By Palestine Chronicle Editors
127 days after an Israeli onslaught, which turned genocidal, on the besieged Gaza Strip, the American Administration is finally admitting to committing mistakes, or “missteps” in how it responded to the genocide.
It is unclear whether the Administration is genuine in its admission or if it is directly linked to the upcoming presidential elections, in which Arab American constituencies are set to play a vital role in highly contested states.
It might be the latter as the US’ admission, according to the New York Times, happened in a “closed-door meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan”.
In the meeting, “one of President Biden’s top foreign policy aides acknowledged mistakes in the administration’s response to the war in Gaza, saying he did not have ‘any confidence’ that Israel’s government was willing to take ‘meaningful steps’ toward Palestinian statehood.”
While it is true that the US Administration has, at times, urged Israel to conduct so-called ‘surgical operations’ in its war against the Palestinian Resistance, top US officials, including Biden himself, have fanned the flames of war since the very beginning.
Biden has gone as far as claiming that Israel’s war is linked “to the safety of the Jewish people” and that “were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who is safe.”
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His Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, visited Israel immediately after the October 7 operation – and many times since then – declaring that he was there “not only as secretary of state but also as a Jew”.
These statements were backed by two tangible policies, which continue until this day. On the one hand, the US still refuses to call for an immediate ceasefire and on the other, the US continues to support the Israeli military with thousands of tons of munitions, and other killing technologies.
Moreover, the US Senate is currently voting on an additional aid package, which would grant Israel $14 billion. This is in addition to the $3.8 billion of annual aid, which also mostly goes to the Israeli army.
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The comments in the meeting were conveyed by a Biden aide, Jon Finer, who is also the deputy national security adviser. “We are very well aware that we have (sic) missteps in the course of responding to this crisis since Oct. 7,” he said, as quoted in NYT.
“We have left a very damaging impression based on what has been a wholly inadequate public accounting for how much the president, the administration and the country values the lives of Palestinians. And that began, frankly, pretty early in the conflict,” he added.
The revelations come a day following comments by Biden, where he stated that Israel has gone “over the top” in its response to the Hamas’ attack.
For weeks, mostly US media has been reporting on serious disagreements between the Biden Administration and the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The White House has reportedly criticized Netanyahu for failing to provide a post-war vision, acknowledge the centrality of the two-state solution, and for wanting to ethnically cleanse Palestinians into the Egyptian Sinai desert.
“This might, to some extent, be true,” Ramzy Baroud, Palestinian journalist and political analyst, said. “The Biden Administration, however, failed to connect any of its demands and expectations to its ongoing financing of the genocide.”
Baroud added that “it would be unfair to say that the US has supported Israel in its war against the Palestinian people. All evidence suggests that the US was a direct partner in the war, and it has done its utmost to prevent any form of solidarity, be it military, humanitarian or legal to save the Palestinians from this ongoing Holocaust.”
“If Biden and his aides are frustrated, it is because Netanyahu has miserably failed in translating US-funded Israel’s military superiority into actual tangible or strategic gains on the ground. They are angry because he failed in finishing the job, and that failure could potentially cost Biden the presidency.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
