I’ve struggled deeply with America’s support of Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza and have been collecting related notes for several weeks as I've mulled over the circumstances. I've tried to tie them together here in a way that helps share my perspective, including growing concerns around the direct effects of Joe Biden’s choices, and the bigger picture challenges he’s increasingly inviting.

Despite efforts to bring the fighting in Gaza to an end, matters have continued to escalate in recent weeks. US leadership has appeared contradictory by supporting discussions aimed at ending the conflict while continuing to arm and actively support Israel’s military operations.

I had planned to start with the recent applications for warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC), but calls for a ceasefire have been rattling out and an interesting pattern has emerged that needs to be addressed.

The US has started pushing a narrative saying that they’ve put forth a ceasefire plan and Israel’s leaders have committed to it. Per US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the only hold out is Hamas.

Yesterday, the UN Security Council voted 14-0 (with Russia abstaining) in support of the plan.

Today Reuters reported that Hamas accepted the UN’s ceasefire plan and was ready to negotiate the details.

Be that as it may, Blinken continued to call out Hamas as the laggard to the party, saying Netanyahu has reaffirmed his support, and that pressure needed to be applied to the leaders of Hamas to get them on board. As he put it, "Everyone's vote is in, except for one vote, and that's Hamas. And that's what we wait for.” He then added, "It is on Hamas to move forward with this proposal, or — or not."

Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst for Al Jazeera, responded to Blinken’s comments with disbelief: “The resolution has passed and Hamas has welcomed it, and yet the secretary of state continues to emphasise that now it’s only up to Hamas and everyone needs to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire.” He further claimed that “There’s something surrealistic about listening to a US secretary of state recounting the disaster that Gaza has become, the destruction of hospitals and schools, the deaths of people, of entire families, as if they were not killed by American ammunition.”

It seems that US leaders are either trying to force a ceasefire into being or to make it look like they moved heaven and earth in trying to do so while setting up Hamas to be viewed as the ones who wouldn’t come to the table. The only problem with this is that Israel’s leaders have yet to play along with any such efforts.

It appears that this time is no different as Israel’s UN representative, Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, responded to the UN Security Council’s vote stating that her country intended to “ensure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel in the future.”

Following the same vote, CNN reported that “Israel has vowed to persist with its military operation in Gaza, saying it won’t engage in “meaningless” negotiations with Hamas”

You’ll have to decide whether to believe the Israelis who say they aren’t taking the deal or the Americans who are trying to talk over them and put words in their mouths.

_{War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity}

The ICC is primarily responsible for four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. Back on May 20, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC submitted an application for arrest warrants for three of Hamas’ leaders, as well as two of Israel’s (including Benjamin Netanyahu).

David Kaye. a former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, wrote an op-ed for the NYT in response to the application that opens stating, “In seeking the arrests of senior leaders of Israel and Hamas, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has given the world a promise of accountability.” He further noted that the parallel actions risk “the perception of equivalence between Hamas, a terrorist organization with little concern for its own people, and Israel, a democratic member of the United Nations.” Kaye suggested viewing it differently, as an acknowledgment “that people on both sides of this conflict have legitimate claims and that the law is designed to protect all of humanity.”

Bernie Sanders published a statement supporting the ICC’s actions: “it is imperative that the global community uphold international law. Without these standards of decency and morality, this planet may rapidly descend into anarchy, never-ending wars, and barbarism.” Joe Biden saw things differently as he released the statement below condemning the move.

Biden’s statement notably ignores the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant. Instead, he’s responding to what he sees as a false equivalence between the leaders of a terrorist organization and world leaders (as David Kaye warned). Per Biden, there’s no justification for applying for warrants for both groups in the same breath. The Biden admin supported the ICC last summer as they worked on a case against Russia’s Vladimir Putin, but he’s upset by the way they’re handling the investigation of our ally. His response begs the question of whether justice is a priority for Biden.

The White House has claimed that “Israel’s use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but that wartime conditions prevented U.S. officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.” In other words, the administration acknowledged the likelihood that we’ve supported war crimes, but avoided accepting direct accountability by citing difficulties in linking specific weapons to particular attacks. The AP reported that this ambiguity could leave the door open for the administration to continue supplying offensive weapons to Israel.

