The Biden administration has given a full green light to Israel’s war crimes

In the wake of the devastating attack on Israel by Hamas last Saturday, it was inevitable that Israel would respond with brutal force. Hamas surely knew that when they launched the attack, and it remains to be seen how prepared they and other armed groups in Gaza are to deal with what is still to come. What we’ve seen already has been horrifying, and it is surely only the beginning in Gaza.

The feeling in Israel after Hamas’ raids into Israel is similar to what was felt in the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001. In both cases, the unimaginable and shocking nature of the massive war crimes that were committed led to rage, bloodlust, and a widespread demand for vengeance. In 2001, there was no one who could have possibly restrained the United States.

But the U.S. could, today, restrain Israel. It is not realistic to expect the United States to even try to stop Israel from attacking Gaza. But the idea of restraining Israel from the sort of all-out bloody and indiscriminate attacks—unprecedented even by the already criminal standards of Israel’s history of attacking Gaza—is hardly outlandish. 

But U.S. President Joe Biden has made a clear decision to go entirely in the opposite direction. Even as Israeli tanks and ground troops drove into the Gaza Strip there was no American effort to even temper, much less stop, this Israeli onslaught. Even after Israel ordered half of Gaza’s population to move from the north to the south of the Strip–which the United Nations immediately stated was impossible and demanded Israel rescind the order—all White House spokesman John Kirby could say was, “it’s a tall order.” The green light from Washington was clear as day. 

Using a leading tool in the Democratic tool chest, Biden and Antony Blinken have stated several times that the U.S. and Israel act in accordance with “the laws of war,” a statement which is not only a demonstrable lie in both cases but also clearly contradicted by Israel’s stated intentions and actions since the brutal Hamas attack on Saturday. They have also said that they urge Israel to protect civilians. 

By making these statements, Biden and Blinken draw a false distinction between war crimes on one side and lawful actions on another, when in reality, they are fully aware that Israel is committing heinous war crimes and is about to do even worse. That is a politically safe way to give not just tacit approval to those war crimes but to cover for them as well. 

The subterfuge is blatant, and it’s a mark of the success of the political deception and the sheepish complicity of most media that it is passing largely without question. Israel, gripped in that 9/11-like rage, has cut off food, water, electricity, and gas to Gaza. That is a blatant war crime, collective punishment. They did not do so quietly, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s declaration that Israel was doing this—along with his characterization of Palestinians as “human animals”—was loud and clear, and widely reported even in the United States. 

Israel’s bombing of Gaza since Saturday has targeted hospitals, schools, marketplaces, mosques, shelters, apartment complexes and other civilian sites. There has been no effort to avoid even one civilian casualty. Israel told Gaza’s residents to leave, but the bombing is everywhere. Some tried to get to the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the one exit from Gaza that Israel does not control and has not sealed off. But Israel has been bombing there too, ensuring that Gazans could not flee anywhere at all. And, in any case, many reasonably suspect that this is another ethnic cleansing campaign, and they won’t ever be allowed back. 

Americans who are old enough to remember September 11 surely recognize the rage that is gripping Israel and the disregard for civilian life, the life of the other (particularly the darker-skinned other) that rage at such a horrifying attack causes. But that doesn’t excuse or justify war crimes. Worse, the United States which, however much empathy it might feel for Israelis right now, was not itself the victim here, cannot hide behind that excuse of rage this time. We needed to be the level-headed friend, offering support but trying to restrain our ally from rash actions in the heat of anger.

Instead, even if unsurprisingly, we have encouraged it. We have moved warships into the eastern Mediterranean to guard against any allies of the Palestinians getting involved (only Israel’s allies may join in). We have supplied even more weapons. We have sent our top officials to Israel to coordinate. Most of all, we have done absolutely nothing to protect innocent Palestinians, even while the death toll in Gaza has rapidly caught up to the abominable number of dead and wounded in Israel and, by the time you read this, will likely have surpassed it. Biden and Blinken have not seen fit to mention this, nor the more than 440 children (at this writing) known to have been killed in Gaza. 

