How all the presidents of the United States have unconditionally and systematically defended Israel’s evil project of ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
As the palestinian death toll from Israel’s continuing bombardment of
Gaza mounts, anger with US President Joe Biden’s handling of the situation is
growing.
On the same day that Israeli air raids killed 10 members of a single family and levelled an 11-storey building housing the media offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press, as well as residential apartments, Biden reasserted his unequivocal support for Israel.
Here is how Biden and past US presidents have defended Israel over decades: May 2021
Biden has twice issued statetements reaffirming
his commitment to Israel’s “right to defend itself” against rockets fired from
Gaza during Israel’s ongoing offensive on the occupied territory.
Israeli officials say thousands (hundreds, actually) of rockets have been
fired from Gaza towards Israel, where 12 people have been killed, while
a barrage of Israeli air strikes on the besieged territory have killed at least 248 Palestinians and injured hundreds more.
Top Biden administration officials have stressed their
“strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself” while saying the US is
pushing for a “de-escalation”. The US also blocked a
United Nations Security Council statement that would have called for an end to
the violence until it finally let the UN, Qatar and Egypt reach a deal with both parties.
May 2018 : Former US President Donald Trump – a staunch defender of Israel and the country’s prime minister, Netanyahu – rejected any attempts to criticise Israel for the killing of dozens of protesters in Gaza in May 2018.
Palestinians were participating in a “Great March of Return” rally when
Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd. The deadly violence coincided with the
opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, after the Trump administration
moved it from Tel Aviv in a move that drew the ire of Palestinians.
“The responsibility for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas.
Hamas is intentionally and cynically provoking this response, and as the
Secretary of State said, Israel has the right to defend itself,” White House
deputy press secretary Raj Shah said at the time.
July-August 2014 : Israel carried out 10 days of aerial bombardments of the Gaza Strip in July 2014 before launching a ground offensive into the territory. On July 18, then-US President Barack Obama told reporters he had “reaffirmed [his] strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself” in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “No nation should accept rockets being fired into its borders, or terrorists tunnelling into its territory,” Obama said.
“I also made clear that the United States, and our friends and allies, are
deeply concerned about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent
life,” said Obama. More than 1,500 Palestinian civilians, including more than
500 children, were killed in that Israeli military operation in Gaza, according
to the UN.
November 2012: More than 100 Palestinian civilians were killed when Israel launched a military offensive on Gaza in November 2012after i assassinaed Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari.
Obama once more defended Israel’s actions: “There is no country on earth that would tolerate
missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. So we are fully
supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on peoples’
homes.”
December 2008-January 2009: Israel’s offensive in Gaza, dubbed “Operation Cast Lead”, began in the morning of December 27, 2008. When it was declared over 22 days later, Israeli fire had killed about 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and razed much of the territory to the ground, Amnesty International says.
But on January 2, then-US President George W Bush – who was in the final
weeks of his time in the White House – placed sole blame for the situation on
Hamas. “This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas – a
Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel’s
destruction,” Bush said, as reported by NBC News at the time. He also
said any ceasefire “that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable”.
2000-2005 : An incendiary visit by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque in September 2000 led to mass Palestinian protests and confrontations with Israeli security forces that left seven Palestinians dead. The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was launched.
Both Palestinian armed groups – which began deploying suicide bombings –
and Israel were accused of war crimes and the indiscriminate killing of
civilians during the uprising. Israel launched air raids and incursions into
Gaza and the West Bank. At least 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis were
killed in the fighting.
Newly elected President George W Bush did not approve of early Israeli
operations, but closely aligned with Sharon in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and
subsequent “War on Terror”. The alliance was seen as giving Israel a wide berth
for military actions, while disproportionately blaming Palestinians for any
violence. Bush also supported Sharon’s refusal to engage with Palestinian
President Yasir Arafat.
In a 2002 speech, Bush became the first US president to publicly support a
Palestinian state, but he said such support was conditional on a complete
Palestinian overhaul of its leadership, institutions, and security arrangements.
“Today, Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing, terrorism,”
he said. “This is unacceptable. And the United States will not support the
establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained
fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure.”
1996 : US President Bill Clinton defended Israel after its military launched an attack on a UN compound in Qana, in southern Lebanon, where hundreds of civilians had been sheltering in April 1996. The attack killed more than 100 civilians and injured hundreds of others.