While the US pushed back on the ICC, multiple countries, including France and Germany, expressed support for the court’s efforts. Further validation came from a panel convened by the ICC to review potential war crimes in support of Prosecutor Khan’s work. That group included a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, Theodor Meron. Meron, and the panel he was part of, recommended charges be brought against the leaders of Hamas and Israel.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looked to partner with Congress to penalize the ICC. Blinked stated that “we have to look at the appropriate steps to take to deal with again, what is a profoundly wrongheaded decision.” As much as the US is embedded in most UN bodies, maybe it’s no surprise that we’ve never actually joined the ICC, because doing so would invite accountability.

Protestors responded to Blinken’s efforts with red-stained hands as shown in the picture below.

Shifting Allegiances

America is in a dangerous place. We dodged the January 6 attacks on the capitol, but while many people have gone to jail, support for groups like the Proud Boys continues to grow and the upcoming election feels far from safe. Given the circumstances, I’ve struggled to understand Biden’s unwavering commitment to a right-wing coalition in Israel that’s led by a man who seems to be working in self-interest to prolong the conflict, rather than do what’s best for his people.

The intricacies of US elections mean a small shift in voting patterns could change the outcome. Muslims only represent 1% of the US population, but they are concentrated in a handful of places, including swing states like Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that could decide the election. With that in mind, Charles Blow visited leaders of Muslim communities there back in February. He wrote the clip below in response to his visit.

In the week following the Hamas attack on Israel, the AP ran an article that took a look at Biden’s long-running support for Israel. It included a story about his visit to the Dachau concentration camp with his teenage granddaughter. The President had visited the camp several times before and felt they had rearranged things “to make visitors less uncomfortable,” and that they “had softened the cruel edges over the years.” In response to this feeling, he had the guides take them to a gas chamber and slam the door behind them “with a frightening clank.”

As one who has visited multiple former concentration camps, as well as sites like Berlin’s Topography of Terror, the thought of feeling the need to have the door slammed on his teenage granddaughter to drive home the cruelty feels highly unnecessary. To me, this spoke to something being ingrained in Biden which seems to affect his ability to respond to things Israel does which he should not allow.

More countries have recognized Palestine as a state in response to the ongoing events. With Spain, Norway, and Ireland joining this week, the count now includes 144 of the UN’s 193 member nations (It’s not far short of the 164 that recognize Israel). The UK Labour Party has promised to do the same if they win the upcoming elections as expected.

Israel's foreign ministry pushed back on these moves, limiting Spain’s consulate to offering services to residents of Jerusalem, while banning them from doing so for Palestinians from the West Bank. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, encouraged the Israelis to reconsider their response to the growing support for Palestine. As he put it, “Recognizing the Palestinian state is not a gift to Hamas, quite the contrary... It’s aimed at giving greater strength to the part of Palestinian society which we recognize and with which we work.”

Undue Influence?

In recent months, multiple stories have accused Israel’s leaders of trying to influence perception and even official decisions. One such story came from the Haaretz reporter covering efforts to surveil members of the International Criminal Court. They shared an experience where a senior official explained that if they published their story, they “would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside."

The threat squashed the story at the time, but an investigation led by The Guardian brought it forward last week. Thanks to that, we now know that Yossi Cohen, the former head of Mossad, worked to disrupt an earlier ICC investigation into potential war crimes by Israel via threats and intimidation against the former ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. Cohen reportedly told Bensouda, “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.” A senior Israeli official shared that Cohen’s efforts were “authorized at a high level and justified on the basis the court posed a threat of prosecutions against military personnel.” The Guardian investigation also found that Israel was working “to hack and digitally intercept correspondence between Palestinians who were passing information to the court and its staff.”

Meta recently announced that they found content that appeared to be AI-generated content that was used deceptively on Facebook and Instagram, “including comments praising Israel's handling of the war in Gaza published below posts from global news organizations and U.S. lawmakers.” They claimed this was the first time AI-generated content has been used in an influence operation on their platforms. The NYT found Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs put up $2 million to hire a political marketing firm to run the ongoing campaign, and that ChatGPT was used in the effort. When asked about the campaign, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs denied having involvement.

