The powerful photograph posted by the White House on Thursday of US President Joe Biden holding freed four-year-old Israeli-American hostage Avigail Idan in his arms said it all.
“She’s remarkable and recovering from unspeakable trauma,” Biden wrote, referring to the murder during the Hamas massacre on October 7 of Avigail’s parents, Roi and Smadar, at Kibbutz Kfar Aza as her brother and sister, Michael and Amelia, hid in the closet of their home, and then being held captive until her release on November 26.
“Our time together yesterday was a reminder of the work we have in front of us to secure the release of all remaining hostages.”
The president and the US are true friends of Israel, even if they do sometimes criticize and even interfere in its external policies and internal politics.
There is no better example of this than last Wednesday, the same day on which Biden embraced Avigail. It was on that day, April 24, that the American president signed into law a $95 billion wartime aid package that includes $17 billion in assistance to Israel.
The aid for Israel, the president said, “can help replenish Israel’s air defense and provide other critical defense so Iran can never carry out the destruction it intended with its attack 10 days ago.”
Noting that Iran had launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel on April 13, Biden said that thanks to Israel’s defense systems and the assistance of its allies across the world, including the US, no serious damage had occurred.
“My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad,” he declared. “The security of Israel is critical. I will always make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists it supports.”
Biden signed the package to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan after the US Senate passed it in a 79-18 vote on Tuesday and the House approved aid to Israel 366 to 58 the previous Saturday, following months of delays and debate over how much the US should be involved in foreign wars.
“Today, members of both parties in the House voted to advance our national security interests and send a clear message about the power of American leadership on the world stage,” Biden said.
“At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure.”
President Isaac Herzog spoke on behalf of all Israelis when he issued a statement expressing “deepest thanks” to the US Congress, Biden, Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the American people.
“As I conveyed last summer before a joint session of Congress: when the US is strong, Israel is stronger; when Israel is strong, the US is more secure,” Herzog said. “The overwhelming bipartisan support for Israel is a striking testament to the fact that Israel has no closer ally than America, and America has no closer ally than Israel."
Common objectives of Jerusalem and Washington
In a meeting last month with a delegation of US lawmakers, Herzog articulated the common objectives of Jerusalem and Washington.
"We share with the United States of America, and with the President of the United States of America, our dear friend President Joe Biden, the same vision of eradicating terror, of bringing the hostages back home, a vision of moving towards peace with our neighbors - once we finish the ability of our enemies to carry out terror from Gaza against us.
And finally, most importantly, we share the vision of inclusion of Israel in the region, in which I believe strongly, including the normalization with Saudi Arabia."
As reports come in of a possible new hostage deal, we thank the US and its president for putting pressure on Hamas via Egyptian and Qatari mediators to release the remaining captives in Gaza as soon as possible.
Especially in these troubled times as we witness the anti-Israeli disturbances on US campuses and conclude the festival of Passover, marking the Jewish people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt, we’d like to voice our gratitude to Israel’s most important ally: Thank you for being our friend!