I disagree that Biden is putting pressure on Israel. Pressure on Israel requires the admission that Israel has done something wrong. When the international community says Israel has done wrong, and the Biden administration rejects it, that's not pressure. It's the opposite. It's cover.
Calling for a ceasefire is not pressure. Pressure requires potential consequences. The Biden administration has repeatedly refused to impose consequences or even threaten to impose consequences. It has rejected conditioning weapons or aid on a promise not to commit war crimes (a condition which only matters if Israel commits war crimes). Not only that, it hasn't even asked Israel to accept a ceasefire, because it claimed Israel had proposed and therefore accepted the most recent ceasefire deal, even though it hadn't. How can you pressure someone when you claim they've already done what you've asked?
The only thing even approaching real pressure was the call not to invade Rafah, and when they did it anyway, the US not only didn't act, it denied that the invasion happened.
The Wikipedia entry for the
Rafah offensive is well cited.
Here's a source (May 9th) for Biden saying he'd stop sending bombs to Israel if they invaded Rafah (which also includes and admission that US bombs have been used to kill civilians i.e. an admission of culpability in war crimes).
Here's a source (May 22nd) for Israeli infantry (Nahal Brigade) entering Rafah, the fifth infantry division to do so.
Here's a source (May 28th) for the US denying that attacks on Rafah cross their "red line", even after tanks were seen in central Rafah.
Here's a source (June 25th) for Israeli tanks going deeper into Rafah (how do you get tanks into a city without invading it?)
Here's a source (June 19th) for the US denying Netanyahu's claim it had withheld any weapons from Israel.
How can you put pressure on someone when you deny outright A) that they acted against your instructions and violated your terms and B) that you are imposing any consequences on them for doing so?
Perhaps Biden doesn't
want a genocide. But I disagree that he has obvious moral opposition to it.
There are two options here.
- Biden knows Israel is committing war crimes yet continues to provide them with weapons (he has basically admitted to this in that May 9th source). In this way he knows that he is facilitating war crimes and has made peace with it, whether or not he actually wants it to happen.
- Biden doesn't think Israel is committing war crimes, which means he's either unfathomably uninformed, or just doesn't think what has happened counts as war crimes, which requires him to think crimes against Palestinians don't matter.
It's impossible to know what's inside his head, but based on his actions, I have no choice but to believe he's okay with what's happening because he continues to facilitate it. It's not just that he's failing to stop it. He's providing the means for it to happen and he can stop doing that any time he wants. I already pointed out that it's against US law to provide weapons to an entity committing war crimes. If he admits that Israel is committing war crimes it gives him legal means to stop the shipments.
It's easy to explain Biden's occasional "tough" talk on Israel. He knows it's political poison to publicly support war crimes. He knows it has to seem like he cares about what Israel does. Throughout this whole thing, the impression I have of Biden is a man who is deeply frustrated by the criticism of his handling of the situation and the damage to his image, and irritated with Israel's crimes for making his job harder. Even upset that it
damages Israel's future as a Jewish state. Not a man who is so offended by Israel's callousness and treatment of Palestinians that he will do whatever he can within the bounds of his political strength to right the wrongs and fight for justice.
Can I prove what's in Biden's heart? Of course not. But I'm judging him by his actions, not his words. And to me, his actions say "I support Israel 100%".
www.newsweek.com
