As President Biden drums up his rhetoric but does little to compel Israel to modify its attitude, some experts believe that such contradictions have resulted in a policy that is becoming increasingly unclear that has been brought about by the policy.
Analysis: No Biden ‘red line’ on Gaza
American parent, military veteran murdered in Gaza Israeli strike
President Biden voiced a rare public censure of Israel for creating the conditions that have made the distribution of aid inside Gaza so difficult and dangerous. This came as indignation grew on Tuesday over an Israeli attack that resulted in the deaths of seven workers from the World Central Kitchen, which is headed by José Andrés.
“This is not an isolated incident,” the victim said. When it comes to the number of people who have lost their lives as a result of this battle, Vice President Biden stated that it is among the worst in recent history. Because Israel has not taken adequate measures to protect relief workers who are attempting to provide vitally needed assistance to civilians, the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza has been extremely challenging. This is one of the primary reasons for this difficulty.
On the other hand, there is little evidence to suggest that the unshakable support that the Biden administration has for Israel would be altered in any meaningful way as a result of the killings of the workers that occurred on Monday. Among the workers was an American. The harsh denunciation issued by the president is the most recent example of what academics, outside advisers, and even some officials from the Biden administration have described as an increasingly discordant stance to Israel’s six-month assault in Gaza.
Despite the fact that Biden has demonstrated a readiness to employ substantially more harsh rhetoric with Israel over the course of the previous two months, he has not yet been willing to combine his condemnation and calls for moderation with tangible pressure. According to White House advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal dynamics, Vice President Biden and his top aides have little appetite for imposing punitive action on Israel, such as conditioning or suspending weapons sales. This is despite the fact that they are extremely frustrated with the manner in which Israel is conducting the war.
Following Vice President Joe Biden’s statement that he was “outraged and heartbroken” about the workers at World Central Kitchen, White House Spokesman John Kirby assured reporters on Wednesday morning that the administration’s unwavering support for Israel will not be altered in any way.
By saying, “We make no bones about the fact that we have certain issues about some of the way things are being done,” Kirby was able to convey the sentiment that we have. “We also make no bones about the fact that Israel is going to continue to have American support for the fight that they are in to eliminate the threat that Hamas poses,” the statement reads.
Israeli forces attacked Andrés’s employees “systematically, car by car,” he told Reuters on Wednesday. He demanded independent inquiries into the deaths of individuals from the US and other nations.
Nevertheless, Kirby stated earlier on Wednesday that the US has faith in Israel to carry out “a comprehensive, thorough, and transparent investigation,” and that the administration is not setting a timeframe for the investigation’s conclusion. Additionally, he expressed uncertainty on whether the strike’s weaponry had been provided by the United States government.
Andrés questioned the Biden administration’s ability to end the war and alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while still supplying weapons to Israel. He also urged the US to do more to stop the violence.
“Understanding it is quite challenging….” The United States is sending its military and navy to help, but the weapons they provide are murdering innocent people, Andrés said in an interview with Reuters.
Much of Gaza’s population is on the verge of hunger due to a humanitarian crisis, and the US has long demanded that Israel expand the flow of supplies into the territory. According to a senior U.N. official, the war has resulted in the deaths of over 200 humanitarian relief workers, the majority of whom are Palestinians. This is roughly three times the number of casualties recorded in any one conflict in a year.
The vice president and vice president have stated that Israel has “no excuses” for not allowing more aid to be delivered into Gaza. Last month, however, the US also stated that Israel was not blocking the delivery of humanitarian supplies, which was a requirement for nations to receive U.S. arms and military help that the Biden administration imposed this year.
Some observers have argued that Biden’s policy has become more muddled as a consequence of these apparent contradictions, since he increases his rhetoric without exerting sufficient pressure on Israel to alter its stance.
Not words, but deeds, are what really count. Frank Lowenstein, a senior State Department official who assisted in leading Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2014 under President Barack Obama, stated that words alone will not be enough to capture Israel’s attention; history proves otherwise.
“While expressing our anger over the severe humanitarian assistance issues caused by these extreme incidents, we also want to make it clear that our official stance is that Israel has followed U.S. and international law,” Lowenstein continued. “Why would Israel change their behavior if we’re saying there are no consequences and there hasn’t been any wrongdoing on their part?”
More and more Democrats and Biden supporters are calling on the government to demand a ceasefire immediately and put conditions on military aid, if not suspend it entirely.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called the murder of seven humanitarian workers from the World Central Kitchen “outrageous” and “another devastating and deeply preventable tragedy.” President Joe Biden echoed this sentiment. Israel must improve its efforts to safeguard civilians, according to President Biden. He must now demand an end to the fighting for good, announce a permanent ceasefire, and free all the captives before we can even consider giving Israel more offensive weaponry.
