"I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone," US President Joe Biden said right after the October 7 massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas of Israelis, Muslims, Americans, Europeans, Filipinos and Thai visitors enjoying a Saturday holiday in southern Israel. "As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone," Biden continued.
"It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be."
It did not take long, however, for the Biden administration to completely turn that promise on its head. The reversal began with US demands on Israel to scale down military operations, which were already scaled down beyond that of any military in the history of urban warfare, to the extent that the lives of Israeli soldiers were endangered. The Israel Defense Forces had dropped thousands of leaflets urging Gazans to flee south to designated safety areas. Instead of carpet bombing, which would have prevented the death of hundreds of Israeli soldiers, the IDF conducted only pinpoint strikes by air, and maneuvered on foot through booby-trapped alleyways and hundreds of miles of booby-trapped tunnels. Hamas, meanwhile, was shooting at its own citizens to keep them from fleeing to safety, so that the IDF would have to fight Hamas terrorists embedded within the civilian population.
"Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history," wrote John Spencer, a leading expert in urban and subterranean warfare, who is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy West Point.
"... Israel provided days and then weeks of warnings, as well as time for civilians to evacuate multiple cities in northern Gaza before starting the main air-ground attack of urban areas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) employed their practice of calling and texting ahead of an air strike as well as roof-knocking, where they drop small munitions on the roof of a building notifying everyone to evacuate the building before a strike.
"No military has ever implemented any of these practices in war before.
"The IDF has also air-dropped flyers to give civilians instructions on when and how to evacuate, including with safe corridors...
"Israel's use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented."
Nevertheless, the Biden administration escalated its criticism into brazen insinuations against Israel of supposed wrongdoings in its warfare in Gaza.
"Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Israel earlier in February. "The hostages have been dehumanized every day since, but that cannot be a license to dehumanize others," Blinken went on, implying that Israel was "dehumanizing" Gazans.
"The daily toll that [Israel's] military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high. We urge Israel to do more to help civilians knowing full well that it faces an enemy that would never hold itself to those standards."
No one knows how many civilians have been killed in Gaza. The casualty numbers are issued exclusively by the Gaza Health Ministry – operated, of course, by Hamas, which classifies every casualty as a civilian one.
When Blinken "accuses Israel—inaccurately, unfairly, and libelously—of dehumanizing Palestinians," former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren commented, "he dehumanizes us and contributes to the delegitimization of Israel and the demonization of Jews worldwide."
In early February, Biden then told reporters: "I'm of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza – in the Gaza Strip – has been over the top." White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later tried to "clarify" the comment by saying that Biden had meant that Israel must ensure that its "operations are targeted and conducted in a way that they are protecting innocent civilians."
The US government, however, is fully aware that Israel does more than any other military – even more than the US – to protect civilians. White House spokesperson John Kirby, a retired Navy Rear Admiral, said on February 13:
"We have seen them [IDF] take actions -- sometimes actions that that even I'm not sure our own military would take -- in terms of informing civilian populations ahead of operations, where to go or not to go."
Kirby also called South Africa's lawsuit against Israel over its warfare in Gaza "meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever."
Most recently, the Biden administration has taken its anti-Israel stance one step further. The US State Department is now "investigating" Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that allegedly killed dozens of civilians, as well as allegations that Israel used white phosphorous in Lebanon. The aim, according to US officials who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, is "to determine whether one of America's closest allies has misused its bombs and missiles to kill civilians."
In addition, the Biden administration has reportedly been investigating Israel's military campaign in Gaza "for months" despite reassurances that it was doing no such thing. Kirby told reporters on January 4:
"I am not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by — by our partner Israel... we need to take a different approach in terms of trying to help Israel defend itself."
Nevertheless, the Huffington Post wrote on February 13 that, according to unnamed Biden administration officials, the investigations have been taking place in both the State Department and the Defense Department:
"Internally, U.S. officials have been assessing possible international law violations by Israel for months, and they are continuing to do so, HuffPost has learned from four sources familiar with private discussions about the assessments."
Most telling of the US abandonment of Israel while it is fighting terrorism on behalf of Western civilization, are the reports that Biden, in coalition with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Palestinian representatives, is in a great hurry to reward Hamas for its October 7 massacre – which it has vowed to repeat "again and again" times until Israel is annihilated – with an "irreversible" plan to establish a Palestinian state. According to the Washington Post on February 14:
"The Biden administration and a small group of Middle East partners are rushing to complete a detailed, comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and Palestinians, including a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that could be announced as early as the next several weeks."
The group of countries looking to force a two-state solution on Israel extends far beyond the Middle East:
"The circle of support for a firm plan extends beyond the small group of those working on it directly. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has expressed public interest in early recognition of a Palestinian state.
"The European Union is 'reaching out ... to see how we can work together to have a larger plan that actually focuses on getting to the end of the conflict,' said Sven Koopmans, the E.U. special representative for the Middle East peace process. 'That's an actual peace process that wants to get to an independent, fully recognized Palestinian state and a secure state of Israel fully integrated in the region. Is that feasible? It's extremely difficult, but in the absence of any other plan, we are interested in pursuing this.'"
The only relevant country that has apparently not been invited to the "urgent" discussions is Israel. The world evidently does not consider it a sovereign state that is allowed to make its own security decisions. Instead, Israel must presumably be forced into making "peace" with an enemy that has sworn to rape, mutilate, torture, burn and murder until every Jew in the land has been eliminated.
The Israel government immediately issued a statement:
"Israel outright rejects international dictates regarding a final accord with the Palestinians. Such an agreement will be reached solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions. Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition, in the wake of the October 7th massacre would give a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism and prevent any future peace accord."
Yet, even that was distorted by hostile media. According to Honest Reporting:
"What Israel's statement about unilateral recognition did not do, was oppose Palestinian statehood in general. That is, Israel did not outright reject the idea that a Palestinian state could be formed as part of a larger peace agreement... The fact is, Israel has shown time and time again that is willing to negotiate with Palestinians and is not opposed to the actualization of a Palestinian state.... For the media to suggest otherwise is just historical revisionism."
The Biden administration's main interest, however, seems clearly not to be facts. Rather, it appears to be to smear and distance itself from Israel, perhaps hoping that it will deliver more "swing states" in America's upcoming November election.
Biden is losing voters, however, for reasons other than his views on Israel. One can start with the recent Hur Report by the US Department of Justice, which said that Biden would not be charged with the crimes he had apparently committed, of illegally taking and unsafely storing classified documents because he is a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" -- perfect for running the country? Since Biden began his term in January 2021, America has also seen "galloping inflation;" an open border that FBI Director Christopher Wray, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security, said "poses [a] major security threat," as well as, Wray warned:
"China's capacity to 'wreak havoc' on US infrastructure and directly harm Americans .... our water treatment plants, our electrical grid, our oil and natural gas pipelines, our transportation systems.... low blows against civilians are part of China's plan."
Finally, there is the incalculable danger to the Middle East and North America of an Iranian regime with unlimited ambition on the threshold of delivering unlimited nuclear bombs.
Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection.
Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
Elliott Saunders