"On all fronts, Joe Biden risks paying a high price for his choices in the dramatic ongoing crisis in the Middle East"

 "On all fronts, Joe Biden risks paying a high price for his choices in the dramatic ongoing crisis in the Middle East"

Benyamin Netanyahu's absolute opposition to the prospect of a Palestinian state is not good news for the Democratic president, who can't hope to win re-election without winning states like Michigan in November, with its large community sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza.

A potentially perilous countdown is ticking away for Joe Biden in the Middle East. The renewed hope of a ceasefire in Gaza, accompanied by the release of the Israeli hostages held there since October 7, masks the deterioration of his relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, risking failure in a field - diplomacy - in which he claims an expertise forged by decades of practice.

The double explosion triggered by Hamas's unprecedented massacres of Israeli civilians, followed by the carnage wrought in Gaza by Israel's unrestrainedly violent response, rekindled Washington's interest in a two-state solution - the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel - in the very first weeks of this new Israeli-Palestinian war. Beyond the legitimacy of the Palestinian claim, it appears to be a better guarantee of stability than the status quo advocated by Benyamin Netanyahu, which has led to the current tragedy.

This objective had been lost sight of in the early years of the Democratic president's mandate, renowned for an unconditional attachment to Israel that says its age as well as its marital status. A gulf has been widening for years between the younger generations of Democrats and a Hebrew state increasingly perceived as the oppressor of a minority.