toward Israel has resulted in a renewed pan-Arab sentiment. This sentiment, she said, was “driven by anger at US double standards in their approach to the conflict and disregard for the Palestinians’ suffering.”

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to discuss the ongoing Israeli military operation inside Gaza. Countries within the OIC have differing opinions of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group. Nonetheless, they have all agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of innocent civilians.

Slim said each Arab country was approaching the conflict in terms of its own security and political priorities.

Arab countries have accused the international community, including the US without naming it, of having double standards when it comes to human rights as it relates to Arabs and Palestinians.

The Riyadh meeting was a “rejection of the American-centric Western discourse,” said Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst specializing in Gulf-Israel ties.

Alghashian said this was no longer about Palestine and Israel.

“This notion of US hypocrisy has always been salient in the social discourse,” he told Al Arabiya English. “What this war is doing is eliciting historical grievances that Saudi and Arab states have with the West. This war is a very critical juncture in our history,” he added.

UN officials have slammed Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians and called for a humanitarian ceasefire, something the US vetoed at the United Nations. Following a visit last week to the Rafah crossing on the Egypt border, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he heard a lot of concerns about double standards. “Let me be clear – the world cannot afford double standards,” Turk said.

In private conversations, US and European diplomats are also dismayed by US policy.

“Today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So, there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So, we do urge Israel to stop,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the BBC.

However, the focus continues to be on US policy because Washington is seen as the only party that can influence or pressure Israel to halt its aerial bombardment of Gaza.

This was evident during a flurry of trips by US officials to Israel following the October 7 Hamas attack. The top US diplomat sat in on more than one war cabinet meeting in Israel.

Yet, more than a month after the devastating attack, which resulted in over a thousand Israeli deaths, patience is running out in the Biden administration as pressure mounts at home and abroad.

A Jordan human rights activist reportedly returned an award presented to her by the US State Department for her work to defend Jordan’s juveniles, refugees, migrants and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Abdel Aziz was one of 11 recipients of the 2023 International Women of Courage Award, but has been quoted as saying that the award does not represent courage or justice from the US.

Meanwhile, US diplomats at home and abroad are scrambling to explain the Biden administration’s policy, with some finding it hard to do.

Current and former US officials previously told Al Arabiya English that based on the approach by President Biden, they felt as if Israeli lives mattered more than Arab lives.

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said their colleagues at US embassies around the world were having a tough time. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior US officials have held listening sessions with those working in the administration, with several dissent cables being passed to the top US diplomat.

The State Department’s former special envoy for Syria criticized the price being paid by Palestinian civilians in Gaza for the Hamas attacks as “unjustifiable and unacceptable.”

“Although he may pay a politically steep price for doing so, President Biden must do all he can to bring this abomination to an end,” Fred Hof wrote in a recent article.

While Hof said Israel had a right to defend itself, he added that Biden needed to press Israel to act in a manner that reflects respect for human life.

“He [Biden] would likely pay a high political price for doing the right thing, but it must be done. American interests are at stake. And American values – the values of all democracies – are on the line,” Hof wrote.