Repeating False Claims

Biden is not only tacitly encouraging Israel to commit war crimes, he is working overtime to enflame Americans to support them. 

An unsubstantiated rumor, based on an Israeli reporter citing a settler leader known for incitement, that some forty Israeli babies had been beheaded in Hamas’ attack was swirling around. The rumor was bolstered by Netanyahu’s office and, eventually, even reported as “confirmed” by CNN, on the air, as I watched. 

The trouble is, there is no evidence for this at all. Rather, the Israeli military, as well as soldiers who had scoured the Kfar Aza kibbutz where this atrocity was alleged to have taken place, would not substantiate the rumor. It is not credible that, if soldiers had just seen such a thing that they would lie about seeing it to reporters. No, they, as well as their superiors, would rush to confirm it to justify almost any action in response to such a monstrous act. 

At a roundtable Biden held with Jewish community leaders on Wednesday, he not only told them that this had, in fact, happened, he even made up a story, saying, “I have been doing this for a long time. I never thought that I would see… have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.” 

White House staff, who are forced to devote an inordinate amount of time to walking back demented statements from their boss, backpedaled quickly, but they really didn’t have much to offer. They confirmed that Biden had seen no evidence, no pictures. He had simply parroted what he had been told by Netanyahu’s people and Israeli news reports. The irresponsibility of repeating unsubstantiated rumors in a situation of ongoing war crimes is immeasurable. 

Even more concerning, Biden’s claim to have actually seen what he had not seen is incredibly troubling. If he lied about it, that’s bad enough. But what if he was “mistaken?” What if he could not distinguish between what he had seen and what he had been told by a highly dubious source? That seems more likely than that he intentionally told a lie that was this easily exposed. 

We all need to stop and think about that. The Biden administration has given an implicit green light for war crimes, and issued its double-talk to cover for them. It has greatly increased its own firepower in the region. It has moved to antagonize Iran, which had nothing to do with this attack, but because it supports Hamas (would we accept that our support for Israel should open us up to attack, whether physical or financial, as well?). The entire Middle East region is a flashpoint, where a regional or even a global conflict could possibly be set off. And it’s not the only one, as we are also walking a fine line around global conflict in Ukraine.

All of that is being managed by a man who either just showed he doesn’t have the judgment capacity of a typical Twitter user or he simply doesn’t have the capacity any longer to know what is real and what is not. The danger that Joe Biden represents is unimaginable and terrifying, most immediately for the people of Gaza, but also for Israelis, Americans, and the whole world.

Not only Biden

Arriving in Israel and piling on the propaganda, Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly reinforced the messages. 

Blinken repeated the accusation that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, ignoring, as the accusation always does, that Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth, and Hamas must, perforce, operate from within Gaza. But this time, the duplicity is even greater, as Israel has made no secret of its program this time to target all of Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu himself made this plain, saying, “We will turn Gaza into a deserted island. To the citizens of Gaza, I say. You must leave now. We will target each and every corner of the strip.”

Netanyahu, of course, said that knowing Gazans could not leave, and knowing of the intention to bomb the Rafah crossing. Yet Blinken maintains that Israel takes care to avoid civilian casualties, despite the fact that this has not been the case in previous attacks on Gaza, even though in those cases, Israel at least tried to maintain the façade that it was. 

Like his boss, Blinken spoke as if this was the norm for Israel: “We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard even when it is difficult …That’s why it is so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians and that’s why we mourn the loss of every innocent life, civilians of every faith, every nationality.”

Israel has long understood that American words mean nothing and only its actions matter. Those actions only occasionally include any incentives for Israel to change its behavior; such incentives are nowhere to be seen now. Instead, Blinken disregarded the major breaches of international law by Israel that Netanyahu and his thugs have promised are only the beginning, and said, “We’re delivering on our word – supplying ammunition, interceptors to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome, alongside other defense materiel.  The first shipments of U.S. military support have already arrived in Israel, and more is on the way. As Israel’s defense needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure that they’re met.” There was no hint of any relief for the Palestinian people who will suffer the brunt of this onslaught Blinken so enthusiastically supports.

