Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up here.
The US military is back in the Middle East. It’s not going very well.
American-led airstrikes against Houthi militants who’ve been causing havoc in the Red Sea haven’t stopped the Yemen-based group from escalating attacks on ships.
If anything, the situation has got worse. “Are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” US President Joe Biden told reporters.
Almost €70 billion of EU agri-food imports and exports could be affected
[Chart omitted -- go to URL]
Source: CELCAA
Note: shows estimates based on 2022; no real-time info available
Biden’s calls for an eventual state for the Palestinians to ensure a lasting peace in the region have been flatly rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken came on stage at the World Economic Forum this week, saying he was hearing from almost all countries that “they want us present, they want us at the table,” what was most striking to many in the room was the seeming helplessness of the US.
A Washington-backed plan by five Arab nations for postwar Gaza stands no chance because Netanyahu, who’s heading the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, won’t accept it.
As long as the Israel-Hamas war rages, the Houthis insist they will maintain their campaign against shipping.
Critics say that anyone who followed the Houthis’ hardened resistance to years of Saudi military airstrikes — and their continued support from Iran — should have known the US and UK attacks on the group would have little impact.
Back home where Biden faces a tough reelection battle, while most Democratic and Republican lawmakers back the administration’s pro-Israel policy, polls show substantial public disapproval of his handling of the conflict in Gaza, especially among young voters.
By the time Blinken left Davos, and his plane broke on the runway, one observer at the gathering of global elite quipped that it might as well be a metaphor for the US’s own damaged foreign policy in the region.
Blinken and Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Oct. 12.Photographer: Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty