Unadulterated evil, but respect laws of war: Biden lays out US policy on Israel

US President Joe Biden has termed Hamas’s terror attack against Israel a moment of “pure unadulterated evil”, compared it to the worst rampages of ISIS, placed it in the context of “millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people”, rejected Hamas’s claims of speaking for the Palestinian people, and fully supported Israel’s right to respond by suggesting that if the US had faced the attacks, its response would be “swift, decisive and overwhelming”.

At the same time, in the backdrop of rising concerns about the toll on Palestinian civilians due to Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, Biden has said that in his conversation with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, both had discussed how democracies such as the US and Israel are stronger when they respect the “rule of law” and the “law of war”.

But while offering the note of caution, Biden said that the US had already stepped up its military assistance, deepened consultations with Israel, offered expertise and intelligence on hostage recovery attempts, beefed up its military posture in the region, and warned other countries not to exploit the moment and seek to take advantage of it.

Separately, Biden and vice president Kamala Harris also spoke to Netanyahu and reiterated the US support to Israel. A White House readout of the call said that Biden had detailed the US support that had arrived in Israel or was on its way, including “ammunition, Iron Dome interceptors, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and other defense materiel”.

Pure evil

Delivering a special address at the White House on Tuesday, Biden first said what Israel lived through over the weekend was “an act of sheer evil”.

He pointed out that more than 1000 civilians had been killed, including 14 American citizens and graphically described the horrors due to the terrorist strikes. “Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children. Stomach-turning reports of babies being killed. Entire families slain. Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace. Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies. Families hid their fear for hours and hours, desperately trying to keep their children quiet to avoid drawing attention.

And thousands of wounded, alive but carrying with them the bullet holes and the shrapnel wounds and the memory of what they endured.” These traumas, Biden said, never go away.

Biden then spoke about infants in the arms of their mothers, grandparents in wheelchairs, Holocaust survivors having been abducted — “hostages whom Hamas has now threatened to execute in violation of every code of human morality”. “It’s abhorrent. The brutality of Hamas — this bloodthirstiness — brings to mind the worst — the worst rampages of ISIS. This is terrorism,” Biden said.

He added that there was no justification or excuse for terrorism, a clear rebuttal of those who have cited the Israeli brutality in Gaza and the lack of movement on the Palestinian issue as the trigger for the attack. The President also introduced a distinction between Hamas and Palestinian people, saying, “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields.

Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.”

Stand with Israel

Biden declared that the US stood with Israel. “And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack…Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond — indeed has a duty to respond — to these vicious attacks.”

Biden said he had spoken to Netanyahu thrice since the attacks, and had told him that if the US was experiencing what Israel was going through, Washington’s response would be “swift, decisive and overwhelming”.

“We also discussed how democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law. Terrorists purposefully target civilians, kill them. We uphold the laws of war — the law of war. It matters. There’s a difference.”

Terming the attack against Israel and its consequences as a “human tragedy, an atrocity on an appalling scale”, Biden said his team had been in near constant touch with their Israeli counterparts and partners across the world and the US was “surging additional military assistance, including ammunition and interceptors to replenish Iron Dome”. “We are going to make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets to defend its cities and its citizens.”

At a time when the US House of Representatives does not have a Speaker and Republicans have taken a hard position on spending — though there is bipartisan support for Israel on the Hill — Biden reminded the Congress of its role and urged it to take “urgent action” to fund the national security requirements of critical partners.

With Hamas holding American citizens hostage as well, Biden said that he had directed his team to share intelligence and expertise from across the US government to consult with and advise Israel on hostage recovery efforts. The US had also enhanced its force posture in the region, moving the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean and bolstering its fighter aircraft presence.

“Let me say again — to any country, any organisation, anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation, I have one word: Don’t. Don’t. Our hearts may be broken, but our resolve is clear,” Biden said, announcing that the US had also enhanced internal security measures to identify and disrupt any domestic threat that could emerge in connection with the attacks.

Biden ended his speech by recalling a conversation he had, as a freshly elected senator, with the then Israeli PM Golda Meir back in 1973. Biden recalled she had then told him, “Don’t worry, Senator Biden. We have a secret weapon here in Israel. We have no place else to go.” Biden said, “For 75 years, Israel has stood as the ultimate guarantor of security of Jewish people around the world so that the atrocities of the past could never happen again. And let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel’s back.”

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