The Biden administration says it intends to engage less in the Middle East. Several senior officials and surrogates repeated this point during the new presidency's first 100 days. Yet the administration went out of its way in its first few weeks to make three consequential moves in the Middle East that may backfire on America for years to come.

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Israel reported significant progress last month on an underground fence around the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Officials say Israel is close to completing the underground component and can see the finish line with the above-ground elements (roughly 80% complete). Once fully assembled, the three-layered barrier may be the most sophisticated barrier in the world.

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Palestinian legislative elections are scheduled for May 22. Whether or not the vote takes place, finally scheduling elections was nothing short of remarkable. Palestinian politics has been in gridlock, with elections suspended since the terrorist group Hamas won a parliamentary majority in 2006. The stalemate gave way to civil war in 2007, during which Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip and the Palestine Liberation Organization clung to power in the West Bank. Since then, a bitter division between the two Palestinian territories has ensued.

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The State Department is developing a policy of engagement toward the Palestinian Authority (PA). The shift comes as the Palestinians plan for legislative elections on May 22 — their first since 2006 — in which the terrorist group Hamas appears likely to participate. While the Biden administration has not acknowledged it yet, congressionally imposed restrictions that President Biden himself helped author as a senator may complicate his administration's efforts to restore diplomatic contacts. The provision of financial aid may be even more complicated.

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Countless news outlets have portrayed the nascent Biden administration's foreign policy as rapidly pivoting away from President Donald Trump's much-maligned "America First" approach toward "Americans together" or "America is back," to name just a few. The implication is that the United States will no longer prioritize its narrowly defined self-interest or pursue merely transactional deals at the expense of the greater good.

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