Pro-Israel groups are praising President Joe Biden’s response to Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, which the administration has voiced full support for. The airstrikes have killed at least 46 Palestinians, almost half of them civilians and 16 of them children.
“My support for Israel’s security is long-standing and unwavering—including its right to defend itself against attacks,” read an August 7 statement from Biden on the ceasefire. The press release avoids blaming responsibility for the deaths. “The reports of civilian casualties in Gaza are a tragedy, whether by Israeli strikes against Islamic Jihad positions or the dozens of Islamic Jihad rockets that reportedly fell inside Gaza,” it asserts.
Biden’s comments were echoed by other members of the administration. “The reports of civilian casualties in Gaza are a tragedy, whether by Israeli strikes against Islamic Jihad positions or the dozens of Islamic Jihad rockets that reportedly fell inside Gaza,” tweeted U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement expressed condolences to the family members of civilians who lost their lives, but also reiterated the United States government’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.“
The White House’s approach to the bombings are receiving rave reviews from pro-Israel groups. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) had multiple tweets thanking Biden for his support.
“I think Thomas Nides was one of the first foreign diplomats to really speak out and understand and sympathize with Israel’s right to defend itself,” said American Jewish Committee (AJC) Jerusalem director, Avital Leibovich during an online AJC briefing. “President Biden was recently in Israel and you couldn’t help but see the great affection he has towards Israel, Israel leaders, for the Israeli people,” she added, referencing the President’s recent trip to the Middle East. AJC Executive Director for Policy Jason Isaacson said that it was “reassuring, if not surprising, to hear a message of real solidarity from Washington.”
Groups like Jewish Federations of North America and Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) also celebrated the Biden team’s response.
Approval also came from at least one liberal Zionist group. J Street put out a statement commending the administration’s “constructive efforts.” A previous press release from the group acknowledged that the situation “could escalate quickly and spiral out of control,” but it refrained from criticizing the airstrikes in any way. “Israel has the same right as any other country to defend itself from the threats posed by such an entity,” J Street explained.
While Biden’s commitment to Israel has been clear, the most recent attacks did not seem to generate the usual embrace from Democratic lawmakers. At Mondoweiss Phil Weiss took a close look at reactions from congressional members and didn’t find too many. Yes, the most vociferous defenders of the country, like Reps. Kathleen Rice and Ritchie Torres, tweeted their standard defenses, but the amount of Democratic politicians who remained silent was striking.
“I think the relative light showing for Israel on Twitter shows that Democratic politicians feel safe dodging this issue,” writes Weiss. “And yes this goes against the argument they need Israel for fundraising purposes. But they know it’s going to cause them problems on the street, and who needs it. So they’re staying away.”
While many Democratic congress members stayed silent, virtually none of them offered support for Palestinians. One notable exception was Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who recently cruised to an easy victory in her Michigan primary. “The lives of the Palestinian people are not disposable,” she tweeted. “The fact that our country continues to ignore & fund the aggressive violence and killing of Palestinian lives, especially children just enables more death. It is not okay to keep looking away. It’s actually sickening.”
Part of the problem is that Americans don’t see the true face of Israel’s bombing:
https://theintercept.com/2022/08/10/israel-gaza-bombing-death-images/
Americans Rarely See the True Face of Israel’s Bombing of Gaza…By shying away from graphic images of death, news organizations sanitize the violence of Israeli aggression against Palestinians…“In general, the majority of coverage by international and American media is weak and often does not show scenes where innocent women and children were killed,” Soliman Hijjy, a Palestinian visual journalist working in Gaza, told The Intercept….Across newsrooms, the safe choices of showing an abstracted violence (calm moments of smoke and rubble) over overt violence (death, injury, or mourning) fall in line with the framework of the coverage itself, which in Gaza’s case regularly downplays the impact of civilians in favor of a narrative about Palestinian militancy — even as the same kind of militancy is depicted as resistance in Ukraine.
Interview:
Why Israel bombed Gaza last weekend – by Asa Winstanley (substack.com)
“Since we recorded this interview Monday afternoon, not long after the ceasefire went into effect, the death toll from the weekend assault rose to 45, including 16 children.
”I spoke to Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman on their By Any Means Necessary radio show on Tuesday about the latest Israeli attack on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.”
Tlaib is 100% correct. It is sickening.
No one plays good cop/bad cop like J Street and AIPAC. If you can imagine two really skanky cops.
Attention: President Biden
You would have us believe that sustaining our ironclad commitments to Israel’s security is paramount. Why? I’m sure that reasonably intelligent well informed people can see no reason whatsoever why U.S. taxpayers must continue to support and arm expansionist, illegal/brutal occupier “Israel” in the geopolitical/international arena while providing it with massive no strings attached financial aid (at least $134.7 billion since 1948 – 74 years in current, or non inflation-adjusted, dollars.) After all, the borderless expansionist entity known as “Israel” is a thoroughly documented and accelerating violator of international/humanitarian law, an illegal, fascistic, racist, brutal ethnic cleanser and occupier of Palestinian as well as other Arab lands (e.g., Syria’s Golan Heights and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms.)
While its bought and paid for politicians such as you are ever eager to receive massive campaign funding from its agents (e.g., AIPAC) in return for your obedience and compliance, the irrefutable fact is that “Israel” is America’s number one geopolitical liability, a millstone around its neck that has created ever increasing entirely justified enemies of the U.S. Americans owe “Israel” nothing whatsoever!!
In short Mr. Biden, informed Americans increasingly and correctly view you and your ilk as placing the security of “Israel” over the best interests of the U.S. Thankfully, as a young informed electorate steps forth and assumes power, your days and those of your kind are numbered.