Gaza and Ukraine extended fronts of US election

This file photo taken on Dec 4, 2019 shows a view of the Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the US. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

The generosity US lawmakers have displayed in approving sizable military assistance to Israel — about $32 billion over the past month — is in stark contrast with their stinginess toward Ukraine.

That is directly reflected in the respective situations on the ground. While the Ukrainian forces withdrew from Avdiivka last week, a key town which in recent months had become one of the most fiercely contested battles on the eastern front, because of critical shortages of ammunition, Israel is continuing to carry out large-scale bombing of Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled. Interestingly, US President Joe Biden tells Tel Aviv enough is enough and Kyiv never to give up.

It is the moral pressure from the international community over the heavy loss of civilian lives in Gaza that has prompted the Biden administration to fake its discontent at Tel Aviv going too far. Its true intention is that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu government should take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime chance of the Hamas-led Oct 7 attacks to get things done over the Palestinian question once and for all, while avoiding open conflict with Iran.

The US' aim is for a stronger Israel to help offset the US' withdrawal from the Middle East to a certain extent. Neither the Israeli hostages nor Palestinian civilians have ever been the consideration of Washington or Tel Aviv.

The US' strong support also provides the Netanyahu government a golden chance to pull through its domestic troubles that would have flared up resulting in its step-down were it not for the crusade it started under the excuse of self-defense and "counterterrorism".

In a similar light, it is also too early to predict the Ukrainian forces' withdrawal from Avdiivka represents a turning point in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as Kyiv can use it as a leverage to prompt the US lawmakers to give a green light to more aid. No wonder Biden directly tied the Ukrainian withdrawal from Avdiivka to the US Congress not approving additional military aid for Ukraine, seeking to make the most from the incident to pass the buck for the Ukraine quagmire to the Republicans.

Actually neither the Republicans nor the Democrats would like to see a quick end to the Ukraine crisis as they both want to claim the credit for engineering an end to it under their respective government after winning the upcoming presidential election.

That being said, until Washington thinks the political value of the Gaza and Ukraine crises have been exhausted, neither one will have a quick end.