On Oct. 27, three weeks into Israel’s punishing counterattack in Gaza, top Biden officials privately told a small group assembled at the White House what they would not say in public: Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington denied claims that Israel Defense Forces hit targets with insufficient intelligence, saying the IDF is committed to “international law” and “applies a thorough legal process in the selection of targets and invests significant resources to minimize harm to civilians.”
This article, based on interviews with 20 administration officials and outside advisers, examines how Biden, more than five months after the Oct. 7 attacks, has found himself deeply entangled in a war he does not want and that threatens to become a defining element of his tenure. His allies privately acknowledge that it has done him significant damage domestically and globally and could easily become his biggest foreign policy cataclysm.
On Nov. 14, the White House decided to publicly back Israel on the matter. “We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command-and-control mode,” Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One, citing declassified intelligence. “That is a war crime.”
Kirby added that the White House did not “want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve.”
Hours later, the IDF began its raid of al-Shifa, drawing condemnation from the World Health Organization and human rights groups. The hospital’s operations collapsed, resulting in the death of least 40 patients, including four premature babies, according to the United Nations.
Van Hollen, who had received a classified briefing about the U.S. intelligence on al-Shifa, said there were “important and subtle differences” between what Biden officials were saying publicly and what the intelligence actually showed. “I did find there to be some disconnect between the administration’s public statements and the classified findings,” the senator said.
The hospital’s operations collapsed, resulting in the death of least 40 patients, including four premature babies, according to the United Nations
And as soon as this came to light, Biden should have completely withdrawn his support for Israel. Bidens ‘embroilment’ in Gaza is purely of his own making.
Removed by mod
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Netanyahu has declared his intent to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, a move that Kirby has said would be a “disaster” and Biden told MSNBC would cross a “red line” if Israel does not adopt a credible plan to protect civilians.
But when the pause ended on Dec. 1, which U.S. and Israeli officials blamed on Hamas for not releasing promised hostages, Israel began attacking the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where many Palestinians had fled, with little evidence of a more targeted approach.
“We implore you,” the authors wrote, as a “public health leader who has dedicated his entire career to saving lives, to take more direct action to prevent further unjust harm and suffering amongst the civilian population of Gaza.”
The Biden administration began taking modest steps in November, which accelerated in January, to distance itself from Netanyahu, though they often involved Israel’s handling of the West Bank, where Jewish settlers have attacked unarmed Palestinians and the government has approved thousands of new settlements, rather than Gaza.
“They seem to have calculated that the war would end quickly and any opposition from progressives, youth and Arab Americans would blow over without any lasting impact,” said Martin Indyk, who represented the U.S. in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks under President Barack Obama and is now a Lowy Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections,” read the report, adding that his “viability as a leader” is in “jeopardy.”
The original article contains 2,949 words, the summary contains 280 words. Saved 91%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
