Before this week, the United States had vetoed three ceasefire resolutions in the United Nations Security Council because they did not tie the cessation to the release of all Hamas‘s hostages.
President Joe Biden reversed that policy Monday, directing U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to abstain from a resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” by Israel without the release of hostages by Hamas first.
Hamas, predictably, took Biden’s betrayal of Israel as a huge victory, which it is. With the help of Russia and China, who vetoed a resolution presented disingenuously by the U.S. last week, Biden has now helped Hamas isolate Israel internationally and emboldened the terrorist group’s position at the bargaining table and on the battlefield. Hamas senior official Basem Naim welcomed Biden’s decision and called on the international community “to oblige Israel to implement this resolution.”
Biden’s officials had the audacity to claim there had been no change in policy and then act shocked when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a senior-level delegation to Washington, D.C.
“Nothing has changed about our policy — nothing,” White House spokesman John Kirby claimed after the resolution passed. But the White House denials do not conceal the Biden administration’s increasing hostility to Israel and its necessary war effort. Just this month, Biden himself told MSNBC that an invasion of Rafah would be a “red line” that would lead to the cut off of some weapons. Then, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) followed that up with a speech on the Senate floor calling for the end of Netanyahu’s government. Biden called it a “good speech.”
Considering the Biden administration’s continued antagonism toward the Israeli government, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller’s claim that Netanyahu’s decision to cancel a scheduled trip to Washington, D.C., as “surprising” is naive or, more likely, disingenuous.
Biden is treading a dangerous path that might lead him into trouble both practically and politically. By siding with Russia and China, Biden has made it less likely that Hamas will release hostages. The best hope for an end to the war is now a successful Israeli invasion of Rafah, an outcome Biden was trying to avoid. By signaling that Israel no longer enjoys U.S. support, Biden has emboldened Hamas terrorists and prolonged the fighting.
Domestically, Biden’s two-faced handling of Israel is not as popular among the general electorate as it is among the Democratic base. According to the latest Harvard poll, 67% of adults support a ceasefire only after all hostages are released and Hamas has been removed from power. Another 63% support “Israel continuing its ground invasion into Southern Gaza to root out the final elements of Hamas.”
Biden’s anger at Netanyahu is misplaced. Even if he got his wish and Netanyahu left office, the opposition party also supports the Israel Defense Forces’s conquest and pacification of Rafah. Americans and Israelis are united in their determination to see Hamas eliminated from Gaza. Not least for his own political fortune, Biden should stop getting in the way.
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