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“President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel’s Gaza war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers…
“Biden also told Netanyahu that reaching an ‘immediate cease-fire’ in exchange for the estimated 100 hostages that are still being held in Gaza was ‘essential’ and urged Israel to reach such an accord ‘without delay,’ according to the White House…
“Netanyahu’s office said early Friday that his Security Cabinet has approved a series of ‘immediate steps’ to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.” AP News
Here’s our coverage of the recent Israeli airstrikes. The Flip Side
The left is critical of Biden’s failure to back up his rhetoric with action.
“Israel’s strikes killing seven World Central Kitchen personnel, who were working for José Andrés’s nonprofit to feed the hungry in Gaza, were, by Israel’s account, a mistake. Saying that, however, does not absolve the country of responsibility for the latest tragedy in a war that has killed nearly 200 aid workers. Plainly, Israel has failed to construct or observe adequate rules of deconfliction to protect humanitarian aid workers.”
Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
“Human rights monitoring groups have provided credible reports of the use of bombs — transferred to Israel by the U.S. — that have had broad and deadly impacts in highly populated areas, attacks on ambulances and hospitals that should have been entitled to protection and restrictions on humanitarian relief, including medical supplies, that have put hundreds of thousands of people at risk…
“No one questions the Israeli government’s right to protect its citizens… A military response to the barbaric Hamas attack on Oct. 7 was ‘necessary and justified.’ But that does not absolve the Netanyahu government and the Israeli military of the obligation to conduct operations consistent with international humanitarian law, which requires that combatants take measures to prevent indiscriminate killing and outlaws the use of weaponry if it cannot be used in a way that makes distinctions between combatants and civilians.”
Eric P. Schwartz and Karl F. Inderfurth, The Hill
“[The world must eventually] apportion blame for the immense misery of the past six months. Hamas deserves the most, but Bibi and his right-wing coalition partners are due their share, as are other parties in the Middle East. By contrast, Biden, I believe, genuinely tried to empathize with all sides and to find a balance between justified Israeli self-defense and humanitarian restraint. But in that attempt he has failed, as Netanyahu repeatedly and brazenly snubbed and ignored him…
“UN resolutions and tense phone calls to Bibi are no longer enough. One of Biden’s predecessors, Bill Clinton, allegedly emerged from a meeting with Netanyahu in 1996, venting in frustration: ‘Who’s the f***ing superpower here?’ If Netanyahu now ignores Biden and the Security Council and fails to cease fire, the US must vote to condemn Israel at the UN and immediately halt all shipments of arms.”
Andreas Kluth, Bloomberg
“The U.S. government is still supplying 2 thousand pound bombs and ammunition to support Israel's policy. Until there are substantive consequences, this outrage does nothing. Bibi obviously doesn't care what the U.S. says, [it’s] about what the U.S. does.”
Ben Rhodes, X (formerly Twitter)
The right is critical of Biden’s remarks, arguing that Israel is an ally that needs our support.
The right is critical of Biden’s remarks, arguing that Israel is an ally that needs our support.
“Considering Israel’s status as a historic and close U.S. ally and the terrible plight of its hostages, the U.S. stance is morally inexcusable. China or Russia will likely now call a United Nations Security Council vote to test Biden’s call for an unconditional ceasefire. They know that a U.S. ‘yes’ vote would reinforce the political effect of Israel’s international isolation and the signal of a historic American betrayal…
“Hamas started this war and Hamas continues to hold innocent Israelis in dungeons of despair. Biden’s call for a ceasefire without released hostages suggests something is rotten in the White House. The killing of seven aid workers cannot explain such a dramatic shift in U.S. policy… The president has signaled that he is an unreliable ally.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
“The message Hamas will take away is clear: Keep rejecting hostage deals, do whatever you can to worsen the humanitarian catastrophe, and watch Mr. Biden blame and pressure Israel to compromise on its war aims. After Oct. 7, the U.S. demanded that Hamas release the hostages ‘unconditionally.’ It is now closer to demanding that Israel unconditionally stop fighting…
“Mr. Biden has mostly resisted pressure from his left to cut off Israel and deny it the weapons it needs to defeat Hamas. But in the wake of this tragic Israeli mistake, and while Israel goes on high alert for an Iranian attack, he threatens to reverse even that support. If he does so, he will send the wrong message to our friends and especially our enemies in the Middle East. He may also pay a bigger political price at home than he realizes.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Joe Biden is an earnest supporter of Israel, very much in line with the position of most voters yet increasingly far removed from his party’s base of young Palestinian sympathizers. Somehow he needs to square that circle, and the best he and other top Democrats can think to do with opinion about Israel’s operations trending negative is to quietly keep supporting the war while seeming darned mad about it…
“He’s left trying to hit a moving target driven by a drift toward the Palestinians over time among Democrats, growing unrest among fickle but generally pro-Israel centrists as the war drags on, an age gap that’s led younger voters in both parties to feel differently about the parties to this conflict than their elders, and the knowledge that his ongoing support for Israel is unlikely to win him many Republican votes in a hyper-polarized era. He can’t be against the war—Hamas’ savagery left no room morally for that—but he can’t safely be for it either. So he’s stuck trying to be both.”
Nick Catoggio, The Dispatch
Historical Collection of Found Paper Airplanes.
Moss and Fog
