Biden now regrets the strength of his support for Netanyahu – he must act before it’s too late | Simon Tisdall

The onslaught on Gaza is not just harmful to US and western interests, but risks further destabilising the entire Middle East

Joe Biden has a Benjamin Netanyahu problem - and how he deals with it grows more urgent with each brutal, bloody day that passes. Thousands of Palestinian lives hang on the answer to this question. So, too, do hopes of stopping this hugely destructive war spreading beyond Gaza, and of progress towards a lasting peace.

The Israeli prime minister's post-truce bombardment and ground invasion of southern Gaza is shaping up to be even more hellish", in a UN official's words, than the indiscriminate mayhem in the north that preceded it. The US president has the potential leverage and clout to rein him in where European and Arab leaders do not. Biden must take the lead.

Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentator. He has been a foreign leader writer, foreign editor and US editor for the Guardian