Fatima Shbair/AP Photo
Mohammad Shouman carries the body of his daughter, Masa, who was killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, during her funeral in Rafah, southern Gaza, January 17, 2024.
President Biden’s failure to demand that Prime Minister Netanyahu end Israel’s policy of destroying civilian Gaza could cost Biden the 2024 election by alienating young voters and voters of color, and cost Israel the few friends it has left. After three months of White House assurances that Biden is asking Netanyahu to go a little easier on the Gazans, requests that Netanyahu cynically ignores, Biden looks not only complicit but pathetically weak. Most of Gaza has already been destroyed.
Instead, Biden has settled for totally inadequate token gestures, such as temporary pauses to allow Gazans to travel (to no safe location) or to allow in medical supplies. Netanyahu is playing Biden for a fool, and the whole world is watching. Axios recently quoted Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): “At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger.”
However, Israel’s government has now given Biden the red line that he needs to condition U.S. aid on radical changes in Israel’s policy. The two most extreme members of the Cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have said in so many words that the real plan is to depopulate Gaza of Palestinians and open it to Jewish settlement.
To add insult to injury, Netanyahu’s own statements have become more openly defiant of world opinion and of Biden, his paymaster. Axios also reported that Biden and Netanyahu have not spoken in weeks.
Elite opinion has lagged public opinion on the Gaza issue. Yesterday, Bernie Sanders’s resolution calling for a State Department report on human rights violations in Gaza got only 11 votes in the Senate, but polls show that support for a cease-fire and conditioned aid is steadily rising.
Private warnings and pleas have done nothing. It’s time for a Biden speech that goes something like this:
As Prime Minister Netanyahu knows, the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, has repeatedly called on Israel to minimize loss of civilian life and property in Gaza. These calls have been ignored.
Now, key members of his Cabinet have said that the real goal is not just to eliminate Hamas as a military force but to depopulate Gaza of Palestinians and open it to settlement by Israelis. The same Cabinet members have encouraged settlements and the violent taking of Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
The United States cannot support these policies. It is painful to issue an ultimatum to a good friend, but our friendship is with the State of Israel and the Jewish people, not with the current government and its extremist policies.
Therefore, we request that Prime Minister Netanyahu do the following, by February 1:
First, disavow any intent to depopulate Gaza or open it to settlement by Israelis.
Second, enforce Israel’s own laws against illegal incursion into Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
Third, eject from his Cabinet all members who espouse such policies.
Fourth, initiate a cease-fire so that a regional peace conference can begin.
If the Israeli government does not agree to these terms, all U.S. aid will cease as of February 1.
This speech would put Biden back on the side of human decency. It would demonstrate real leadership. It would likely accelerate Netanyahu’s fall from power, something that most Israelis would welcome. Netanyahu’s suicidal policies, which conflate his own political survival with Israel’s survival, are unifying Israel’s enemies, isolating Israel from world public opinion, and making Israel less secure.
Will Biden give such a speech? I am far from optimistic. But if he doesn’t, the needless carnage in Gaza and in Biden’s presidential prospects will continue.
