Biden Delivers the Most Anti-Israel Presidential Speech in History By Philip Klein
President Biden was late to deliver his State of the Union address because anti-Israel protesters blocked the traditional motorcade route from the White House to the U.S. Capitol. Rather than have the protesters dispersed for violating traffic laws, he took an alternate route. It was a sign of how intimidated Biden is by the pro-Hamas element within his party. It also turned out to be a fitting prelude to the most anti-Israel speech delivered by a U.S. president in American history.
It wasn’t until Biden nearly reached the end of the speech that he brought up the Israel–Hamas conflict — at which point he tried to turn it into a “both sides” issue describing events as “gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America.”
After a perfunctory mention of October 7 and the hostages, Biden then launched an extended attack on Israel’s response to the war and the conditions in Gaza that accepted, whole cloth, Hamas casualty figures that his own administration had previously questioned as unreliable. For those keeping score, his description of the events on the day of October 7 lasted 42 words (or 77 if you count his shout-out to the hostage families present at the speech). The part of the speech describing the “heartbreaking” conditions in Gaza, demanding that Israel do more, and describing U.S. aid efforts in Gaza was 214 words.
Speaking of aid. At the start of his speech, Biden spoke of the “unprecedented moment” we’re in — and in his survey of momentous world events, he made the case for the need for the U.S. to support Ukraine. And he pitched his harebrained scheme to have the U.S. military build a port in Gaza to facilitate more aid. At no point did he make the case for the component of the security bill that would provide aid to Israel.
In the early days of the war, Biden claimed that Hamas needed to be destroyed, but tonight that got downgraded to saying that Israel has the right to “go after” Hamas.
Yet each day, Biden undermines Israel’s ability to go after Hamas. He has warned Israel not to go into Rafah, the part of southern Gaza where the last remnants of Hamas are hiding, and each day he demands a cease-fire deal. But his constant attacks on Israel are actually making Hamas dig in. As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier, “Egyptian officials said [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar believes Hamas currently has the upper hand in negotiations, citing internal political divisions within Israel, including cracks in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government and mounting U.S. pressure on Israel to do more to alleviate the suffering of Gazans.”
The overarching message was clear: The October 7 attacks were bad, but Israel’s response has been worse. Palestinians deserve our support, but Israel does not.
It’s difficult to recall a moment when a U.S. president did more to undermine an ally in a time of war than what Biden did tonight. An utterly disgraceful performance.
Comments are closed.
