Joe Biden admits Israel committed war crimes
The departing President seemed to think this would help how history remembers him. But this was simply a confession of complicity in genocide
Joe Biden has admitted that Israel has committed war crimes. That comes in a new interview for MSNBC, which should be treated for what it is: a confession, specifically a confession of complicity in genocide.
Why is Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, on the very eve of his presidency ending, publicly declaring that he had told the leader of a foreign state he has armed to the teeth for 15 months, to stop “carpet bombing” civilians at the beginning of an incessant genocidal onslaught? After all, Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions is very clear that carpet bombing civilian areas is a war crime.
The answer is Biden thinks this will bolster his place in history. He knows that history is set to return a damning indictment of his time in the White House.
One poll for PBS News finds that over a third of Americans believe he will go down in the history books as one of the worst presidents in US history, compared to 5% who say one of the best. That places him right down at the bottom of the league of US presidents, sandwiched between George W Bush - the architect of the Iraq catastrophe - and Richard Nixon - who resigned in disgrace.
He thinks this clip will lead historians to believe that actually he did remonstrate with Benjamin Netanyahu - that he did implore him to stop unleashing barbaric indiscriminate firepower against the innocent people of Gaza.
Well, this interview should be treated simply as an incriminating confession. If Joe Biden ever ended up at the International Criminal Court, this clip alone would be sufficient to find him guilty of complicity in grave war crimes.
Because it proves that Joe Biden knew exactly what the Israeli state was doing right from the start. Now Israel has been the biggest recipient of military aid of any foreign state in the post-war era, but in the year following 7th October 2023, that surged to nearly $18bn.
The US sent thousands of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel since October 7th, despite knowing full well these were used to indiscriminately slaughter civilians. The New York Times, despite generally dire overall reporting of the genocide, made clear in December 2013 that Israel was dropping 2,000 pound bombs on areas that Israel told civilians to flee to.
In October 2024, a Harvard study found that between 7th October and 17th November 2023 - that is in the first 41 days - the Israeli military dropped nearly 600 2000lb bombs “with the capacity to damage hospital infrastructure and kill or cause severe injury hundreds of meters away”. One third of those bombs identified were within dangerous proximity of hospitals across Gaza.
And in a recent study the NGO Airwars published 606 incidents of civilian harm reported in the first 3 weeks of the onslaught, and found a minimum of 5,319 civilians were killed by the aerial onslaught, concluding:
“By almost every metric, the harm to civilians from the first month of the Israeli campaign in Gaza is incomparable with any 21st century air campaign. It is by far the most intense, destructive, and fatal conflict for civilians that Airwars has ever documented.”
All of this is what academics and journalists have uncovered. The US security services have vastly more resources to know what Israel is doing. And we can hear that Biden knew exactly what was happening. And he knowingly kept arming what are - under international law - grave war crimes.
In Biden’s interview, he cites how Netanyahu defended himself by noting how the US and its allies carpet bombed civilian areas during World War 2, up to and including using nuclear weapons.
This comparison between Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the Allies’ behaviour in World War 2 is disgustingly offensive, and frequently deployed by Israel’s apologists. For a start, it means comparing the primitive unguided bombs of that era with what is supposed to be one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries on earth. Then there is the fact that the Axis powers - that is Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan and so on - directly caused 85% of the deaths in World War 2.
Another point. World War 2 was a righteous, just war against fascist barbarism. It’s also undoubtedly true that Allies committed war crimes. The firebombing of Dresden was a grave war crime, with no meaningful military significance, and was seen as such by people at the time. And out of World War 2 we had, for example, the Second Geneva Convention, which criminalised some of the things the Allies did.
But all of that aside, Nazi Germany was a military superpower which was conquering the whole of Europe, waging a war of annihilation on the Eastern front, committing multiple genocides, and had a genuine shot at world domination.
Gaza is a tiny slither of land no bigger than East London which was legally under occupation - as per the United Nations - prior to 7th October, subjected to the longest siege of our time, mostly made up of refugees, indeed the families of people who had been violently ethnically cleansed in 1948. Not a military superpower conquering the world, but a frankly ragtag militant force with overwhelmingly primitive weapons. That is not to say that grave war crimes weren’t committed on 7th October, which I’ve always been consistent about. What is also true is that this vile comparison erases the context of decades of brutal occupation, ethnic cleansing, siege, mass slaughters of Palestinians, colonisation and so on stripped away. The comparison, overall, is obscene, and part of a strategy of turning the world on its head.
In the interview, Biden claimed he pushed “hard” for humanitarian aid to get in to Gaza. Well, what did he do about that exactly, given the people of Gaza cannot survive on allegedly stern private conversations Biden has had with Netanyahu? Oh, nothing. Two US government agencies had concluded by April - so months after Biden’s purported conversation - that Israel had deliberately blocked humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza.
That then compelled the US by its own laws to stop sending Israel arms. And guess what the US did! It broke its own laws and carried on handing Israel endless weapons.
All the way through this horror show Joe Biden has occasionally performed. a public handwringing act.
On 12th December 2023, Biden warned that Israel risked losing support over what he said was ‘indiscriminate bombing’ in Gaza. What did he do? Carried on giving Israel weapons
On 12th February 2024, Joe Biden apparently vented his frustration in multiple private conversations about his inability to persuade Israel to change its military tactics, and trying to get a ceasefire, claioming Netanyahu was “giving him hell” and was impossible to deal with. What did he do? Carried on giving Israel weapons.
On 9th March 2024, Joe Biden warned an onslaught against Rafah was a red line Israel must not cross. Israel crossed it. What did he do? Carried on giving Israel weapons.
In the interests of fairness, it was later revealed that he privately called Netanyahu '“a fucking liar.” I’m sure this is reassuring to the survivors of the destruction of Rafah.
On 3rd April 2024, when Israel killed white Westerners by butchering 7 World Central Kitchen workers - notably one of whom was a Palestinian, but it was not his death which triggered an unusual response by Western politicians and media outlets - Biden said he was outraged at Israel. What did he do? Carried on giving Israel weapons.
On 10th April 2024, Biden said Netanyahu’s handling of the onslaught was “a mistake” and added “I don’t agree with his approach.” Once more, presenting himself as though he was a detached commentator, rather than the leader of a superpower facilitating the entire bloodbath. What did he do? Carried on giving Israel weapons.
On 4th June 2024, Biden said there is every reason for people to draw the conclusion that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation. What did he do? Carried on giving Israel weapons.
I could go on. Joe Biden knows that Israel has committed multiple unspeakable war crimes in what is a genocidal onslaught. He has the most sophisticated intelligence agencies on earth, and he is one phone call away from any expert pretty much on earth. He knew and he facilitate this unspeakable crime from the very start.
Biden is a war criminal. He belongs in jail. At the very least we must make sure he is remembered for what he is - and that is a bloodstained monster.
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