President Joe Biden deliberately kept a low public profile following Iran’s attacks against Israel over the weekend, hoping that his absence from the spotlight would help deescalate the situation.
White House aides on Sunday discussed the idea of Biden delivering a national address after Israel, in conjunction with U.S. forces, shot down the vast majority of the 300 drone and missile launches from Iran forces seeking to avenge the killing of senior paramilitary leaders.
But while scheduling was fluid, there were no immediate plans for Biden to address an American audience on the conflict in the Middle East, according to six officials, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal planning. Advisers assessed that a major presidential event, such as a televised address, would likely escalate the tensions and may provoke Tehran, two of the officials said.
“Putting the president behind the Resolute Desk turns up the temperature,” said one of those officials. “That’s something to ideally avoid.”Such an approach remains consistent with how Biden has operated throughout the conflict in the Middle East that began soon after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7. But it has also, at times, left the impression that he is captive to events rather than using the powers of his office to shape them.
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, Biden hugged Netanayhu and then delivered a national address widely deemed as one of the most pro-Israel speeches from a sitting president.
Since then, he has largely stayed out of the fray. While he has continued to pledge support for Israel, he has also privately grown critical of its conduct of the war. But his public condemnations of Israeli leadership for the killing of thousands of civilians in Gaza have often come in the form of an answer to a stray question from a reporter or a readout of a call with Netanyahu.