Starving the Masses?

From the outset of Israel’s incursion into Gaza, there’s been a huge concern over how civilians would take care of themselves as doing so was already a challenge before the war. Back then, 45% of Gazans were unemployed, two-thirds of them lived in poverty, and fully 80% of them depended on international aid for their survival. The UN’s Trade and Development organization claims that Israel’s decades-long “blockade, frequent military operations and restrictions on the entry and exit of people and essential goods have stifled the economy, impeded access to health and other essential services and undermined the living conditions of more than 2 million Palestinians.” They further noted that living standards were 27% lower in 2023 (before the conflict) than in 2006

As of mid-March, the WFP reported that “famine was projected to occur by the end of May in the two northern governorates of the Gaza Strip.” More recently, they shared that the attacks had nearly half of Rafah’s 1.6 million people on the move trying to find food and shelter, and that food stocks were dwindling as the WFP worked to undo the effects of six months of near-famine conditions.

In mid-May, The Guardian reported that since Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, aid through that portal had slowed significantly. In fact, Israel had seized the entire border with Egypt, thereby taking control of all points of entry into Gaza (aside from the US’ temporary pier).

With the flow of aid disrupted by intermittent border closures, the US built a temporary port that opened in May. The cost of the pier was $320 million, so we spent a third of a billion dollars to facilitate the temporary delivery of food due to our ally limiting its entry through the border gates they control. While the aim was to bring more food into Gaza, border closures left less of it arriving in May than in April. As of May 21, Department of Defense Press Secretary Ryder reported that he did not believe any of the aid delivered via the pier had made it to the people in Gaza.

In late May, the UNRWA suspended aid distribution to Rafah “due to lack of supplies and insecurity” amid Israel’s ground attacks. Perishable food aid had reportedly been piling up in Egypt since Israel had seized control of the border. Due to the circumstances, one million people faced "catastrophic levels of hunger.”

By early June, a US-based early warning system for famine called Fews Net reported that “Regardless of whether or not the famine thresholds have been definitively reached or exceeded, people are dying of hunger-related causes across Gaza,” and that acute malnutrition among children was extremely high, which “will result in irreversible physiological impacts.”

The state of Palestinian diets is a critical matter because it figures into ongoing investigations by the ICC. If they find that Israel has intentionally fostered famine, it could lead to new charges of genocide against its leaders. There’s also the matter of minimal accessibility to clean water, and the likelihood of widespread long-term mental harm the siege has caused.

Blocking Reportage

On May 5, Israel ordered Al Jazeera to close its local operations and seized some of the broadcaster’s equipment. After raiding a hotel in East Jerusalem where they had been broadcasting, Israel’s Communication Minister, Shlomo Karhi, announced that they were banned for 45 days via a new law and that the ban could be renewed. As he put it, “We finally are able to stop Al Jazeera’s well-oiled incitement machine that harms the security of the country.”

A few weeks later, Israel confiscated equipment from the Associated Press citing the same law. The AP reported that after the seizure, “the Biden administration, journalism organizations and an Israeli opposition leader condemned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pressured it to reverse the decision.” Israel’s communications minister announced via Twitter that he had canceled the ban and ordered the return of the AP’s equipment.

The Assault On Rafah

In late May, the ICJ gave an emergency ruling ordering Israel to “immediately halt its assault on Rafah.” Netanyahu responded to the order by saying, “What they are asking us, is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide."

Since that time, two major events have been reported: the bombing of a camp housing displaced people, and a rescue mission that brought back four hostages.

Between the May 26 air strikes in Rafah and the resulting fire, at least 45 people died in the overnight attack on the camp, and many of them were children. It was not the first time Israel had attacked a place it had told people to flee to.

Many European leaders responded to the attack by denouncing Israel and calling for a cease-fire. France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, said “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” as he called for Israel to stop its operations, including an immediate cease-fire, and for “full respect for international law.” Germany’s Vice Chancellor added that their actions were “incompatible with international law.”

