President Joe Biden and the White House have so far shown little willingness to bow to the pressure from liberal Democrats calling for the condemnation of Israel’s recent actions. President Joe Biden, speaking at the White House, said he didn’t detect a disproportionate response from Israel to Hamas’ rocket attacks. So far, the attacks have killed around 87 people, including eight women and 18 children, as per the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry.
Jen Psaki, the press secretary, declined to state whether President Biden had pressed the Israeli Prime Minister on the increasing Palestinian civilian death toll.
“In our view, attacks from Hamas into civilian neighborhoods is not self defense, so he certainly reiterated that, but also reiterated the need to move to de-escalate the situation on the ground,” she said.
Behind the scenes, it is understood that officials have been forceful with their counterparts in Israel, and have urged against evicting Palestinians from their homes. A readout of President Biden’s phone call with the Israeli Prime Minister said he “shared his conviction that Jerusalem, a city of such importance to people of faith from around the world, must be a place of peace.”
However, in his public statements on the recent crisis involving Israel, Biden has offered support to Israel, despite calls to adopt a tougher stance, even from within his own party.
“One of the things that I have seen, thus far, is that there has not been a significant overreaction. The question is, how we get to a point where — they get to a point where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired into population centers,” Biden said when he was asked if the Israeli Prime Minister is trying to keep the violence from increasing.
