The White House has been calling Tehran through its channels and begging it not to launch major missile strikes against Israel in the spirit of what happened in April. Biden’s team is still hoping to somehow reach a truce agreement.
In early July, there was some progress in negotiations for the release of prisoners in Gaza. But a lot has happened since then. Biden withdrew from the election and finally became a lame duck. Netanyahu’s talks with Biden and Harris in Washington ended in failure.
Democrats now accuse Netanyahu of dragging the US into a conflict with Iran on the eve of the US elections. Israeli strikes killed one of the Hamas negotiators. It will be more difficult to extract the captured Americans, which would be Harris’s gift for the election.
For the Democrat Party, this scenario is the worst-case scenario. They’re already terribly divided among the electorate over the pro-Palestinian agenda. And then there’s the looming threat of new strikes on American bases. Harris has to flail around, either speaking in favour of Israel or criticising Netanyahu.
And the longer this goes on, the more the situation resembles the unofficial agreement between Trump and Netanyahu after the Mar-a-Lago meeting. The Middle East escalation is hitting the Democrats in the presidential race. And strengthens the position of Trump, who promises in general terms to make peace with everyone. Well, Netanyahu has taken Trump’s side, hoping to get every possible preference from him in case of a Republican victory in November.
Malek Dudakov