US President Joe Biden appeared to place a cautionary note on US military support to help the IDF oust Hamas from Gaza during the White House’s annual Hanukkah party on Monday night.
“We continue to provide military assistance [to the IDF] until they get rid of Hamas - but you have to be careful, I have to be careful,” Biden said.
“The whole world, public opinion, can shift overnight, you can’t let that happen,” he added.
Biden spoke amid growing international pressure against the war, which is often portrayed as a military campaign against a defenseless people rather than a war against a terror group that on October 7 killed over 1,200 people and seized some 250 hostages.
Biden has backed Israel’s war against Hamas, a campaign which it believes counters an existential threat. At the Hanukkah party, he repeated his long-standing belief that without Israel, “there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe.”
Earlier in the day a small group of Jewish protestors chanted outside the White House, “Biden, Biden pick a side, ceasefire not genocide.”
Hamas has asserted that close to 18,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of war-related violence in Gaza, with Israel explaining that 7,000 of those fatalities are combatants. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced due to the war and humanitarian aid has not been able to keep up with the needs of the population.
The US has helped provide humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinians in Gaza, he said.
Biden also addressed his differences with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recalling how 51 years ago, he had written on a photo of the two of them, “Bibi I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you say.”
The situation has not changed, he said, explaining, “It’s the same today. I love you, but…. “
He explained, “I have made no bones about it, I have had my differences with some Israeli officials.”
Biden said he was working “relentlessly for the safe return” of the remaining hostages after helping to secure the release of 110 of those taken. “We’re not going to stop until we get all of them home,” he said.
“I have personally spent countless hours with the Qataris and the Egyptians to secure the freedom of the hostages and to get aid flowing,” he said.
There is a whole range of things happening that are very difficult, he said. “We will continue to lead the world in humanitarian assistance [to Gaza]. We need to protect civilian life,” he stressed.
“Let me be clear. Hamas using rape, sexual violence, terrorism and torture of Israeli women and girls is appalling and unforgivable… I saw some of the photographs.
It is beyond comprehension,” he said.
“We all have to condemn such brutality without equivocation, without exception,” he said.
“I also recognize your hurt from the silence and the fear for your safety,” Biden said. He also addressed the rise in hate crimes against Jews. “The surge of antisemitism in the US and the world is sickening,” he said. “There is no place for hate in America against Jews, Muslims, and anyone else.”
Biden reflected on a story from southern Israel about a Hanukkah Menorah that was among the few surviving items found in the debris of a Hamas victims’ home.
“It's a reminder to hold on to the miracle of hope and faith because when we do, no night so dark we can not find light. No one knows that better than the Jewish people.”