Israel’s response to the Gaza terrorist attack: From the Pentagon to the United States, Netanyahu and the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in the wake of the Gazan crisis
Administration officials said the shift in tone and substance was the result of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 8,000 people have been killed, provoking outrage in the United States and around the world.
On a daily basis, we talk about this with the Israelis. He then noted that hospitals were not legitimate military targets just as Israel was warning that another major hospital in Gaza had to be emptied out before the next round of bombing.
Three days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,400 people, President Biden assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that he supported his vow to “avenge this black day” and to turn Gaza “into a ruin” from the air and on the ground.
“I told him if the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive and overwhelming,” Mr. Biden recalled saying during a call between the two leaders on Oct. 10.
The president has changed his message over the last three weeks, in which he once forcefully joined the mourning that was sweeping through Israel. While he continues to declare unambiguous support for Israel, Mr. Biden and his top military and diplomatic officials have become more critical of Israel’s response to the terrorist attacks and the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
The president and his senior aides still cling to the hope that the new war between Israel and Hamas might eventually give way to a resumption of talks about normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and could even offer some leverage for a return to negotiations over a two-state solution in which Israel and Palestine exist side by side. Mr. Netanyahu has long resisted such a move.
The Americans have become more assertive in reminding Israel that Hamas terrorists must be avoided, even if they deliberately aim to kill civilians. Last week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at the United Nations that “humanitarian pauses must be considered,” a move that Israel has rejected.
“While Israel has the right — indeed, the obligation — to defend itself, the way it does so matters,” Mr. Blinken said, adding that “it means food, water, medicine and other essential humanitarian assistance must be able to flow into Gaza and to the people who need them.”
Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, was more critical of Israeli military leaders on Sunday, one day after they said that Hamas terrorists were using a hospital in Gaza as a command center. Sullivan said on CBS that Hamas use of civilians as human shields creates an extra burden for the Israeli Defense Force.
The October attacks did not happen in the US, but they are still an intimate war for many Americans. Some families are waiting for news of their loved ones taken hostage by Hamas. Others search for some sign of their loved ones in Gaza, waiting for the blue checks to show that their WhatsApp messages have been read by family members who are trying to stay alive amid near-constant bombing and a lack of food and water.
The one on Wadea feels as though they are opening a barely closed wound, possibly because those days were not so long ago. One Illinois resident told me that community members are now planning patrols for their children, not dissimilar to those started by some mosques after Mr. Trump was elected. “This is exactly what we were afraid of,” Abed Ayoub, the director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told me recently.
Since the Israel-Hamas war started, these long-held suspicions now appear to be seeping into the public debate again over showing support for Palestinians in Gaza, more than 8,000 of whom have been killed since the bombardment began, according to the Gazan health ministry. There is a false connection between the terrorist activities of Hamas and the support for the civilians in Gaza. People who support Palestinians are being seen as anti-Israel or pro-Hamas and are in danger of being retaliated against. Companies have withdrew job offers, journalists have been fired and students who sign statements have their reputations smeared. The suppression of speech by social media platforms, such as the shadow banning of Gaza-related posts and the blocking of accounts on Instagram, has been alarming enough for Human Rights Watch to document it.