Considering the standard of past Biden statements, I think the president’s statement in the White House this afternoon was good. Yes, it would have been preferable if Biden had specifically called out Iran for its longtime support of Hamas, and just about certain role in planning, financing, and assisting this weekend’s massacre. Yes, it would have been preferable if Biden hadn’t told the (false) Golda Meir story again.
But by the standards of a president who had made just one three-minute on-camera statement in the first 72 hours or so of this crisis, who turns 81 next month, who tends to ramble, and who has veered off message with comments like “minor incursion” during tense foreign policy crises in the past, this was pretty good.
Biden called the actions of Hamas “pure, unadulterated evil,” and did not spare the details when describing the abominable attacks on men, women, and children. He indicated that there is no justification for Hamas’s attacks — a shock to a bunch of Americans on the left, apparently — and compared the terrorist organization to ISIS.
We must be crystal clear: we stand with Israel. We stand with Israel and we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack. There’s no justification for terrorism. There’s no excuse. Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination; its stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed, with no regard to who pays the price.
Finally, thankfully, Biden didn’t suggest that Israel’s response should be proportionate.
Yes, it would have been preferable if Biden had taken questions from reporters, but let’s face it, he never does that anymore and if he had spoken off-the-cuff, he likely would have screwed it up. When the stakes are this high, I won’t begrudge the White House staff for telling Grandpa to stick to what’s on the teleprompter.
Foreign policy and national security aren’t usually the determining factor in elections, but right now Hamas has American hostages. (Gas prices are high, and we just went through a terrible bout of inflation. Say, does it feel like 1979 to you?)
Men falling from planes desperate to leave Afghanistan, mass graves and war crimes in Ukraine, and now beheaded babies in Israel. We’ve all witnessed a lot of twisted bloodshed, sadism, cruelty, and brutality committed by evil men in a really short span of time. Next year, the Biden administration will go before the American people and argue that this tidal wave of rampaging evil has nothing to do with their decisions and policies. It’s just bad luck, I suppose, that in country after country, the world’s most evil men have no fear that America will find them and bring their atrocities to an end.