2023 in review: Biden bets his Middle East strategy on Gaza war

WASHINGTON — Off the coast of Cyprus last week, atop the deck of the US Navy’s newest, most advanced aircraft carrier, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin huddled privately with the ship’s captain.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, flagship of the US Navy’s future cutting-edge carrier class, has surpassed seven taxing months at sea, its deployment extended three times as the Biden administration refused to impose conditions on US support for Israel’s war against Hamas.

Pentagon officials say the latest buildup of American forces in the Middle East – including two carrier strike groups – has largely deterred Hezbollah and Iran, preventing a wider regional conflict as Washington supplies the arms and political cover for Israel’s unrelenting campaign in the Gaza Strip.

It is perhaps fitting that it was Gerald R. Ford, the former US president, who most clearly articulated the vaunted “no daylight” policy between the United States and Israel in a private 1975 memo sent to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, effectively offering Israeli leaders a hand in formulating future US proposals regarding the Palestinians while his administration offered unprecedented military hardware.