Biden and Netanyahu have known each other since the 1980s. Their shared history includes navigating rocket attacks, terrorist assaults, and ground wars. But the president’s aides reported that Biden instantly understood Hamas’s invasion to be different in scale and kind than anything in his political memory, and Netanyahu’s raw account of the carnage stoked Biden’s feelings of anger.
Back in May 2021, when Israel retaliated against a Hamas fusillade by pounding Gaza, Biden quickly began privately outlining his strategy for arriving at a cease-fire. That’s not the case this time. His aides say that he is well aware that the coming Israeli offensive could take months. In a statement delivered on Tuesday afternoon from the State Dining Room, Biden expressed unconditional support for Israel, declaring Hamas's attacks as “pure, unadulterated evil,” and there is no reason to think he has conveyed anything different to Netanyahu in private.
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Zionism is one of Biden’s primary commitments. It’s not a belief that he acquired in the course of his political career, but something he says that he learned from his father at the dinner table, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. His father would tell him, “If Israel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.” Biden first met Nancy Pelosi in the early 1970s, when he visited San Francisco to raise money for the Jewish state—Pelosi lent him her Jeep so that he could go from synagogue to synagogue.
Biden’s Zionism will shape how his administration frames the moment politically. Despite Israel’s recent slide away from democracy—and despite the rising criticism of the Jewish state within his own party—Biden remains a true believer, who doesn’t haven’t any qualms linking its struggle for existence to a global struggle against barbarism.That’s part of the reason his aides have discussed rhetorically linking Israel’s war to the Ukrainian cause—and to the defense of Taiwan.
(full article online)
The president is committed to supporting the Jewish state, but the conflict threatens his other regional priorities.
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