But there is no sign that Monday's deaths of workers, including one American, will materially change the Biden administration's unwavering support for Israel. The president's sharp rebuke is the latest example of what experts, outside advisers and even some Biden officials say is an increasingly contradictory approach to Israel's six-month assault on Gaza. It has become.
Biden has signaled some tough rhetoric toward Israel over the past two months, but so far he has been reluctant to combine his criticisms and calls for restraint with concrete pressure. Mr. Biden and his aides, despite their deep dissatisfaction with the way Israel is waging the war, are willing to impose conditions and halt arms sales, according to White House advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. There is little desire to impose such punitive measures on Israel. .
Hours after Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” about World Central Kitchen workers, White House Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters Wednesday morning that the He said that the government's firm support remains unchanged.
“We make no bones about the fact that we have certain issues with some of the ways we do things,” Kirby said. “We also make no bones about the fact that Israel continues to have U.S. support in its fight to eliminate the Hamas threat.”
In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Andres said Israel was targeting employees “systematically, car by car.” He called on the United States and other countries whose citizens were killed to conduct their own investigations into what happened.
But Kirby said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. trusts Israel to conduct a “thorough, comprehensive and transparent investigation,” and the administration is not imposing a deadline for completing the investigation. he added. He also said it was unclear whether the weapons used in the airstrike were supplied by the U.S. government.
Andres also called on the United States to do more to end the war and questioned how the Biden administration could provide humanitarian aid in Gaza while continuing to provide arms to Israel.
“It's very complicated to understand. … The United States is going to send its navy and military to carry out humanitarian operations, but at the same time civilians are being killed by weapons provided by the United States,” Andres said. He said this in an interview with Reuters.
The United States has long urged Israel to increase aid flows to Gaza, which faces a humanitarian catastrophe with much of the population on the brink of starvation. Some 200 humanitarian aid workers, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in the war, a senior UN official said, nearly three times the death toll recorded in a single conflict in a year. .
Biden and Vice President Harris said there is “no excuse” for Israel not to facilitate the delivery of more aid to Gaza. But the U.S. also said last month that Israel was not preventing Israel from providing humanitarian aid, a prerequisite for countries receiving U.S. weapons and military aid, which the Biden administration implemented this year.
For some analysts, these seemingly contradictory policies have become increasingly confusing, as Mr. Biden has stepped up his rhetoric but done little to pressure Israel to change its approach.
“It's the actions that matter, not the rhetoric. History has shown that words are essentially meaningless if they are not accompanied by actions that really get Israel's attention,” said the former State Department official. said Frank Loewenstein, a staffer who helped lead Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2014 under President Barack Obama.
“While we say we are outraged by the dire humanitarian crisis disrupted by these extreme events, we also maintain Israel's official position that it acted in accordance with U.S. and international law,” Loewenstein said. added. “If Israel is actually saying they haven't done anything wrong and there are no consequences, why would they change their behavior?”
Democrats and many Biden supporters say the administration should call for an immediate ceasefire and suspend or at least condition military aid.
“The murder of seven World Central Kitchen relief workers is another devastating and deeply avoidable tragedy, and, as President Biden has said, ' It's outrageous,'' he said. “President Biden has said that Israel needs to do a better job of protecting civilian lives. He has now made clear that he will not greenlight the introduction of new offensive weapons against Israel, and that We need to call for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages.”
The mixed agenda has political implications for Biden, as his support for Israel alienates key demographics of the Democratic Party, including Arab Americans, progressives, young voters and people of color. . But Biden's change in rhetoric doesn't seem to be moving those voters. In the latest protests against Mr. Biden's policies, about 50,000 Wisconsin voters — twice Mr. Biden's margin of victory in the state in 2020 — called for an “undirected delegation” in Tuesday's Democratic primary. ”, sending a signal to Biden that he must change course or risk losing votes in November.
At the same time, the president's growing public criticism of Israel has led many Republicans to position themselves as Israel's more reliable allies and accuse Mr. Biden of bowing to the left wing of the party. ing.
Even when Mr. Biden parted ways with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his aides were quick to soften the blow.
