On the afternoon of October 10, three days after the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 people in Israel, Joe Biden addressed the world, promising that the United States would "stand with Israel" in this crucial hour.
"So, in this moment, we must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack."
Of late, that pledge is beginning to slip a bit.
Perhaps the Biden administration was unclear on what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant by saying that Israel would destroy Hamas. Two weeks ago, the president told Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians in Gaza and use "surgical strikes" to destroy Hamas.
Naturally, Israel ignored Biden's well-meaning but irrelevant advice and is continuing to bomb Hamas in Gaza. The southern part of the territory has now been largely emptied, making the IDF's job a little easier.
Now, the issue is hospitals and Israel's efforts to root out Hamas from their hiding places there. The IDF says that Hamas's main headquarters is located under the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest health facility in the territory. The Gaza Health Ministry, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hamas, denies it.
Biden takes the side of Hamas/Gaza Health Ministry in calling on Israel to stop attacking their enemy's headquarters.
“Well, as we know, I have not been reluctant expressing my concerns with what’s going on,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office.
“My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis,” he continued. “Also, there is an effort to get this pause to deal with the release of prisoners and that’s being negotiated… So I remain somewhat hopeful, but hospitals must be protected.”
Hamas has used Al-Shifa for press conferences with journalists in previous rounds of conflict. In 2008, The New York Times reported Hamas gunmen in civilian clothing were seen around the hospital, claiming to be security guards but seen killing people they alleged to, what Hamas considers, be in collaboration with Israel.
Still, Gazan health officials have warned conditions inside the hospital are dire due to lack of medicine, fuel and food as hundreds of patients shelter inside. Reuters interviewed Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra, who was inside Al-Shifa hospital, and he said 32 patients died in the past three days, including three newborn babies, as a result of Israel’s siege of the hospital and lack of power.
Al-Rantisi, a pediatric hospital in North Gaza, was used by Hamas's fighters returning from the attack that killed 1,400 civilians in Israel as a refuge, according to a video compiled by the IDF.
Among the evidence was a bullet-ridden motorcycle of the kind used to kidnap the Israelis, as well as other items left behind by the captors such as baby bottles, ropes used to bind the hostages, and a makeshift toilet. A separate room, with curtains covering solid cinderblock blocks and couches lining each wall, as well as what appears to be a guard-duty roster starting on October 7, was also depicted in the video.
Hamas “runs its terror machine under hospitals in Gaza,” Mr. Hagari said. The group, he added, “uses this children’s hospital, Rantisi, to hide.”
CNN, citing anonymous intelligence officials, reported Monday that American authorities are aware that Hamas uses one of the region’s other main hospitals, the Shifa hospital, as a base of operations, and regularly steals fuel intended for the facilities for its own purposes.
Just because the rest of the world chooses to believe terrorists about the innocence of these hospitals doesn't mean we have to. Israel has surrounded the Al Shifa Hospital not because there are thousands of civilians there but because that's where Hamas headquarters is. The Gaza Health Ministry's propaganda doesn't mention that Israel offered portable incubators so that babies could be transferred to other hospitals. Hamas refused, which says a lot about Hamas's priorities in this war.
Biden is probably regretting his pledge to "stand with Israel" now that the rest of the world is accusing him of genocide. This is the time for Biden to grit his teeth and shut his mouth. If Biden didn't know how bloody the business of eliminating Hamas would be, that's on him and not the Israelis.
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