I'm Starting to Suspect That Biden Doesn't Actually Want Israel to Stop

I know, I know, but hear me out.

Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden has been clear for months: he wants the violence in Gaza to stop, he wants civilians to be protected, and he definitely doesn’t want Israel to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

“Joe Biden said…he hopes to have a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza start by next Monday,” Reuters reported on February 27.

“Asked whether an invasion of Rafah, in the south of Gaza on the border with Egypt, was a red line, Biden replied in the affirmative: ‘It is a red line,’” Politico reported on March 10.

“President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they spoke on Thursday that ‘an immediate ceasefire’ is needed to ‘protect innocent civilians’ in Gaza and improve the humanitarian situation,” Axios reported on April 4.

“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers,” Biden told CNN on May 9.

There’s no ambiguity there. If you take Biden at his word, he has given Israel a stark warning about its obligations under international law and repeatedly demanded an end to the assault on Gaza.

So why am I beginning to suspect that Joe Biden might not have been telling the truth when he said all those things?

I know, I know: it’s a serious accusation to make. The president of the United States—someone the brilliant Chris Cillizza called a “fundamentally decent human being”—being less than honest about the depth of his compassion for the people of Gaza? I don’t want to believe it either. But recent events have made me start to have doubts.

Take Rafah, for instance.