President Joe Biden is traveling to Israel on Wednesday, arriving in Tel Aviv as the country carries out a massive bombardment campaign in the Gaza Strip and amasses forces near its border in preparation for an expected offensive against Hamas, after the massacre of hundreds of civilians in Israel last weekend. A presidential trip to a war zone just days after the outbreak of hostilities is highly unusual, and observers of international affairs are reading it as a sign of the U.S.’s extraordinary closeness to Israel as an ally.
On Monday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken listed the reasons for Biden’s visit. The “first” reason is to “reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with Israel and our ironclad commitment to its security” and to “hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people.” Second, the visit is meant to discourage any regional actors, such as Hezbollah, from piling onto Israel with an attack. Third, to work with Israel on freeing hostages taken by Hamas. Fourth, to get briefed on “Israel’s war aims and strategy.” And fifth, Biden will “hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas.”
Biden and his team will acknowledge civilian suffering, but they won’t admit how that suffering is created by Israeli policies that the U.S. is condoning and aiding.
The order of those priorities — and the language used to express them — tells us much about the Biden administration’s position on the Israeli response. What matters most is the “ironclad” commitment of the U.S. to Israel. Then come the priorities tied to Israeli welfare. Palestinian “assistance” comes last, with the vague condition of not inadvertently helping Hamas. And remarkably, Israel is portrayed as conceivably interested in minimizing civilian harm, despite the fact that the country is openly admitting it is pursuing collective punishment and is turning Gaza into a hellscape.
This is part of a broader pattern. The Biden administration constantly declares “unwavering” and unconditional support for Israel, even as Israel carries out a collective punishment strategy against civilians in Gaza that human rights watchdogs describe as a clear violation of international law. Raz Segal, an Israeli scholar of genocide studies at Stockton University, recently said: “What we’re seeing now in Gaza is a case of genocide.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration intermittently pays lip service to Palestinian “humanitarian” needs without clearly identifying how Palestinian civilians could be protected. It’s a shameful rhetorical game: Biden and his team will acknowledge civilian suffering, but they won’t admit how that suffering is created by Israeli policies that the U.S. is condoning and aiding.
Conditions in Gaza are nothing short of a nightmare. Last week, Israel’s Defense Ministry cut off electricity, food, water and fuel to the Gaza Strip — which it controls much of, due to its blockade on the territory — while calling Palestinians “human animals.” The Israel Defense Force itself said the “emphasis” of its bombing campaign “is on damage and not on accuracy.” (Israel has also proudly posted video footage and photos of neighborhoods bombed into wastelands.) Last week, Israel demanded that over 1 million Gazans evacuate the northern part of the territory on abrupt notice. Human rights watchdogs such as Human Rights Watch and scholars of international law have described these actions as war crimes and some have argued that it could constitute a program approaching ethnic cleansing or genocide. It’s unclear if Israel is responsible for an explosion that killed scores of Palestinians recently traveling along an evacuation route, but a Financial Times report concluded that “analysis of the video footage rules out most explanations aside from an Israeli strike.” About 3,000 people in Gaza have been killed, and over 12,000 have been wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Some hospital staffers are hydrating using IV solution bags due to scarcity of water, and according to the U.N., Gaza is running out of body bags for the deceased.
As civilians in Gaza have struggled to find safe refuge, Israeli political leaders and defense officials have used dehumanizing language toward Palestinians, refusing to make distinctions between combatants and civilians; using racist tropes to describe Palestinians as uncivilized and of the “jungle”; promising a new “nakba,” a reference to the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from what is now Israel; and threatening to annex part of Gaza.
Despite Israel’s extreme policy and rhetoric, the Biden administration has thus far refused to publicly criticize Israel; brushed off questions from reporters about whether the U.S. approves of Israel committing potential war crimes; deleted tweets suggesting possible support for a cease-fire; and circulated internal memos at the State Department discouraging staffers from using language calling for calm or de-escalation. While the U.S. has rightly condemned Hamas’ attacks on civilians, it has not condemned Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and blockade of them.
Biden administration officials have publicly acknowledged Palestinian suffering during this time, but the right of Palestinians to security does not get a fraction of the emphasis or attention to the Israeli right to security. Furthermore, Palestinian suffering is presented in a vacuum or as solely the fault of Hamas. For example, Biden posted on X on Sunday, “We must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas’ appalling attacks, and are suffering as a result of them.” While it is of course true that Hamas’ heinous attacks precipitated Israel’s attacks, under international law Hamas’ war crimes do not excuse war crimes against millions of Palestinian civilians. The tangible reason Palestinians are suffering en masse right now is because Israel has chosen to punish the overwhelming majority of Palestinians for last week’s attacks. Omitting this context gives Israel's strategy continued legitimacy.
There are other options available to the Biden administration. The Squad and other progressive lawmakers have called for a cease-fire in Gaza. Even if such rhetoric is anathema to Biden, he could tie U.S. support for Israel in all its forms — weaponry, funding, intelligence sharing and diplomacy — to the condition that Israel strives to follow international laws of war. Though Israel has a powerful military, it relies on both U.S. hard power and soft power as a shield against both other countries in the region and (to some extent) international stigma.
There are signs that the Biden administration is applying minor pressure to Israel behind closed doors to act with restraint. Israeli officials say that the country agreed to open up the water supply to southern Gaza after private pressure from the Biden administration. (The United Nations reports that the water supplied by Israel in parts of southern Gaza was only turned on for three hours on Monday; and outside of that supply, water scarcity is rampant across Gaza in part because Israel has cut off electricity and fuel.) And Blinken says that after a marathon meeting with top Israeli leaders on Monday he has gotten Israel to agree “to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza.” These are signs that the U.S. has the capacity to influence Israel’s treatment of Palestinian civilians. But they’re also damning ones, because they’re a reminder that the U.S. is doing so much less than it could.