As a result of his stance on Israel, Biden has lost support from many segments of his Democratic base, including progressives, young people, Arab Americans, and people of color, which has affected his electoral fortunes. Still, it seems that Biden’s new tone has failed to sway those voters. The most recent demonstration against Biden’s policies occurred on Tuesday in the Democratic primary in Wisconsin, where approximately 50,000 people—twice the margin of victory Biden had in the state in 2020—voted “uninstructed delegation” to send a message to Biden that he needs to reverse his policies or face the prospect of losing their support come November.
Simultaneously, some Republicans have positioned themselves as more dependable supporters of Israel in response to the president’s heightened public criticism of the Jewish state. They have accused Biden of giving in to the most extreme elements of his party.
Aides to Vice President Biden have been fast to downplay the significance of any rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US voted against a resolution by the UN Security Council last week that would have ended the fighting in Gaza immediately and ensured a truce until the Islamic holy month of Ramadan ended next week. “Immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, assuring humanitarian access.” was another demand made in the resolution.
The United States had already rejected three prior United Nations cease-fire resolutions, thus Biden’s decision to abstain looked to indicate a significant change in strategy. However, Kirby quickly clarified that the resolution was not legally binding and that the United States’ decision to abstain did not indicate a shift in policy.
In response to a violent cross-border attack by terrorists commanded by Hamas on October 7, which killed 1,200 people (including numerous civilians) and abducted 253, Israel initiated a military offensive in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza. The majority of those casualties are women and children. The United Nations reports that scores of children have perished from famine and malnutrition as a result of the breakdown of the health system, which has also caused a humanitarian calamity.
A former Obama administration official and current president of Refugees International, Jeremy Konyndyk, claimed that Netanyahu and the Israeli government are being told they do not have to pay attention to the president’s public remarks because the Biden administration is not willing to punish Israel.
What they’re trying to convey to Israel is that this is all empty words. All of these worries are empty hyperbole. “Until they prove otherwise, they’re just a communications device,” Konyndyk stated. Such is Netanyahu’s stance on the matter. Since Netanyahu and the Israeli military have six months of data to prove they can disobey the president’s orders without consequences, he is treating this as though it doesn’t matter.
During a meeting with a group of Muslim leaders on Tuesday evening—the second such gathering since the conflict started in October—the president, vice president, and senior White House staffers saw the effects of Biden’s support for Israel.
The original invitation from the White House had been for an iftar, the meal when Muslims break their fast every day during Ramadan. However, the guests had requested a policy meeting instead. According to an interview by MedGlobal’s medical director, Nahreen Ahmed, first-hand stories from the beleaguered enclave were relayed by Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician and colleague of Ahmed’s who had just returned from a medical mission in Gaza.
A Palestinian American named Thaer Ahmad, according to Nahreen Ahmed, walked out of the meeting in protest of the war policies of the Biden administration. However, she remained to voice her disapproval of the Israeli attacks that murdered employees of the World Central Kitchen and to detail the alleged breaches of international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli forces in Gaza.
“It was advertised as an opportunity for individuals on the ground to meet with the president and provide firsthand accounts of the situation in Gaza,” Ahmed explained. However, “in reality, the purpose of the gathering was to convene the Muslim community for the purpose of essentially being lectured and advised to control their expectations regarding the administration’s current response.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mainly declined to comment on anything that occurred at the meeting with Muslim community leaders, saying that it was meant to be private.
“He understands that this is a painful moment for many Americans across the country,” she added when asked, particularly about Biden’s reaction to Ahmad’s choice to leave the meeting. Therefore, he acknowledges and values their right to peacefully demonstrate. Apart from that, I don’t have anything.
A Rafah girl who lost both parents at the age of eight had sent a letter to the president, but she refused to say whether or not the president had read it. He received it during the conference.
Biden has taken a “bear hug” stance toward Netanyahu for the majority of the conflict, publicly endorsing Israel in the vain assumption that this would allow the US to exert private pressure on the Israeli government. Biden aides claim they had a pivotal role in convincing Israel to pull its forces out of Gaza, restrict assistance supplies, and hold off on fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The strategy’s shortcomings, however, are becoming more apparent as Netanyahu persists in openly opposing the US on crucial matters. A large-scale invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where some 1.3 million Palestinians are taking sanctuary after fleeing there at Israeli orders, has been openly opposed by the United States for the past few weeks. The United States and Israel recently met virtually to discuss Rafah, and while both sides are still hoping to sway Israel’s stance, Netanyahu has stated that he will go ahead with a big invasion anyway.
According to human rights organizations, Netanyahu has done little to open the border for additional supplies to the beleaguered Gazan populace and has also turned down Biden’s requests to recognize a Palestinian state.
The massacre of the World Central Kitchen workers has Biden and his senior aides in an angry frenzy, but they have no plans to investigate the assault on the plainly identified convoy—which was hit three times—on their own. Both Israel and the United States have expressed regret over the “unintentional” strikes.
The likelihood of accountability is greatly diminished if we depend on Israel’s investigation, according to a White House adviser with expertise in such matters.
“Israel investigating itself is not going to result in any meaningful consequences for the IDF soldiers involved,” the adviser added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
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