The hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan and the painful attack on Kabul airport cast a heavy shadow over Biden and Bennett's first meeting, which was good.
The American media was not interested.
The US president, exposed to barrage of criticism from all sides over the careless execution of a premeditated evacuation and failed deployment in the face of targeted warning, looked very tired, preoccupied, self-contained. Little to speak. Most headlines.An agreement was also reached between supporters of the "axis of evil" in the Iranian leadership and Tehran's sworn opponents, saying: The United States is weak.
Is different.
She can not be trusted.
The conclusions, naturally, have already been divided.
In Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, newspapers and social networks have exploded with a host of harsh expressions of disappointment with U.S. foreign policy and what appears to be a lack of strategy and determination. Of the sanctions.
PM Bennett with US President Biden // Photo: Avi Ohayon / GPO,
A columnist in a Saudi newspaper wrote that the American weakness, which was exposed in Afghanistan, obliges all countries in the region to urgently establish a common defense system to deal alone with the danger of Iran and its militias.
Another writer argued that the United States should now give Israel a "free hand" to stop Tehran.
Iran, on the other hand, found it difficult to hide its contentment.
Nasrallah, the loyal ally, was the first to jump in and announce that after the "American defeat in Afghanistan" must come a rapid evacuation of U.S. troops from Iraq and eastern Syria.
Taliban fighters and civilians in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, AFP
Both Washington and Jerusalem fear that this is not just belligerent rhetoric and that the lessons of the "axis of evil" from the withdrawal in Afghanistan will soon translate into increased military pressure by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq on U.S. forces stationed there to retreat: Tim commits suicide at U.S. military bases.
In the maritime arena Iran has already decided it is time to step up to challenge the Biden administration. On Tuesday, according to reports, she sailed from an Iranian port for the first time on her way to Beirut at Hezbollah's request to help Lebanon "overcome the fuel shortage." This is known to be a blatant violation of sanctions banning Iran from exporting petroleum products, but Iran is beeping, and Nasrallah, who has warned against any attempt to stop the tanker, sees this as a great opportunity to expand Iranian influence in Lebanon. Needless to say, the US could have spared itself the dilemma of how to deal with the new Iranian breach if it had preceded itself in assisting Lebanon with essential fuel products, but it did not. fighting.
Israel liked Biden's upgraded statement to Bennett that Iran would never have nuclear weapons.
Iran especially liked his insistence on a "diplomatic solution first" to the nuclear crisis and only protested, for the sake of protocol, that he also mentioned "other options."
One American president, Theodore Roosevelt, believed that Washington should speak softly but wave a big stick.
Another president, Trump, argued that one should speak loudly and wave a big stick.
Iran treats the Biden administration in Afghanistan and the Middle East as someone who speaks weakly and also holds a small, non-threatening stick.
One has to hope she is wrong.