University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami says US President Joe Biden is making his decisions on Palestine and Israel “based on personal beliefs, personal preferences, personal emotions,” and “not necessarily driven by a considered assessment of American interests at stake”.

Telhami tells host Steve Clemons that Biden’s “inability to show empathy” for the Palestinians is shocking, and that the president’s recent warnings to Israel were driven in part by his calculations for next year’s election.

All the talk about plans for “the day after” the war are distractions from the real-time death and destruction in Gaza, Telhami says.