U.S. President Joe Biden took office seeking to avoid a messy entanglement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead trying to pivot America’s foreign policy to China, revive the Iran nuclear deal and wind down America’s "forever wars.”
This week’s flare-up in the Middle East is showing how that plan never really had a chance.
What started off as hostilities between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in contested East Jerusalem has now quickly escalated to a near full blown war between Israel and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, dragging the U.S. back into the center of diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire before the situation becomes more uncontrollable.