Last week, the United States abstained from a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to last at least until the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan next week. The resolution also called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, while ensuring humanitarian access.”
The US has vetoed three previous UN ceasefire resolutions, and the abstention initially appeared to signal a notable policy shift on Biden's part. But within hours of the vote, Mr. Kirby emphasized that the resolution was not binding and that the U.S. abstention did not mean a change in policy.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led militants rampaged across the border on October 7, killing 1,200 people, including civilians, and taking 253 hostages. Israel's attacks on Gaza have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. It has also caused a humanitarian disaster, with health systems collapsing and dozens of children dying from malnutrition and starvation, according to the United Nations.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of the International Refugee Association and a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Obama administration, said the Biden administration's unwillingness to impose consequences on Israel meant that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government had He said it sends a message that people don't have to listen to what they have to say. public statement.
“What they're saying to Israel is that this is just rhetoric. These concerns are purely rhetorical. Until it looks different, it's just a communication device,” Konyndyk said. “That's the way Prime Minister Netanyahu is handling this issue. He's treating it as something that can be safely ignored because he and the Israeli military know that they can ignore what the president says without any resistance.” Because we have six months' worth of data points to show.”
The impact of Biden's support for Israel was also evident Tuesday night when the president, vice president and senior White House aides met with a group of Muslim leaders. It will be Biden's second meeting with such a group since the war began in October.
Attendees rejected the White House's initial invitation to iftar, the meal at which Muslims break their daily fast during Ramadan, and instead called for a policy meeting. Nareen Ahmed, medical director of aid group MedGlobal, and her colleague Tael Ahmad, an emergency physician who completed a medical mission in Gaza this year, shared first-hand stories from the besieged enclave, said Ahmed. he said in an interview.
Thea Ahmad, a Palestinian American, left the meeting at one point to protest the Biden administration's war policies, Nareen Ahmed said. But she stayed on to explain alleged violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and also voiced her concerns about the Israeli airstrike that killed a World Central Kitchen employee.
“It was advertised as a meeting with the president to share what's happening in Gaza by people who have been to Gaza,” Ahmed said. But, “the reality is that this meeting was meant to bring the Muslim community together to basically talk and be told to address our expectations about what's going on with the government response.'' is.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the meeting with Muslim community leaders was supposed to be private and largely declined to comment on what happened during the meeting.
Asked specifically about Mr. Biden's reaction to Mr. Ahmad's decision to leave the meeting, Mr. Biden said, “Mr. Biden understands that this is a painful moment for many Americans across the country.” So he respects their freedom to protest peacefully. I don't have anything else. ”
He also did not say whether the president had read the letter from an eight-year-old girl from Rafah who lost her parents. It was given to him at the meeting.
During most of the war, Biden adopted a “bear hug” approach to Netanyahu, giving Israel unwavering public support in the hope that it would enable the United States to influence Israel privately. I've given it. Biden officials say they have influenced Israel at key points, including reducing the number of troops in Gaza, granting limited aid and persuading Israel to refrain from attacking Lebanon's Hezbollah. ing.
But the limits of this strategy are becoming increasingly clear as Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to openly defy the United States on key issues. Over the past few weeks, the United States has not publicly acknowledged plans for a major invasion of Rafah, the southern city of Gaza, where some 1.3 million Palestinians have fled on Israeli orders. U.S. officials recently held a virtual meeting with Israeli officials about the Rafah plan, saying they were still trying to influence Israel's approach, but Netanyahu said he still intended to proceed with a major invasion. Ta.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has also rejected calls from Mr Biden to accept the concept of a Palestinian state and has shown little apparent effort to accept further aid to stricken Gaza residents, rights groups say. There is.
While Biden and his aides have expressed outrage over the killing of the World Central Kitchen employee, they have no plans to launch their own investigation into the attack on the clearly marked motorcade, which was attacked three times. Israel said the airstrike was “unintentional” and apologized for the incident.
One White House adviser with experience in such investigations said relying on an Israeli investigation greatly reduces the chances of accountability.
“An Israeli investigation by itself will not result in any meaningful consequences for the IDF soldiers involved,” the adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
Claire Parker contributed to this report.
