Since the first hours of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, US President Joe Biden took a sharp and strict stance in his support of Israel militarily, politically, diplomatically and morally, while he has refrained – until now – from calling for a ceasefire, which means that he gives priority to the value of military action over humanitarian considerations.
This may be the first time in American history that a president has refrained from calling on the parties to a foreign military conflict – in which thousands of civilian casualties have occurred – to stop fighting.
Biden and members of his administration sent messages to the capitals of allied countries of the need to condemn what the Hamas movement did, and to pressure it to release the hostages it is holding, without talking about the suffering and pain of more than 2.3 million human souls in the Gaza Strip.
Biden leaves no opportunity but to reaffirm his pledge to support Israel – with everything the United States has – as it seeks revenge for the Hamas attack. In his speeches on the crisis, he gave the green light to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue launching further attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 10,000 and the injury of at least 30,000 others.
Over more than half a century in political work, Biden has a long record of strong commitment to protecting Israel’s security and strengthening the American-Israeli partnership, and he considered during his 2020 election campaign that his support for Israel is “very personal and extends throughout his career.”
Despite his pledge to restore the governing principles that guided American diplomacy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – including support for the two-state solution and opposition to Israel’s annexation of lands and settlement building – he did not back down from Trump’s decision to move the Washington embassy to Jerusalem, or recognize it as the capital of Israel, and he did not return Opening of his country’s consulate in East Jerusalem.
With the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Biden surpassed all previous American presidents in supporting the right-wing Israeli government with the latest weapons and equipment that Washington possesses. Over the past weeks, he did not address the need for a ceasefire or de-escalation, and instead ordered the deployment of the “Gerald Ford” and “Dwight Eisenhower” aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean, in a message of military support for Israel, deterring its opponents, and threatening any parties thinking of attacking Israel. Intervening in the ongoing battles, in addition to deploying more than twenty naval vessels, strengthening air force squadrons in the Middle East, and delivering emergency shipments of weapons and ammunition to Israel.
Politically, Biden reiterated that “the United States and the State of Israel are inseparable partners,” and that Washington “will continue to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and its people,” and that eliminating “Hamas” is not only a duty for Israel, but a necessity that must not be Undo it.
Biden also participated in a meeting of the Israeli War Council during his visit. He thus became the first American president to visit two foreign countries in a state of war, as he had previously visited Ukraine last year.
Biden said: He is happy to see the Israeli government united, with the opposition joining it after the start of the war, and he repeated to them his saying: “I want you to know that you are not alone.”
Diplomatically, Biden and members of his administration sent messages to the capitals of allied countries of the need to condemn what the Hamas movement did, and to pressure it to release the hostages it holds, without talking about the suffering and pain of more than 2.3 million human souls in the Gaza Strip. His administration resorted to its veto on October 18, against a Brazilian-led resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce that allows the entry of aid to civilians.”
Morally, he showed great support for the Israeli victims and the families of the hostages and prisoners held by Hamas on the one hand, and he also gave the green light to the Israeli government to do what it wanted on the other hand. He repeated Israeli allegations several times, which forced the White House to back down and correct the lies made by the president, such as the lie about “beheading children.”
There is no clear reason to understand what Biden has done and is doing. But we cannot exclude the 2024 elections from the equation, as his rival, former President Donald Trump, is ahead in the opinion polls, and Biden may try to make next year’s elections a competition on the foreign policy agenda in light of the decline in Americans’ confidence in his economic performance, and his handling of critical internal issues such as immigration and securing the southern border with Mexico. .
Perhaps Biden dreams of pushing a large percentage of evangelical Protestants, especially the Zionist Christian trend among them, who traditionally vote for the Republican candidate at rates exceeding 90%, to vote for him after his solid position in support of Israeli crimes.
Assuming that Biden gets what he dreams of, these votes will not be enough for him to avoid losing the votes of many progressive American youth who will not vote for a president who wars on innocent civilians, not to mention his loss of the votes of hundreds of thousands of Arab and Muslim voters in swing states that he narrowly won in 2020, and after His position on the war on Gaza makes it unlikely that he will win the 2024 elections.
With Biden’s absolute support for Israel, it is difficult not to place responsibility on Washington and Biden for what the Israeli army is doing. There is something different now that goes beyond the decades-long traditional American support for Israel, as Biden plays the role of “Israel’s lawyer” and did not have the courage to acknowledge that killing innocents with American weapons is wrong and must stop.
With the scale of the aggression and the number of its victims exceeding all previous attacks, history will say: Biden did nothing to stop the killing of innocent civilians, and that he was complicit in committing war crimes and a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Hence, Biden succeeded – without a doubt – in making the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip Gaza in one of his pictures, “Joe Biden’s War.”
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