President Biden’s scheduled annual address to the joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives at the US Capitol took place on March 7. The US president’s speech was delayed quite a bit because anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian (and Hamas) protesters blocked the traditional motorcade route from the White House to the Capitol.
And yet, instead of the police breaking up the demonstration as planned, for violating traffic laws, the motorcade of the American president took an alternative road route.
This change was an indication of President Biden’s fear and concern from the criticism that is developing in the Democratic Party against Israel.
And this was shown in his speech, which was considered the most critical speech, some considered the most anti-Israel speech, given by a US president in modern American history.
President Biden spoke on several topics and near the end of the speech, he addressed the Israel-Hamas conflict, where he for the first time referred to the issue as an issue of “both sides.”
After a brief reference without details to the tragic events of October 7, the US president launched an attack against Israel’s military invasion of Gaza with the stated aim of exterminating Hamas.
He referred to casualty figures announced by the Palestinians and generally confirmed by humanitarian organizations there, which his own government had previously disputed as unreliable.
His account of the events of October 7 was only 42 words. On the other hand, his speech on the conditions in Gaza was 214 words, 5 times more. The trigger for Israel’s military operation, however, was Hamas’s invasion of its territory, the massacre of more than a dozen civilians and soldiers, and the taking of approximately 240 hostages.
President Biden demanded that Israel do more for the civilian residents of Gaza.
At the start of his speech, he spoke of the “unprecedented moment” the US is in and the momentous world events taking place, noting the need for the US to continue supporting Ukraine. And he also laid out his personal plan to establish a port in Gaza to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid by sea to the people of Gaza.
Netanyahu’s response
The American president and this is strange and unprecedented, at no point did he support the security bill, which was ready and would provide aid to Israel. In the early days of the war, Biden had said that Hamas must be destroyed, but in his speech, his original position was downplayed.
He did not mention, for the first time, that Israel has the right to “go after” Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu replied that he is not accountable to the American president but to the people of Israel.
Also, Netanyahu said that Saleh al-Aruri, No. 4 in the Hamas hierarchy, has been eliminated and that No. 3,2,1 will follow until their final elimination. Here we must point out that Israel does not abandon those terrorists who have killed Israelis and have been convicted, no matter how much time passes.
The Palestinians who had participated in the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 were hunted by Israel to the ends of the earth and the last one was executed in 1992, 20 years later.
So No. 1 Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas, No. 2 Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and No. 3, Mohammed Deif, the military commander of Hamas, are targeted and “already dead,” as the Israelis proclaim.
It is estimated by analysts that, of late, President Biden is undermining Israel’s ability to destroy Hamas. He has warned Israel not to go to Rafah, in southern Gaza where the remnants of Hamas are believed to be hiding, which is demanding a cease-fire agreement and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, for the release of just 40 of the 134 remaining hostages. , which Israel will never accept, since it does not realize the objective of the war for Israel, which is the final elimination of the political and military leadership of Hamas.
The Israeli army estimates that in Rafah, the last town it has not yet been to, there is a Hamas Brigade (4-5 Battalions, about 2,500 men), hiding in the tunnels and among the civilian population, which is being used as protective shield.
Israel is more intransigent now
As they estimate in Israel, the constant pressures for a cease-fire and the attitude of the American president, in fact, not only do not contribute to the end of the war and the release of the hostages, but make Hamas even more intransigent.
As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, “Egyptian officials said that the leader of Hamas in Gaza and mastermind of the October 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar, believes that Hamas currently has the upper hand in negotiations, citing internal political divisions within of Israel, including cracks in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wartime government and mounting US pressure on Israel to do more to alleviate the plight of Gazans.”
So the US pressure towards Israel is considered by the Israelis to be hindering the achievement of Israel’s war goal and on the other hand it is constantly making Hamas even more intransigent in negotiations.
President Biden’s message is now clear: Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7 was bad, but Israel’s response is worse.
Many Israelis believe that President Biden is essentially saying that the Palestinians, not Israel, deserve US support.
And as Philip Klein points out in a recent article in Responsible Statecraft, it’s hard to remember another time when a US president has done more to undermine Israel in wartime than Biden did in his March 7 speech – date, which brings memories to Israelis. Klein called the Biden speech a completely unacceptable performance for an ally like Israel.
This attitude of the American president makes Israel even more intransigent and declares that it will reach it to the end, will completely eliminate the political and military leadership of Hamas, which is also considered by the USA and Europe as a terrorist organization.
And while some Palestinians shout the slogan “From the River to the sea” (that is, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, meaning that they will eliminate the Israeli state), the Israelis answer that for them “There is no other land” (For there is no other homeland for us).
And this is the reason they invoke for their harsh response to Gaza. They say they are seeking a definitive solution to the security problem with the state of Israel, represented by Hamas, with five wars so far from 2019 to today.
