Biden Gaza policy helps China, hurts US interests

A March 25 Security Council cease-fire resolution highlighted once again the vast gap between the US and China on Israel’s war on Gaza. US officials were quick to note that the Biden administration considered the resolution “non-binding” – which China quickly contradicted, pointing to the UN charter.

Nearly six months into Israel’s war on Gaza, US policy in the Middle East is not only damaging its interests in the region but providing substantial geopolitical benefits to China, despite Beijing’s lack of substantive engagement to foster peace. In Washington, competition with China is generally considered the principal US foreign policy challenge. But US Middle East policy is undermining this strategic priority.

In a recent interview, a State Department official who resigned over US policy toward Gaza asked why support for Israel seen as more important than “very significant priorities” such as competition with China, protecting human rights and dealing with climate change.

If Washington is serious about competing with China, it must reconsider and refashion its relationship with Israel and, accordingly, its broader posture in the Middle East.

As in the case of the war in Ukraine, Beijing is pleased that Washington is devoting so much attention to the war in Gaza, leaving less bandwidth to focus on flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. But it’s within the broader geopolitical struggle for influence that the war in Gaza has been a boon for China.

Beijing has been content to sit back and let the U.S. alienate itself from the dozens of non-Western countries that are harshly critical of Israel’s war on Gaza. China has not engaged in a serious effort to broker peace. But it has sought to align