Israeli and Palestinian violence pulls US focus back to Middle East, despite Biden's plans
CNN
Entering office, President Joe Biden hoped to shift US foreign policy away from the Middle East and toward areas he thought of as more modern-day threats: China, Russia and cyberspace.
But as some of the worst violence in years breaks out between Israelis and Palestinians, the region's long-entrenched battles are dragging Biden back in, forcing a delicate political balance and laying bare the difficulties he and his predecessors have all faced in handling the decades-old conflict. A swirl of factors is complicating matters. Biden is under pressure from progressives in his own party, who have grown increasingly critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and who hope Biden's pledge to put human rights at the forefront of his foreign agenda will extend to Israel.The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
Trump administration officials are hurrying to catch up to the president’s audacious and improbable plan for the United States to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera,” trying to wrap their heads around an idea that some hope might be so outlandish it forces other nations to step in with their own proposals for the Palestinian enclave.