President Biden expressed solidarity with the Jewish people in his remarks Wednesday from Israel but also pressed them to ask “hard questions” about their objectives in their war with the terrorist organization Hamas.
Speaking from Tel Aviv at the conclusion of his one-day trip to Israel, the president compared the Hamas attack to the terror attacks carried out against the U.S. on September 11, 2001. He said he understood Israeli’s rage, but warned them not to be consumed by it.
“I caution this: While you feel rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes,” Mr. Biden said.
“There’s always a cost. But it requires being deliberate. It requires asking very hard questions. It requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you’re on will achieve those objectives,” the president said.
His comments came as Israeli defense forces are massed along the border with Gaza in preparation for an expected ground assault. Israel also has exchanged rocket fire with Hamas in Gaza, with the death toll on both sides in the thousands.
Mr. Biden also stressed that most Palestinians living in Hamas-controlled Gaza are not part of the terrorist organization.
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“The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people,” he said. “Hamas uses innocents, innocent families in Gaza as human shields, putting their command centers, their weapons, and the communications tunnels in residential areas. The Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well.”
Mr. Biden also announced $100 million in new U.S. funding for humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank. He said the funding supports more than 1 million people displaced and impacted as the war between Hamas and Israel rages on.
That assistance will be separate from the $100 billion foreign aid package that Mr. Biden will seek from Congress to support Ukraine and Israel.
The president said Israel has agreed to allow humanitarian assistance to cross into Gaza from Egypt, and said any attempts by Hamas to destroy or steal the aid will prove to the world it has no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people.
Since Hamas carried out the deadly cross-border terror attacks on Oct. 7, Israel has cut off food, electricity, and some water to Gaza. It has also ordered more than 1 million people living in Gaza to evacuate as Israeli troops have begun massing at the border.
“People of Gaza need food, water, medicine, shelter,” Mr. Biden said.
The president also urged Israel to respect the rule of law and uphold democratic values as he continued to press the Jewish state to avoid exacerbating the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
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“You live by the rule of law. And when conflicts flare, you live by the rule of law of wars,” Mr. Biden said. “What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life — Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian, everyone. You can’t give up, it makes you who you are. If you give that up, terrorists win, and we can never let them win.”
He also said he supports a two-state solution to achieve peace in the region. The two-state solution would create an Israeli state next to a Palestinian state, a move that has long eluded negotiators.
Other U.S. presidents have pushed the idea over the past several decades, but it has failed to gain traction because both sides claim Jerusalem as their capital. Israelis and Palestinians have both disputed where to draw borders.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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