After the World Central Kitchen Attack: President Biden’s Complaints to the Israelis on the U.S. Implications for Israel
The president is evidently coming under pressure even from within his own family. Mrs. Biden told Mr. Biden to stop talking to muslim community leaders at the White House.
The killing of the workers at World Central Kitchen has made it more difficult for Washington and Jerusalem to talk. Biden complains that Israel has not done enough to prevent the killings of civilians. The Vice President called a celebrity chef, José Andrés of World Central Kitchen, to express his sadness over the incident.
As of Thursday morning, the Israelis had not yet communicated any initial findings of their promised investigation into the strike to the United States, according to a senior Biden administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal conversations.
World Central Kitchen in Gaza: The Last Stand after a Global Hunger Attack, a First Step Towards a Better Security Solution for Israel
Zomi Frankcom and Damian Sobl went to Gaza to feed the Palestinians and filmed their attempts on social media. Then on April 1, they were killed by Israeli airstrikes, along with five other colleagues, bringing the work of the World Central Kitchen in Gaza to a halt. The charity’s videos offer a rare window into the challenges of food distribution in Gaza, a territory on the brink of famine that’s been cut off from the outside world. In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, celebrity chef Jose Andrés started World Central Kitchen. The organization brings meals to areas impacted by natural disasters or conflict, including communities displaced inside Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks. The group said it has delivered more than 43 million meals to Palestinians. They were the first to deliver aid by sea with over 200 tons of food from Cyprus. The Israeli military released footage of the coordination behind that effort, which brought food to northern Gaza, where the U.N. says people are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. “I’m very hopeful that we can be bringing millions and millions of meals daily. We may fail, but the biggest failure will be not trying.” Hours before the attack, a second maritime delivery arrived. The military called the attack a mistake in a video statement. Since Oct. 7, nearly 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, according to the U.N. And for now, the World Central Kitchen has suspended its operations there.
The president’s threat to condition American support on Israeli conduct came under rising pressure from his own party. A group of former President Barack Obama’s staff have become outspoken in accusing Vice President Joe Biden of not doing more to restrain Mr. Netanyahu.
President Biden tried for the first time to influence the conduct of the war against Hamas by demanding future support for Israel if it addresses his concerns about civilian casualties.
“We will know how to defend ourselves,” he added, “and we will operate according to the simple principle by which those who attack us or plan to attack us — we will attack them.”
He said in the video statement that he sees the threat from Iran. Israel’s air strike that killed seven Iranian military officers in Syria this week was the result of years of Tehran acting against them, as well as against Iran and its proxies, he said.
“There is a contrary move, an attempt to force, ram down our throats a Palestinian state, which will be another terror haven, another launching ground for an attempt, as was the Hamas state in Gaza,” Mr. Netanyahu said. Israelis are opposed to that.
Mr. Netanyahu did not immediately release a description of the call, but in other comments on Thursday appeared unbowed. In a meeting in Jerusalem with visiting Republican lawmakers organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, the prime minister pushed back strongly against Mr. Biden’s insistence on a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict.
“I think we’re at that point,” Mr. Coons said on CNN on Thursday morning, adding that if Mr. Netanyahu were to order the Israeli military into the southern Gaza city of Rafah in force and “drop thousand-pound bombs and send in a battalion to go after Hamas and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, that I would vote to condition aid to Israel.”
During an evidently tense 30-minute call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mr. Biden went further than ever before in pressing for change in the military operation that has inflamed many Americans and others around the world. The White House stopped short of saying the president would stop arms supplies or impose conditions on them, which some Democrats have called for.
The president wants to see concrete steps to decrease the violence against civilians and increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, said White House spokesman John F. Kirby. He said the White House expects Israel to make changes very soon.
The Israeli Military Investigates the Airstrikes That killed Seven Gaza Aid Workers: Resolution of the Arms’ Era and Call for an Independent Commission
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s military says its investigation into airstrikes Tuesday that killed seven aid workers in Gaza concluded that the strikes were carried out “in serious violation” of military operating procedures, and that senior military officers would be dismissed and reprimanded.
World Central Kitchen welcomed the Israeli military investigation but called for an “independent commission” to investigate the strikes.
In a briefing to journalists late Thursday, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari and Yoav Har-Even, who heads the military’s unit that investigates allegations of misconduct, described “a lot of mistakes” that led to the deadly strikes.
When a three-car convoy left the warehouse, soldiers thought the group entering a vehicle was carrying a rifle when, in hindsight, it appears to have been only a bag, the military officials said in the press briefing.
The military said that the World Central Kitchen logo was not seen by the Israel’s aerial cameras because it was late at night.
The military said that a commander wrongly assumed that the people in the vehicles were Hamas terrorists. “The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with WCK.”
The statement said two officers were dismissed over the incident, the brigade fire support commander, a major, and the brigade chief of staff, a reserve colonel.
The military said it had briefed World Central Kitchen on the findings. “We are deep sorrow for the deaths of the seven aid workers and we will continue to coordinate international aid activities and protect aid workers’ lives,” it said.
The root of the rocket fire on our convoy, according to World Central Kitchen, is the lack of food in Gaza. “Israel needs to dramatically increase the volume of food and medicine traveling by land if it is serious about supporting humanitarian aid.”
The resolution comes amid a growing focus on weapons shipments to Israel — notably by its strongest backer, the United States — as Israel continues its military campaign in Gaza.
The sweeping measure was put into effect to take aim at an array of Israeli actions. It also calls on U.N.-backed independent investigators to report on shipments of weapons, munitions and “dual use” items — that have both civilian and military applications — that could be used by Israel against Palestinians.
The United Nations Security Council condemns the Gaza attacks: The response of the European countries to the resolution and condemns Israel’s role in the Holocaust
People in the western countries were against each other. The U.S. and Germany opposed the resolution, France and Japan abstained, while Belgium, Finland and Luxembourg voted in favor.
The ambassador of Palestine to Switzerland condemned the humanitarian disaster in Gaza before the vote and called on envoys to wake and stop the genocide.
“This council has long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas,” Meirav Eilon Shahar said of the militant group behind the attacks. It has become a hiding place for terrorists. It turned a blind eye to what happened to Israelis and Jews.
She said she was especially disappointed at European countries that backed the measure — calling out Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland by name — for supporting a resolution that did not condemn Hamas.
She told reporters that Israel was in the resolution 59 times. “Hamas does not appear at all.”
Speaking in Arabic, Khraishi alluded to the genocide of Jews in Europe last century, saying: “We were not responsible, but we have been paying the price of what was done during the Second World War.”
Summary of the First Session of the United Nations High-Order Report on Israel’s Actions Against the Palestinians and Human Rights
Israel and the United States frequently criticize the council for its alleged anti-Israel bias. The council has approved many resolutions against Israel for its actions against the Palestinians.
The council is wrapping up its first session of the year, which began on Feb. 26, with action on more than 40 resolutions on subjects as diverse as the rights of the child; the environment and human rights; genocide prevention; and rights situations in countries like Sudan, Belarus and North Korea.
It was the first time that Biden threatened to rethink his support of Israel if it doesn’t allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
U.S. ambassador Michele Taylor, alluding to the Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza this week, told the council: “Israel has not done enough to mitigate civilian harm.”
The resolution had “many problematic elements — too many to name in full,” she said, while noting a lack of “specific condemnation of Hamas for perpetrating the horrific Oct. 7 attacks” in Israel.