Biden was in Israel and spoke of his solidarity
The War with Israel: The First Day of President Biden’s Obitudinal Address to the American People – The War in Israel
As President Biden slowly made his way around a hotel conference room, each of the survivors or relatives of victims of the devastating Hamas attacks in Israel told him their story of tragedy or defiance. He gave each of them a hug and talked about his experiences with loss.
In his speech to the Israel, Mr. Biden said that there was shock, pain, rage, and an all-consuming rage. Many Americans understand what I’m saying. You can not look at what has happened to your fathers, mothers, grandparents, sons, daughters, children and not scream out for justice. Justice must be done. Don’t be consumed by the rage, while you feel it. We were angry in the US after 9/11. While we were trying to get justice, we also made mistakes.
Biden has taken a forceful, pro-Israeli position in its war with Hamas. He did so immediately after the group’s killing spree in southern Israel Oct. 7, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
President Biden got off Air Force One during his high-stakes trip to the Middle East Wednesday and greeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a big hug.
The United States is standing with Israel. Biden is taking his message to the American people Thursday night in an Oval Office address.
He is expected to discuss Hamas’ attack, Israel’s response and the war in Ukraine, which has been largely out of American news since the latest Mideast violence. Biden is looking to procure significant funding for both conflicts. The US House is not funziona, which makes it more difficult for him to go through Congress, which controls the purse.
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Republicans failed again to pick a speaker. That leaves the U.S. unable to respond to, well, pretty much anything in a strong and substantive way.
Biden has to thread a very fine needle — showing support for Israel to maintain influence, looking strong enough domestically for an audience that is questioning his age and facility, and keeping his reliable voting base intact and energized ahead of his re-election bid next year.
Invoking the Holocaust, Biden said, “The world watched then — it knew — and the world did nothing. We wont stand by and do nothing, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
This year, Democrats’ sympathies are more with Palestinians than with Israelis, according to Gallup. Young voters drive that.
Two-thirds of respondents in the NPR poll — taken days after Hamas’ attack and after Biden’s initial remarks — said the United States should publicly support Israel.
Cracks started showing in the aftermath of the Gaza hospital bombing. Before the United States weighed in, Democrats Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — the first two Muslim women elected to Congress — joined a pro-Palestinian chorus blaming Israel.
“Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes,” Omar tweeted. “The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific.”
After the U.S. intelligence assessment, Omar called for “an independent investigation to determine conclusively who is responsible for this war crime.”
The National Security Council said, in part, “Our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion.”
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A lot of damage had already been done. People weren’t waiting for confirmations, and protests erupted in countries like Jordan, where Biden was originally supposed to meet with Jordanian, Egyptian and Palestinian leaders.
She said she was ashamed as a member of the United States Congress. “I am ashamed that they’re saying, ‘not yet. Maybe next week. … How many more have to die?”
She added, “To my president, to our president … I want him to know, as a Palestinian American and somebody in Muslim faith, I’m not going to forget this. And I think a lot of people are not going to forget this.”
John Fetterman, a senator from Pennsylvania, was the one who said that it’s “disturbing” that Members of Congress rushed to blame Israel for the hospital tragedy in Gaza. Who would take the word of a group that killed innocent Israeli civilians?
He added, “Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire. … Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel. After Hamas is destroyed, we can talk about a ceasefire.
When anything happens in the world, especially something of this magnitude, the president is expected to respond, to take a position, to show leadership.
A president has to often balance his own world view with domestic politics. Initially, both seemed to be in line with each other.
Foreign policy is one of the areas a president has most control over, but partisanship and low voter priorities mean that it’s not high on the list of priorities.
But the reality is, Biden isn’t likely consumed with the domestic politics of this. Before serving as president, he spent a good portion of his life — as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and vice president — intimately involved in the U.S.’s role in the world.
Many in this country have taken a turn inward after two decades of war and become weary of U.S. involvement in international conflicts. Biden acknowledged that Americans relate to the pain Israel is facing. Still, he had some potential lessons from the U.S. response to 9/11 Wednesday.