Raising the specter of war

Not satisfied with the escalating slaughter of civilians in Gaza, the Biden administration also reneged on its agreement of last month to allow Qatar to manage the release of $6 billion of Iran’s own funds for use in buying food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. 

This was the result of Biden caving in to bipartisan congressional pressure that was stirred up by false reports that Iran was involved in Hamas’ massacre last weekend. These reports are without any basis, either in terms of evidence or logic. The nature of this attack is such that Hamas hardly needed help from the other side of the continent to pull it off. In fact, had they worked with Iran on it, it is far more likely that Israel would have gotten wind of it. It is only Israeli and American propaganda that sees the hidden hand of Iran behind everything, as well as their hubris in continuing to underestimate the capabilities of Hamas, that supports this conclusion. 

Yet forces in both the Democratic and Republican parties have jumped onto these discredited reports, pursuing an anti-Iran agenda, and Biden, showing his customary political cowardice, caved in to their pressure. The result is that tensions with Iran are needlessly escalated again, pushing the possibility of a regional war higher. 

But it also once again demonstrates that the United States cannot be trusted to keep its word. In many ways, this will undermine legitimate diplomatic pursuits for future American administrations even more than Donald Trump did when he unilaterally abrogated the Iran nuclear deal for no reason. Iran unambiguously fulfilled its side of this latest deal to release American hostages in exchange for this humanitarian relief and the release of several Iranians held in the U.S. Those funds, however, had not even reached Iran yet, and now the U.S. has once again broken its word. How will countries, friend or foe, react in the future when the U.S. negotiates an agreement? They will know the United States cannot be trusted, and we will not be able to use the counter-argument that it was simply the outlier, loose cannon Trump, that casts that doubt. 

All of this grows out of the essential racism and double of the United States toward Palestine. This has nothing to do with defending Hamas’ attack in any way. But the double standard here is mind-numbingly blatant, even by the usual standards of American policy toward Palestine and Israel.

No one with an ounce of realism expects the U.S. to behave completely fairly in the current circumstance, and it is not unreasonable, no matter the circumstances of Israel’s occupation and long-term violations of Palestinian rights, that, in the wake of such a devastating attack on civilians the U.S. would offer its warm support to its ally, Israel. Few have complained about that, in fact. Rather, it’s the indifference, even hostility toward Palestinians that is so objectionable. 

And it is not just in this moment. Consider, for example, these words from Blinken: “Hunger must not be weaponized.” He also called on the world “to take action to end the use of food as a weapon of war and the starvation of civilians as a tactic of warfare.” 

That was what Blinken had to say about Russia disrupting Ukraine’s ability to ship grain through the Black Sea and, later, its decision not to renew the deal that enabled Ukrainian grain to be exported. But when Israel blocks not only food but water and all sources of electric power, Blinken stays silent and offers Israel his full support.

This isn’t just about hypocrisy. It’s a mammoth injustice. And it demonstrates once again the lack of value Americans place on Palestinian lives. In this, they are joined by their European counterparts. Last year, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called out Russia, saying, “Food has become now part of the Kremlin’s arsenal of terror, and we cannot tolerate it.” But for Israel, nothing but support. 

When I started writing this, I saw the casualty totals in Gaza zooming upward and noted that it would soon surpass the sickening number of Israeli victims. By now, it has surpassed the Israeli total, even though that figure has also continued to rise, albeit slowly. And we are still at the beginning of all of this. It is unbearable to think of the carnage we will see when this is all over. 

Israel is enraged, and, like we did in 2001, they are lashing out in terrible ways in that rage. The global devastation that the United States wreaked and the millions of deaths we caused have taught us nothing. Today, we have an opportunity to stop our ally, for all its nationalism and apartheid policies, from doing the same thing we did. But we have learned nothing, and instead of restraining Israel, we are egging it on. That is the legacy of Joe Biden and Antony Blinken.