He once pledged Gaza aid would stop if Hamas stole it. What happened?
From WSJ, Oct. 16, 2024, by The Editorial Board:
On Oct. 18, 2023, President Biden announced that humanitarian aid would move from Egypt to Gaza with Israel’s consent “based on the understanding that there will be inspections and that the aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas.” A year later Mr. Biden has reneged on that pledge, and he’s blaming Israel in the bargain.
Mr. Biden’s words a year ago were definitive: “Let me be clear. If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people and it will end. As a practical matter, it will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid.” Note that “it will end.”
Instead the President has demanded that Israel transfer ever more aid, even as Hamas steals it to keep power over Gaza’s population. Israel’s Channel 12 News reported, with video evidence, that Hamas commandeered 47 of 100 aid trucks entering Gaza last Tuesday. This is Hamas’s lifeline. It keeps the war going.
Israel lately had been squeezing Hamas in northern Gaza, trying to break its aid-grip on the people, but Vice President Kamala Harris came out against the effort on Sunday. She is grandstanding for anti-Israel voters in Michigan after Israel had privately agreed to relent. Earlier that day the Biden Administration had threatened Israel in a letter from senior U.S. officials Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin: Surge aid to Gaza within 30 days or risk a weapons embargo.
The timing couldn’t be worse. Israel may soon retaliate against Iran for its recent missile attack, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needs to know that America has Israel’s back. Instead Mr. Biden sends a more equivocal message: The U.S. will aid Israel’s defense but do its best to weaken Israel’s response to attacks.
Hence the arrival of the Thaad missile-defense system in Israel this week—while U.S. officials leak that Israel agreed in exchange to spare Iran’s nuclear and oil assets. The Administration made its peace with Israel’s limited ground operation in Lebanon—while pressuring Israel to curb its attacks on Hezbollah leaders in the Beirut suburbs.
The U.S. aid ultimatum is best understood in this light. The Biden team supports Israel, but not the moves that might deliver victory. The Administration suggests it could withhold offensive weapons from Israel—while maintaining missile defense. Under duress, Israel has signaled it will cooperate on the aid, so Mr. Biden may not make good on his threat. The question is why he so often threatens Israel, and never Hamas or Iran.
Mr. Biden’s threat letter also urges Israel to keep the status quo with Unrwa, the compromised United Nations refugee agency, and schedule Red Cross visits for Hamas prisoners in Israel, which isn’t required for unlawful combatants. Meanwhile, Hamas refuses Red Cross visits to the hostages it holds.
Hamas broke off hostage talks weeks ago. As White House spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday, “I wish I could tell you that there are fresh negotiations at hand. There aren’t, but that’s because Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar,” Hamas’s leader, “has shown absolutely zero interest in continuing that discussion.”
The Biden-Harris answer is to send him another aid bailout—and then wonder why the Gaza war continues. Israel’s military has resisted taking charge of aid distribution directly, but it may have no other choice.