President Joe Biden, in an op-ed posted Saturday by The Washington Post, said that the “world faces an inflection point, where the choices we make … will determine the direction of our future for generations to come.”
He linked Vladimir Putin and Hamas, saying that both are “fighting to wipe a neighboring democracy off the map.” He added, “America cannot, and will not, let that happen. For our own national security interests — and for the good of the entire world.”
The Republican-controlled House hasn’t acted on Biden’s proposed $105 billion national security package that includes military and humanitarian assistance for the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel. Biden’s op-ed did not specifically mention House Republicans or GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, but he did warn of the dangers of isolationism.
“The world looks to us to solve the problems of our time. That is the duty of leadership, and America will lead. For if we walk away from the challenges of today, the risk of conflict could spread, and the costs to address them will only rise. We will not let that happen.”
Biden said the U.S. stands “firmly with the Israeli people as they defend themselves against the murderous nihilism of Hamas,” detailing the horrors of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack, calling it “the worst atrocity committed against the Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust.” And he said that while Israelis “are still in shock and suffering the trauma of this attack, Hamas has promised that it will relentlessly try to repeat Oct. 7.”
But he also expressed sympathy for the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. He said he was “heartbroken by the images out of Gaza and the deaths of many thousands of civilians, including children.”
And he wrote:
The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own and a future free from Hamas. … Our goal should not be simply to stop the war for today — it should be to end the war forever, break the cycle of unceasing violence, and build something stronger in Gaza and across the Middle East so that history does not keep repeating itself. ...
This much is clear: A two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people. Though right now it may seem like that future has never been further away, this crisis has made it more imperative than ever.
A two-state solution — two peoples living side by side with equal measures of freedom, opportunity and dignity — is where the road to peace must lead. Reaching it will take commitments from Israelis and Palestinians, as well as from the United States and our allies and partners. That work must start now.
Biden then described the basic principles proposed by the U.S. to move forward from the current crisis:
__ No forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
__ No reoccupation, no siege or blockade
__ No reduction in territory.
Biden said Gaza and the West Bank “should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority.”
israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads
the most right-wing government in the history of the Jewish state. The government opposes a two-state solution, has undermined the Palestinian Authority, and has expanded settlements on the West Bank.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, extremist settlers have unleashed a severe backlash against Palestinian civilians on the West Bank, who have been
violently attacked and
harassed,
The Times of Israel reported. Hundreds of Palestinians in rural communities have fled their homes and villages.
In his op-ed, Biden wrote that he has been “emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable.” He added that the U.S. is prepared to issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.
At the same time, the president said the U.S. was “levying
multiple rounds of sanctions to degrade Hamas’s financial structure, cutting it off from outside funding and blocking access to new funding channels.”
The president explicitly called out Hamas forusing Palestinian civilians, including children, as human shields and positioning “terrorist tunnels beneath hospitals, schools, mosques and residential buildings.”
He wrote: “If Hamas cared at all for Palestinian lives, it would release all the hostages, give up arms, and surrender the leaders and those responsible for Oct. 7.”
Reps. Rashida Tlaib,
Cori Bush and other members of the Squad have introduced a resolution calling for a cease-fire. Polls show nearly half of Democrats disapprove of how Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas conflict.
But while he supports temporary humanitarian cease-fires, Biden reiterated that he opposes a full cease-fire.
He wrote:
As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace. To Hamas’s members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would once more perpetuate its hate and deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves.
He also referenced the impact the Israel-Hamas war has had on Jews and Arab-Americans in the U.S.
“We can’t stand by when hate rears its head. We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate and bias. We must renounce violence and vitriol and see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans.”
Biden concluded his op-ed by observing that as difficult as it might seem there is still hope for a better outcome.
But we must never forget the lesson learned time and again throughout our history: Out of great tragedy and upheaval, enormous progress can come. More hope. More freedom. Less rage. Less grievance. Less war. We must not lose our resolve to pursue those goals, because now is when clear vision, big ideas and political courage are needed most. That is the strategy that my administration will continue to lead — in the Middle East, Europe and around the globe. Every step we take toward that future is progress that makes the world safer and the United States of America more secure.