Netanyahu responded by calling the bombing ”a tragic mistake.”

Flagging Support

America has supported Israel economically, politically, and militarily for a very long time. That we've done so is well known, but to what degree is probably not obvious. The charts below are from a recent Council on Foreign Relations article. As you can see in the first chat, we've given nearly twice as much economic and military aid to Israel over the past eight decades than to any other country. The sum of those transfers is approaching one-third of a trillion dollars.

And while we've sent billions each year specifically for military purposes, the current year's commitment is near the inflation-adjusted peak (since 1970), while it's just early June.

With a Democrat in the White House, support for Israel's incursion has steadily eroded from the party's base. Overall support for Biden's handling of the conflict has dropped from 44% in October to 33% in April. In May, nearly a quarter of the Democrats who disproved of his handling of the conflict did not plan to vote for him. This last shift speaks to a potential problem for Biden, the Democrats, and democracy in the US. Biden's support of Israel has put us at serious risk. Beating Donald Trump should be a layup, and maybe it will be, but we've seen plenty of worrisome polls since the campus protests brought greater attention to the conflict in Gaza.

Biden and Secretary of State Blinken both seem to have connections that contribute to their steadfast support of Israel, but Benjamin Netanyahu is not Israel. Bibi has pressed the attack to avoid the reckoning that will come when the conflict ends as Israelis are expected to demand his ouster for allowing the attack that started this all. He is the leader who propped up Hamas in looking to reduce support for a Palestinian state. He is on trial in three cases in Israel with “charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.” Why do our leaders continue to prop him up when they could easily withdraw support for him while maintaining our ties with Israel? Why are they risking a greater chance of a Trump win?

We are pushing ourselves in a different direction from many of our allies at a time when America’s influence is waning. In doing so, we’re risking isolation for a single partner that stands credibly accused of war crimes.

There’s also the matter of at least 94 Congressional Democrats calling for a ceasefire, while zero Republicans have done so.

Voters are similarly divided. A recent survey asked whether the US was doing enough to help protect Palestinian civilians. 29% of moderates and 17% of conservatives believe “the U.S. is doing too little to help protect Palestinian civilians.” Meanwhile, 59% of liberals think we’re not doing enough and that number goes up to 69% of respondents who identified as “very liberal.”

If Joe Biden wants to lead, he should do everything necessary to end the conflict in Gaza. He should help get all the hostages released and support efforts between the Israeli and Palestinian people to foster lasting peace. The last chart from the Council on Foreign Relations article should serve as a warning to anyone who thinks otherwise as youth support for military aid to Israel has cratered. If you expect the youth to bail Biden out in this election, you might unpleasantly surprised in November.

Throughout this conflict, US leadership has continually disappointed on moral grounds. They've had countless opportunities to protect civilians and advocate for peace, but have yet to deliver. The student protests gave Biden a chance to reconsider his choices, but instead, he denounced chaos and demanded order.

Biden could use the Leahy law to prohibit the transfer of arms to Israel if any unit of the IDF Was credibly accused of committing “a gross violation of human rights: murder, rape, torture, forced disappearance or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty and personal security.” If we did so, we could resume support once appropriate action was taken to bring responsible members to justice. So far, we have neglected this responsibility.

Two Israeli teens recently wrote a letter to President Biden, condemning his support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza. The teens are serving several months in prison as conscientious objectors who refused to join the IDF. As they put it, Biden’s “unconditional support for Netanyahu’s policy of destruction,” had normalized carnage and trivialized human lives. They further claimed that American diplomatic and material support had enabled the war to persist and that while Israel’s leaders are “interested in prolonging the war for political reasons,” Biden has the power to end it.

Joe’s Extremely Blurry Red Line

In early May, Biden warned that if Israel invaded Rafah he would stop supplying them with offensive weapons. Netanyahu responded saying they would “fight with (their) fingernails” if they had to. Biden’s response left White House spokesman John Kirby contorting as he tried to explain how Joe’s line had not been crossed. As Kirby put it, “We have not seen them go in with large units and large numbers of troops in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground.”

