(CNN) — The death of Hassan Nasrallah has caught President Joe Biden in a bind: While no one in the White House shed any tears for the longtime Hezbollah leader, the Israeli airstrike that took him out has only worsened fears of an escalating conflict, something Biden says he’s actively working to avoid. In the immediate aftermath of the operation, Biden was quick to alert the public that he hadn’t received any advance warning and wasn’t involved. It was only 24 hours later, after both Israel and Hezbollah had confirmed Nasrallah was killed , that Biden released a carefully worded statement declaring the death a “measure of justice” but repeating that his “aim is to de-escalate.
” For Biden, the moment amounts to another high-tension balancing act — this time, only six weeks before a US presidential election. Already at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the nearly yearlong war in Gaza, the president is now working to calm two fronts at a moment when his influence on Netanyahu’s decision-making appears to be at an all-time low. Ahead of Friday’s strike, Netanyahu brushed off a ceasefire proposal brokered by the United States and France that called for a 21-day pause in fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border, infuriating American officials who had been led to believe he was on board.
Israel informed the US it was launching its major operation in Beirut only after it was underway — to the frustration of some American officials, wh.