President Joe Biden this week released a statement saying he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the deaths of seven individuals with the World Central Kitchen in an air strike carried out by Israel in a case of misidentification. Biden, undeservedly claiming the moral high ground, demanded Israel investigate the strike and said the inquiry “must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.” Israel has done all of that — but Joe Biden, quite notably, has not.
The reality of Biden’s own actions didn’t stop him from attacking Israel by alleging nonexistent carelessness, a government he said “has not done enough to protect aid workers” in Gaza. But the truth is Biden does not have a leg or even ground to stand on to issue such smears of Israel.
Biden’s false claims that Israel’s actions are a “major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult” (could it perhaps be more the fault of Hamas terrorists using hospitals for terrorist operations, stealing aid and shooting the Gazans for whom its intended, and refusing to surrender) are absurd on their face. Biden further criticized Israel, alleging it “has also not done enough to protect civilians.” Never mind, apparently, Hamas and other Iranian-backed terror groups in Gaza whose modus operandi is to hide behind health facilities, schools, and mosques — all filled with civilians — to launch its attacks on Israel. Biden also ignores the extensive and unprecedented lengths to which Israel and its military go in order to prevent civilian deaths, including often giving terrorists enough time to flee targeted locations along with the civilians Israel spares from the danger created by Hamas.
It’s also worth noting that Biden’s smear is demonstrably false — according to his own administration.
According to the National Security Council’s John Kirby this week, the State Department has “not found any incidence where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.” Still, Biden launched his false smear.
In addition to being wrong, Biden’s attack on the way Israel is prosecuting its war — one that was started by Hamas on October 7 — is grossly hypocritical.
In August 2021, as essentially his final military act in Afghanistan before the United States withdrew its last troops from the country, the Biden administration approved a drone strike to take out a would-be terrorist who posed a threat to American forces at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport following an ISIS-K suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans seeking to flee the Taliban.
Biden’s military brass declared the outcome a “righteous strike” and took a significant victory lap. Instead of neutralizing a terrorist threat, however, Biden had hit an innocent aid worker — killing him, two other adults, and seven children. Was Biden as “outraged and heartbroken” about those deaths as he claims to be about the Israeli strike in Gaza? Surely, Biden, as he demanded Israel do, conducted an investigation that brought “accountability” and the conclusion of which was made public, right? Wrong.
When a review of Biden’s botched drone strike that killed 10 in Kabul was completed by the inspector general of the U.S. Air Force, the report remained classified. No violations of law were found, according to the brief unclassified conclusion shared by the Department of Defense, and the report was referred to operational commanders to determine “if any accountability is appropriate.” That is, there was no public report and zero accountability for Biden and his administration. The president himself said he had zero regrets about how he executed the withdrawal from Afghanistan — the opposite of what he now demands of Israel. Utter buffoonery.
According to the scant details provided by Biden’s Pentagon, the botched strike killing 10 innocents including seven children in Kabul was the result of tracking and striking the wrong white Toyota Corrola. It was a “misidentification,” if you will, that led to innocents being killed — but somehow, Israel’s strike was beyond the pale and deserving of the American president’s condemnation?
It’s also worth remembering the Obama-Biden administration’s actions that previously removed Biden’s ability to criticize Israel without making himself a disingenuous hypocrite. While Biden was VP, the United States carried out so many drone strikes that killed civilians that President Obama was forced to address the situation in the spring of 2016. Obama said there was “no doubt that civilians were killed that shouldn’t have been,” yet there wasn’t condemnation from the government of Israel for American strikes.
That’s because war is hell and there’s a certain level of chaos that shouldn’t need to be explained to Biden. In its strikes abroad, the United States has hit civilians, its own troops, hospitals, and aid workers. Death is a tragedy, but so is war. Despite the fog of war and existential danger involved, Israel has prosecuted its war against Hamas — started by the terrorists, remember? — in what ought to be a masterclass for urban warfare and civilian protection.
Ultimately, Biden’s latest hypocritical attack on Israel — just as his administration has been doing with U.N. Security Council votes and other policies — is aimed at virtue signaling to a bloc of Democrat voters aligned with the likes of Rep. Rashida Tlaib in a bid to win a sliver of votes in key states such as Michigan by abandoning Israel. These motivations are as shameful as Biden’s condemnation of Israel even as its government does more than Biden ever has to nobly defeat its barbaric enemies.
