Friends,
Much is being made of President Biden’s shift toward harsher criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As Axios put it, “President Biden has begun a tricky maneuver: Breaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Gaza war strategy – while sticking with Israel and its fight against Hamas, which is still holding hostages.”
As a former Israeli diplomat – and someone who’s spent nearly every day since October 7 volunteering with the families of those taken hostage – I wanted to share my thoughts on this strategy.
In short: It is urgent, necessary and overdue. Above all, it is profoundly pro-Israel.
Here in Israel, there can be no doubt about President Biden’s commitment. He’s met with victims of October 7 and their families, helped secure the release of over 100 hostages, and is the only US president to visit Israel in wartime.
Indeed, President Biden’s approval ratings here significantly exceed those of Netanyahu – so when he said Saturday that the Prime Minister was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” his words reverberated nationwide.
Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas, but he must – he must, he must – pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost,” he said.
As a former IDF Officer, I’m no stranger to the horrors of war. But the catastrophic scenes from Gaza – and the intolerable rhetoric of extremists who seek to make things worse – are a painful violation of both Jewish and Israeli values.
Biden said it clearly: “It’s contrary to what Israel stands for.”
As several hundred former Israeli security officials and diplomats – including former heads of the IDF and Mossad – wrote in a letter released by Commanders for Israel’s Security, "beyond the moral aspects” the humanitarian crisis deals “damage to Israel’s security and strategic interests.”
It’s a failure of leadership which risks fuelling support for Israel’s enemies, and will make the challenge of post-war security and stability even harder.
After warning in his State of the Union address that Israeli leaders cannot see humanitarian aid as a “secondary consideration or bargaining chip,” President Biden promised to do “everything we can” to get food, water and medicine into Gaza – by land, sea and air.
“We cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead,” he said, warning that Netanyahu’s planned invasion of Rafah, with no plans to protect over a million civilians crowded there, is a “red line.”
“I’ll always stand with Israel,” he reiterated. “The defense of Israel is still critical. There’s no red line that I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
I strongly support this direct, plain-speaking approach: Ironclad support for Israel’s security twinned with genuine regard for Palestinian lives and our shared values – the type of leadership the Netanyahu government has failed to demonstrate.
I imagine President Biden’s message is also one with which the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community would agree.
J Street has long argued that the US must distinguish between supporting Israel’s security and opposing the Netanyahu government’s extremist policies – and abhorrent indifference to the suffering of civilians – which undermines our shared values and Israel’s own interests.
President Biden is now making that distinction clearer than ever.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, is feeling the pressure. Yesterday, he pushed back with an appearance on Fox News, seeking to conflate support for his government with support for Israel itself. We cannot allow him to succeed.
We stand at an inflection point. Decisions made now will have long-lasting consequences: For the safety of hostages, for the prospects for peace and security, for Israel’s place in the region, for the long-term fight to defeat terror and chart a course for a better future.
As President Biden made clear, there is a path to a future of peace, safety and legitimacy: A comprehensive regional agreement including full recognition for both Israel and Palestine – two secure, independent states side-by-side. The full and complete realization of the dream of a safe, just, democratic homeland for the Jewish people.
Perhaps uniquely among all American presidents, President Biden has the opportunity to guide us toward that better future. He should continue to make the case directly to the Israeli people – to appeal to both our long-term interests and our shared values – and to do so over the heads of a government that seems determined to put its own short-term political and ideological interests above all else.
In doing so, I know he will have the support of J Street, and the overwhelming majority of pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy American Jews who care about Israel’s security and the safety of hostages, and share profound anguish over the conduct of this war and the suffering in Gaza.
Thank you, sincerely, for all that you do.
Nadav Tamir
Executive Director, J Street Israel