Whether it would have had to occur on an odd-numbered Thursday, or if the attacking forces would have to wear a particular shade of blue for it to be considered a violation of Joe’s ‘red line’ remains an open question.

A few weeks later, the US had to assess whether an air strike that killed at least 37 Palestinians crossed Joe’s red line. I haven’t seen a formal announcement on that ‘investigation,’ but it seems safe to say that Joe’s line just blurred a bit more.

This weekend, protestors held a 'red line' White House rally to call out President Biden. In response to the rally, a campaign spokesperson shared that the President was “working tirelessly” towards “an end to the violence and a just, lasting peace in the Middle East.” President Biden was in France at the time for a WWII commemoration. During his visit, he echoed Macron in, “welcoming the safe rescue of four hostages that were returned to their families in Israel.” Supporters of the ‘red line’ rally called out the administration for celebrating the freeing of the hostages without noting reports of over 200 people being killed, with hundreds more injured.

American journalist and historian, Rick Perlstein, relayed a story of the hostage rescue from a friend. As he put it, “A short while ago, Israeli army planes committed a massacre in Nuseirat, claiming the lives of 220...destroying an entire neighborhood.” Perlstein then added, “One man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter.” (Another source has the death toll over 270.)

One of the four freed hostages was interviewed after returning. He said their greatest fear in their time in captivity “was the IDF's planes and the concern that they would bomb the building we were in.”

Red Carpets for a War Criminal?

Last month, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the desire to invite Netanyahu to speak before Congress. He asked the Democrat leadership if they would join the invitation. Back in March, Chuck Schumer claimed Netanyahu had “lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” so I expected that he would decline the offer. But his past words and the mounting deaths were apparently no match for Johnson’s guile. As the ICC moved towards approving a warrant for Netanyahu, the Democratic leadership would join Republicans in inviting an accused war criminal for a state visit.

Hafiz Rashid responded to the invitation by writing, “As the war draws on with more and more Palestinian civilians being killed, House and Senate leadership need to realize that inviting a prime minister accused of war crimes is not the answer, but ending weapons shipments to Israel to force an immediate cease-fire is.

While the US invited Netanyahu for a visit, Spain asked to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide, the UN added Israel to the global list of states and armed groups who have committed violations against children, and a member of Israel’s emergency government, Benny Gantz, resigned over Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict.

At a time when US influence is waning, we're going out of our way to burn bridges. I fear the long-term consequences of Biden’s choices may haunt us for a long time.

More pointedly, given that the ICC is now seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, what might that mean for Joe Biden and Antony Blinken if the US continues to provide Israel with arms and other forms of military support?

Where’s Our Humanity?

In the eight months since Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, only once have I seen broad condemnation of Israel’s siege of Gaza, and that was in response to the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy. That was surely, a horrible tragedy, and seemingly a war crime, but what does it say about our shared humanity that we haven’t once done the same for the thousands of Palestinian people who’ve been killed in the conflict?

As of the end of April, the Gaza Health Ministry counted 34,622 people dead from the war. Of those, 22,961 bodies were fully identified with names, genders, ages, and Israeli-issued IDs. Another 9,940, 29% of the dead at the time, remained unidentified. This was either due to not being claimed by their families, being decomposed beyond recognition, or having their records lost during raids on Palestinian hospitals. It’s been reported that the percentage of women and children among the fully identified corpses has dropped from 62% of the total in early January, to 54% of the total by the end of April, so we could say that the IDF has become less likely to kill women and children as the conflict has gone on.

In my last post, I called for Biden to step aside and let the ICC perform its function, to remove support from Netanyahu and focus on America’s needs. I’ll reiterate that call now and add that if Biden can’t bring himself to do so, he should step down and let others attempt to deal with this mess.

If there ever was an Israeli government that deserved to be supported no matter what, that is not this government. Benjamin Netanyahu is not our ally. He is not serving the interests of the Israeli people, and he has done incalculable harm to the Palestinians.

Violence will never solve the problems between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Those who support it will not be part of any solutions.