Israel said the attack was carried out in error, but a report to the UN Security Council found that “while the possibility cannot
be ruled out completely, the pattern of impacts in the Qana area makes it
unlikely that the shelling of the United Nations compound was the result of
technical and/or procedural errors”.
Tens days after the massacre, in a speech to pro-Israel lobby group, the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Clinton said Lebanese children in Qana “were caught between – make no mistake
about it – the deliberate tactics of Hezbollah in their positioning and firing
and the tragic misfiring in Israel’s legitimate exercise of its right to
self-defense”.
1987-1991: A series of protests, strikes, and boycotts defined the First Intifada, with Israeli security forces criticised for disproportionate crackdowns, including the use of live fire against Palestinians.
The uprising erupted as US President Ronald Reagan had begun to bolster
Israel’s role as a “unique strategic asset”, making aid to Israel more readily
available and giving the country special access to US military technology.
While generally adverse to criticising Israel, the Reagan administration in
1987 condemned Israel security forces for “harsh security measures and
excessive use of live ammunition”.
His successor, George HW Bush, took a relatively firmer stance with Israel,
pushing a delay of loan guarantees in exchange for a halt to the building of
settlements in the occupied West Bank and participation in the 1991 Madrid
Peace Conference.
1982 : Reagan admitted that Israel gave no warning when its military invaded southern Lebanon in June of 1982 amid cross-border fighting. When asked about the US’s failure to condemn the action, or cut off arms sales to Israel, Reagan told reporters, “The situation is so complicated and the goals that we would like to pursue are what are dictating our conduct right now.”
Still, he denied giving Israel the “green light” for the invasion, saying,
“We were caught as much by surprise as anyone, and we wanted a diplomatic
solution and believe there could have been one.”
1973 : In October 1973, several Arab nations led by Egypt and Syria launched a military offensive in an attempt to regain the Sinai peninsula and Golan Heights, which Israel had captured during the 1967 war and continued to occupy.
Following a failed counterattack, the US began airlifting weapons to
Israel, with US President Richard Nixon credited by then-Israeli Prime Minister
Golda Meir as expediting the transfer. The weapons are widely seen as turning
the tide of the conflict, which Nixon told Congress was significant in a wider
Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union, which supported the Arab
countries.
1967 : In June of 1967, Israel launched an air assault on Egypt that began the so-called Six-Day War. The conflict, which also involved Jordan and Syria, saw Israel take large swaths of land including the West Bank and Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights.
US President Lyndon B Johnson recounted in a 1971 New York Times piece, “I can understand that men might
decide to act on their own when hostile forces gather on their frontiers and
cut off a major port, and when antagonistic political leaders fill the air with
threats to destroy their nation.”
“Nonetheless, I have never concealed my regret that Israel decided to move when it did. I always made it equally clear, however, to the Russians and to every other nation, that I did not accept the oversimplified charge of Israeli aggression. Arab actions in the weeks before the war started – forcing UN troops out, closing the port of Aqaba and assembling forces on the Israeli border – made that charge ridiculous.”
On May 14, 1948, the head of the Jewish Agen proclaimed the creation of
the independent state of Israel as the United Kingdom’s colonial mandate over
the territory ended. US President Harry S Truman immediately recognised the new
sovereign nation.
“This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed
in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government
thereof,” read a statement signed by Truman. “The
United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority
of the new State of Israel.”
1948 : On May 14, 1948, the head of the Jewish Agency proclaimed the creation of the independent state of Israel as the United Kingdom’s colonial mandate over the territory ended. US President Harry S Truman immediately recognised the new sovereign nation.
“This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof,” read a statement signed by Truman. “The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.”
Al Naqba (The Catastrophe)
“Dear President Biden,
I am writing to you about Gaza, a place
that I have studied and written about for the last 35 years, a place that I
consider another home, filled with the kindest and most generous people you
will ever meet—have you ever been there? But
I am writing not only as a scholar of the region but as a Jew and one whose
parents survived Auschwitz.
I have a question for you, Mr. President: When is the death of a
child acceptable? Or perhaps I should ask the question this way: When does the
death of a Palestinian child become unacceptable? You have experienced the
unspeakable loss of your own children so you are better placed than most to
answer my questions.
Last week after 87 Palestinians in Gaza were killed and over 500
wounded you stated that you had not seen a “significant overreaction” on
Israel’s part to Hamas’s rocket attacks. Among the dead at that time were
18 children. I did not know any of them but I know people who do. Would you
please help me explain to my friends why the death of these 18 children does
not constitute an overreaction? This brings up another question I have
for you, Mr. President: How many children must die in Gaza before you would
consider Israel’s response excessive particularly since you have made human
rights the center of your foreign policy? I need to know so that I can explain
it to my friends. As I write this, over 60 Palestinian children have been
killed by the government of Israel. Is that enough to qualify?
