Biden denounces Hamas 'atrocities,' says Israel must be 'safe' for Jews: What you need to know about his Tel Aviv address
The president says Palestinian militants are likely responsible for Tuesday's deadly attack on a Gaza hospital.
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President Biden arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as protests continued across the Arab world over the bombing of a Gaza hospital the previous day, an attack for which the Israel Defense Forces has denied responsibility.
At the same time, Israel continues to bury the dead and grieve over the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas militants who crossed into southern Israel from Gaza, slaughtering entire families while kidnapping soldiers and civilians, including children and the elderly.
Biden’s surprise visit was intended to shore up support for Israel’s expected ground offensive into Gaza, intended to root out Hamas once and for all. At the same time, the president cautioned Israel’s foes in the region from expanding the conflict.
Below are three notable statements from Biden’s speech.
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‘Rape, beheadings, bodies burned alive. Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of ISIS, unleashing pure, unadulterated evil upon the world. There’s no rationalizing it, no excusing it. Period.’
Pro-Palestinian protests sprang up before Israel was finished ridding its territory of Hamas militants — or identifying the dead. The timing, and the jubilation some showed immediately after the attack, came across as insensitive, including to many supporters of Palestinian statehood.
Even more troubling were open celebrations of Hamas — which rejects peaceful coexistence with Israel and holds that the Jewish state must be entirely eliminated — with one Cornell University professor saying he found the attacks “exhilarating” and many others blaming Israel entirely for the butchery of its own civilians.
By rejecting any notion that Hamas militants were principled “freedom fighters,” and by comparing them to the murderous Islamic State group, Biden made clear that he found any excuses for the Oct. 7 attacks to be repugnant.
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‘Israel must once again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise, we’ll do everything in our power to make sure it will be.’
Even as Israel prepares to invade Gaza, the militant group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon and backed by Iran, could be gearing up for an assault on Israel’s northern border. And then there is Iran itself, which considers Israel a mortal enemy.
Biden had a message to any state or nonstate actor contemplating taking advantage of Israel’s wounded state, or its focus on Hamas: “Don’t, don’t, don’t.”
American warships are moving into the Eastern Mediterranean, with their arrival serving to reinforce the point Biden made from Tel Aviv. He has also asked Congress for $100 billion to fund both Israel and Ukraine, which is fighting off a Russian invasion.
And while he cautioned Israel against engaging in a protracted war, he acknowledged the need for a harsh reprisal against Hamas.
“Justice must be done,” Biden said.
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‘Based on the information we have seen today, it appears it was a result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.’
On Tuesday evening, health authorities in Gaza said that an Israeli rocket hit al-Ahli Hospital, potentially killing hundreds of people. Israel furiously denied that it was responsible for the attack, which it blamed on a misfire by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group.
Even as protests broke out across the Middle East, including in front of several American embassies, evidence seemed to build that Israel was not responsible for the devastation.
Biden appears to have been persuaded that Israel is not at fault. While on the ground in Israel, he said he believed the disaster was perpetrated by “the other team,” a reference to Palestinian militants.
Pressed by reporters for his justification for that assertion, Biden said he based his assessment on intelligence shared “by my Defense Department.”
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