With allies like President Joe Biden, who needs enemies?
While Israel continues its counterattack in Gaza, the administration threatened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wage a gentler war or lose the support of the U.S.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced an Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers with the World Central Kitchen on Monday.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of the General Staff LTG Herzi Halevi had already called the incident a “grave mistake” and apologized.
“Israel is at a war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza,” the general said.
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“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification — at night during a war in very complex conditions,” Halevi explained. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
Still, Blinken admonished Israel in a news conference Thursday, stating that it was “not the first such incident” but “must be the last.”
Before making his veiled threat, Blinken backed Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 surprise terrorist attack Hamas waged on them.
Yet when speaking to reporters later, he doubled down on insinuating that the U.S. could pull support from Israel if the administration isn’t happy with how the war is executed.
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“With regard to our policy in Gaza, look, I’ll just say this: If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there’ll be changes in our own policy,” Blinken reiterated.
Blinken stopped short of saying what those “changes” might entail, but he seemed to be expressing a willingness to abandon America’s long-time ally over collateral damage that is unfortunately common in wartime.
However, it seems this queasiness with the realities of war comes straight from the top.
Earlier on Thursday, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone conference that the attack on “humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation is unacceptable,” Fox News reported.
The president urged Netanyahu toward an “immediate ceasefire” that Biden believes would be “essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians.”
Such strong language for an ally defending itself from unprovoked attack gives the impression that the U.S. is ready to cut and run, which Biden already has a history of doing.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with holding Israel accountable for the needless deaths of humanitarian workers.
Still, it’s not appropriate when it comes as a public admonishment to shape up or else.
Even in a just war, the casualties both sides incur are a tragic waste of human life, which is why they should be avoided at all costs.
But the surest way to do that is to be a nation that projects strength and resolve — instead, Biden continues to be notoriously squishy with allies and adversaries alike.
The president is once again showing the world that he’s weak, unprincipled, and lacks resolve — and it seems Israel could be worse off for trusting him to be anything else.
