2023 in review: Gaza war forces Palestinian question on Biden’s agenda
For most of 2023, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remained on the Biden administration’s back burner amid a major push for normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
WASHINGTON — In his end-of-the-year press conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged that Palestinian-Israeli peace would be among the administration's top priorities for 2024.
The Biden administration will invest in “once and for all breaking the devastating cycle of violence and moving toward durable, lasting peace,” Blinken told reporters.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and Gaza war has thrust what was a low-priority issue onto the president’s agenda after nearly three years of a foreign policy consumed by competition with China and countering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Throughout his presidency, Joe Biden has spoken of an eventual two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, but until recently, showed little appetite for restarting the peace process that vexed so many presidents before him.
