The politics of Israel’s war in Gaza get more difficult to navigate each day.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, Israel had significant world support for its shaken, yet clear-eyed focus on the elimination of Hamas, return of the hostages and ridding the Jewish state of further security threats from Gaza. In the ensuing six months — as the war effort has dragged on, 135 hostages remain in Gaza, and we are bombarded with daily reports of Palestinian civilian death and suffering — that support has morphed into a series of challenges to the historic respect for Israel’s military, mounting concern regarding the motives of Israel’s leaders and the moral standing of Israel’s government.
It seems as if the world has turned its back on the Jewish state as former allies have bought into the accusatory narrative. Mistakes that Israel makes in the heat of war are seized upon as intentional acts of a heartless aggressor, and Hamas’ evil and ongoing victimization of Gaza’s civilian population is ignored. In the warped political reality in which Israel finds itself, barbarians who murdered, sexually abused and kidnapped men, women and children are excused. Civilized, democratic and disciplined governments are given no leeway even when operating in the pressure cooker of an existential threat.
A heightened level of international indignation was sounded following the tragic deaths last week of seven international aid workers of the World Central Kitchen who were delivering food to Gaza civilians. Israel admitted that its military made a terrible mistake and accepted responsibility for the tragic losses. Israel promptly conducted an investigation and issued a report which detailed the mistakes made, the protocols violated and the penalties imposed on military personnel involved. For some critics of Israel, however, that wasn’t enough. Instead, they defaulted to the reflexive accusation that the deaths were intentional and part of a deliberate attempt by Israel to frustrate the delivery of aid to Gazans and to commit genocide.
President Joe Biden grieved for the loss of life and continued expressing concern about the welfare of civilians in Gaza but refused to jump to accusatory conclusions. Although he has questioned some of Israel’s military plans, advocated for restraint to protect civilians trapped in Gaza and clashed with Israel’s leadership on its war plans, the self-proclaimed “proud Zionist” has not faltered in his historic support of the Jewish state. His insistence on April 4 in his call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must “announce and implement concrete and measurable steps to protect aid workers and address humanitarian suffering in Gaza,” was a reasonable response to the WCK tragedy and the mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We have already seen Israeli deference to those demands.
We remain confident in Biden’s continuing commitment to Israel as articulated just last week by his National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, that “No country should have to live next door to a threat that is truly genocidal as Hamas has been. So, while we make no bones about the fact that we have certain issues about some of the way things are being done, we also make no bones about the fact that Israel is going to continue to have American support for the fight they’re in.”
