Ensuring the stability of Jordan, Egypt, and the UAE, and even more so of Israel, has long been a cornerstone of American Middle East policy. And if Colonel Kemp’s aforementioned article is correct that the Kremlin is in part behind the recent onslaught, then its ultimate target is the U.S.—just as for Iran, which supplies Hamas with weapons and training, the United States is the Great Satan and Israel merely the Little Satan. For these reasons, it is in Washington’s interest, moral considerations aside, that Jerusalem prevail in the present conflict.

Yesterday afternoon, President Biden stated frankly where America stands. Douglas Feith and Cole Aronson liked what he had to say:

There’s an Israeli joke about how Western government officials generally see the Arab-Israeli conflict. It goes like this: the terrorists want to kill the Jews, the Jews don’t want to be killed—and no one is willing to compromise.

In his Tuesday-night television address, President Biden rejected that approach. He was remarkably unequivocal. There was no talk of diplomatic compromises. He declared that Israel not only had the right but the duty to defend itself. He pledged full U.S. support. He called Hamas’s actions in this war “pure unadulterated evil,” specifying the numerous rapes, murders of children, and kidnappings of elderly women. These, he said, ranked with the “worst rampages of ISIS.” He recalled the centuries-long history of violence against Jews and said Israel’s founding purpose was to ensure a defense against it—for the benefit of Jews all over the world. It was a strongly worded and passionately delivered address.

Rhetoric matters, but so do deeds, and Biden and his national security advisor also mentioned plans to restock Israel’s munitions and to take other concrete measures. Feith and Aronson hope that the president’s words will “be taken by members of his team as a directive to reexamine his administration’s various policies relating to Israel and Hamas.” Among those, they explain, are the White House’s loosening of the financial noose around Iran.

While the current Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has never been friendly to Hamas, his government has objected strenuously to the Israeli campaign in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip. Haisam Hassanein explains why:

Cairo has long been playing a double game, holding Hamas terrorists near while simultaneously trying to appear helpful to the United States and Israel. Israel taking control of Rafah threatens Egypt’s ability to exploit the chaos in Gaza, both to generate profits for regime insiders and so Cairo can pose as an indispensable mediator and preserve access to U.S. money and arms.

Egyptian security officials have looked the other way while Hamas and other Palestinian militants dug tunnels on the Egyptian-Gaza border. That gave Cairo the ability to use the situation in Gaza as a tool for regional influence and to ensure Egypt’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would not be eclipsed by regional competitors such as Qatar and Turkey.

Some elements close to the Sisi regime have benefited from Hamas control over Gaza and the Rafah crossing. Media reports indicate an Egyptian company run by one of Sisi’s close allies is making hundreds of millions of dollars by taxing Gazans fleeing the current conflict.

Moreover, writes Judith Miller, the Gaza war has been a godsend to the entire Egyptian economy, which was in dire straits last fall. Since October 7, the International Monetary Fund has given the country a much-needed injection of cash, since the U.S. and other Western countries believe it is a necessary intermediary and stabilizing force. Cairo therefore sees the continuation of the war, rather than an Israeli victory, as most desirable. Hassanein concludes:

Adding to its financial incentive, the Sisi regime views the Rafah crossing as a crucial card in preserving Cairo’s regional standing. Holding it increases Egypt’s relevance to countries that want to send aid to the Palestinians and ensures Washington stays quiet about Egypt’s gross human-rights violations so it can maintain a stable flow of U.S. assistance and weaponry. . . . No serious effort to turn the page on Hamas will yield the desired results without cutting this umbilical cord between the Sisi regime and Hamas.