The US president is pushing for a Saudi-Israel deal, a breakthrough on Palestine and an understanding with Iran. But the ‘American century’ is long gone
Time is against Biden. Self-interested regional leaders wonder how long he will last – and will Donald Trump replace him
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s domestically besieged prime minister, badly needs a Saudi deal. The Saudis want one, too, but insist, on paper at least, on tangible. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners oppose any concessions, he’s barely on speaking terms with Biden – and in October, just to spite him, he plans to visit China.
Even so, Biden seems to think he can win Israeli agreement for increased Palestinian autonomy, a halt to West Bank annexation plans and maybe a revived two-state peace process in return for delivering the Saudis, defangingBiden’s hat-trick hopes look slightly delusional. Myriad local negative factors aside, time is against him. Like the rest of the world, self-interested regional leaders wonder how long he will last – and will Trump replace him.
How things have changed. Time was, the US, like Britain before it, laid down the law in the Middle East. But that was before 9/11 and al-Qaida, Iraq and Afghanistan, the rise of China and the malignant Vladimir Putin, and the authoritarian assault on global democracy and the rule of law.And yet, in other respects, this shift is welcome.
The era of the all-dominant superpower and the “indispensable nation” is drawing to a close. Biden may do his darnedest to sustain the old order. But like Britain’s lost “imperial age”, the “American century” in which he’s so firmly rooted is passing swiftly into history.
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