I know people inside our government who work on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I need to tell you something I heard from one of
them about the death of Gaza’s children. This individual implied that some of
the dead were likely the children of Hamas officials so their deaths don’t
really matter, that is, their deaths are acceptable. Is this the answer to my
first question? Should this be the way I explain it to my friends? Please help
me out here.
It is tragic that after more than three decades of research and
writing, I still find it necessary to argue for the humanity of Palestinians,
even to you.
One more thing before I end this letter if you’ll indulge me. It
is about my mom. When she was imprisoned in the Lodz ghetto during the
Holocaust, she risked her life hiding children who were chosen for deportation
to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. The Nazis eventually found the
children and sent them to their deaths. But my mom tried to save them
even though she knew she was powerless to do so. And I can assure you, knowing
her and learning from her as I did throughout my life, she would have done the
same for any child under threat, Jewish or Christian or Muslim. She would have
been horrified by the senseless killing of children in this terrible conflict,
both Palestinian and Israeli, and she would have railed at the injustice of it
all. And this is my last question for you: Why haven’t you done the same?
Sincerely, » Dr. Sara Roy
Yet whenever I speak out about the conflict between
Israel and Palestine, I’m cautioned to “be careful” — that I’ll only be able to
have a fruitful dialogue by recognizing grievances on “both sides.”
Well, I recognize a few things.
I recognize that any loss of life, whether Israeli or
Palestinian, is a loss to be grieved. I recognize that both
Israelis and Palestinians have a right to self-determination, and that neither
side should be subjected to violence.
I also recognize that this latest conflict on the ground reveals a
huge power imbalance that gives Israel the
upper hand — thanks in no small part to the
$3.8 billion that U.S. taxpayers spend on Israel’s military
every year. As of May 17, about a dozen Israelis had died,
while the toll for Palestinians had reached over 200 — including over 60
children.
Finally, as a Black American, I recognize that Palestinians are fighting
for the same basic human rights as Black people, Indigenous people, and other
people of color right here in this country.
When I traveled to the region five years ago, I was
horrified by what I saw. Turnstile check points
managed by Israeli Defense Forces that Palestinians had to travel through
daily. Entire villages without running water and electricity living across from
Israeli settlers with every amenity imaginable.
I watched Israeli soldiers raid a refugee camp in the middle of the night
across the street from the hotel where I stayed in Ramallah. It made me
nauseous — and I was further appalled to learn about the hundreds of Palestinian minors imprisonedand
tried in Israeli military courts.
I left the place feeling like I had left the twilight zone. As Israel’s
right-wing government — which rules over millions of Arab Palestinians — moves
to explicitly establish Israel as a Jewish-only state, the parallels between Jewish nationalism in Israel and
white supremacy in the United States have grown ever clearer.
What’s worse, Israel’s efforts to create a Jewish-only state have been
strongly and historically supported by the United States.
Like previous administrations, the Biden administration has followed the
same script, vocally supporting Israel. The White House has exclusively supported Israel’s “right to
self-defense” — but not that of the Palestinians living under occupation.
This inequality often extends to media coverage as
well. Israeli forces blew up the offices of Western journalists in Gaza yet
still receive more sympathetic coverage in the U.S. press than the Palestinians
those bombs fall on.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has been
accused of crimes against humanity, just got 10 minutes
of airtime on Face the Nation to defend his actions. Palestinians
rarely get that kind of exposure.
But hopefully, things may be changing.
Two-dozen members of Congress sent a letter urging Israel to halt its
evictions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Others are calling on the U.S. to
attach human rights conditions to its aid to Israel.
Meanwhile people around the globe are marching,
like we saw last summer after the murder of George Floyd, to #FreePalestine.
“If we are to make good on our promises to support equal human rights for
all, it is our duty to end the apartheid system that for decades has subjected
Palestinians to inhumane treatment and racism,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American to serve in Congress.
Just as Black Lives Matter, so do Palestinian Lives Matter. We cannot
campaign for racial healing and justice on stolen land in our own country while
simultaneously backing a campaign to occupy and displace people abroad.
U.S. foreign policy on Israel-Palestine currently makes all of us complicit in crimes against humanity. That must change, now." By Tracey L; Rogers
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