Oct 18, 2023
Biden Upholds UNCONDITIONAL Support Of Israel, Even As They Bomb Palestinian Civilians
A United States' intelligence spokesperson and even President Joe Biden claimed the bombing of a Gaza City hospital was a Palestinian-Jihadi rocket that has misfired.
- 19 minutes
I wanted to be here today for
a simple reason.
I want the people of Israel,
the people of the world,
to know where the United States stands.
I've had my great Secretary of State here.
He's been here for a lot, but I wanted
to personally come and make that clear.
[00:00:18]
The fact is that Israel,
as they respond to these attacks,
seems to me that that have to
continue to ensure that you have what
you need to defend yourselves, and we're
gonna make sure that occurs as you know.
[00:00:34]
>> President Joe Biden showed
unequivocal support toward Israel during
his visit with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
Now, despite Gaza's exploding civilian
death toll, which is caused by Israel's
continued blockade of humanitarian aid and
its merciless bombing campaign,
[00:00:53]
our president appeared on the world stage
to declare that America supports and
will continue to fund Israel's brutality
toward the Palestinian people.
And make no mistake,
that is exactly how Biden's
words have been perceived in Israel and
around the world.
[00:01:10]
Just ask Dan Arbell, who's a senior fellow
at the center for Middle East Policy.
>> Speaker 3: Israelis are just
ecstatic and enthusiastic about it and
are very much appreciating this.
Obviously, it gives Israel, sends
the message that the US stands by Israel,
[00:01:28]
is not tying Israel's hands with
whatever Israel wants to do,
at the same time, providing every
military item that Israel will need for
this offensive that it's planning to
do right after probably the president
[00:01:44]
leaves sort of a continuation of the
operation, but on the ground this time.
>> Speaker 2: Just wanna repeat one
sentence from what you just heard,
that Biden is not tying Israel's
hands in what it wants to do.
[00:02:01]
Just keep that in mind.
Now, Biden went even further to show
his unwavering devotion to the Israeli
government's actions in Gaza and
cleared Israel of any blame for
yesterday's Al-Ahli hospital explosion.
>> Speaker 1: I was deeply saddened and
[00:02:17]
outraged by the explosion at
the hospital in Gaza yesterday.
And based on what I've seen,
it appears as though it was done
by the other team, not you.
But there's a lot of
people out there not sure.
So we gotta overcome a lot of things.
[00:02:35]
>> Speaker 2: Now, that statement led to
a lot of outrage because it appeared that
Biden had just taken what
the IDF had said at face value.
The IDF claims a misfired
rocket by the Israeli Jihad,
not Hamas, hit the hospital.
But then, Biden later told reporters that
he made his statement based on, quote,
[00:02:54]
the data I was shown by my
defense department, end quote.
The Pentagon referred
questions to the White House.
So just let that sink in for a second.
Biden, after making that statement
on the world stage, said, no,
I made that statement after the defense
department gave me intel and
[00:03:11]
showed me that Israel was
cleared of any wrongdoing.
Reporters reach out to the Pentagon
to ask some questions about that, and
the Pentagon tells reporters
talk to the White House.
Now White House National Security Council
spokeswoman Adrian Watson says,
[00:03:27]
they're continuing to collect
information on the incident, but
that our current assessment, based on
analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts,
and open source information, meaning
not an investigation on the ground,
[00:03:42]
is that Israel is not responsible for
the explosion at the hospital in Gaza.
The IDF released what
they refer to as evidence
that has not been verified
by independent sources.
>> Speaker 4: The Israeli military has
released evidence of what it says is proof
[00:03:59]
that this was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad
rocket, which misfired.
They're pointing to two things.
One, drone footage over the hospital,
which they say shows that there is
no crater outside the hospital.
You would expect if this was an Israeli
airstrike with a heavy ordinance
[00:04:16]
that there would be some kind of crater.
Two, they have released what they
are saying is an intercepted conversation
between two Hamas officials, where these
officials seem to acknowledge that this
was a misfired Palestinian rocket
that caused the explosion.
[00:04:31]
We should be really clear.
NBC News is not able to verify
either of these Israeli claims.
We are not able to get to
the hospital ourselves.
The Israel Gaza border is sealed,
the Egypt Gaza border is sealed, so
we are not able to verify this ourselves.
The Palestinians are adamant that
this was an Israeli airstrike.
[00:04:51]
They are saying that hundreds
of people were killed.
It is worth saying Hamas and
Islamic Jihad do not acknowledge that
their rockets do fall in Gaza,
which does happen.
But it is also worth saying that this is a
much, much larger death toll than what we
[00:05:07]
would normally associate with
Palestinian rockets, which are deadly,
which are dangerous, but they do not
normally kill hundreds of people.
>> Speaker 2: Wanna give NBC News credit
for doing a good job in making clear that
there is a lot that is still uncertain
about that hospital explosion.
[00:05:24]
And to be quite frank, I personally
feel uncomfortable trusting the IDF or
the United States intelligence on this.
For one, the US is committed to
unwavering support toward Israel,
regardless of what its military does.
But that commitment is a lot easier
without acknowledging war crimes.
[00:05:40]
And look, even if a truly independent
party conducts an adequate investigation
clearing Israel of any wrongdoing,
specifically in the hospital explosion,
are we just going to pretend that
the high civilian death toll in Gaza is
a sign that the IDF is
engaging in a careful and
[00:05:57]
precise military operation
to root out Hamas?
What about the West Bank,
the occupied West Bank,
where Hamas does not have control?
What about the brutality
Palestinians are facing there?
Biden's comments happened with
the backdrop of mass protests around
[00:06:14]
the world, expressing outrage over
what happened to the hospital.
>> Speaker 5: Rage is erupting
across the Arab world.
Thousands of protesters converged
on the US embassy in Beirut.
>> Speaker 5: We're here to
let the Arab people wake up.
[00:06:31]
>> Speaker 5: In Turkey, demonstrators
rushed the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.
They're all reacting to what
Palestinians call a massacre that
explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital
in Gaza City.
>> I heard an almighty screech,
followed by a large explosion.
[00:06:49]
Part of the ceiling of
the operating room fell.
>> Speaker 5: Bodies can be seen laying on
the ground, children among the victims.
>> Speaker 2: Now, keep in mind that
just days ago, on October 14th,
the World Health Organization,
which is the United Nations Agency for
[00:07:07]
Public Health, condemned Israel for
ordering the evacuations of 22 hospitals
treating 2000 Palestinians in north Gaza.
The forced evacuation of patients and
health workers will further worsen
the current humanitarian and
public health catastrophe, they wrote.
[00:07:23]
The lives of many critically ill and
fragile patients hang in the balance.
Those in intensive care or
who rely on life support,
patients undergoing hemodialysis,
newborns in incubators,
women with complications of pregnancy,
and others, all face imminent
[00:07:41]
deterioration of their condition or
death if they are forced to move and
are cut off from life-saving medical
attention while being evacuated.
There are verified reports of
deaths of health care workers and
[00:07:56]
destruction of health facilities, which
denies civilians the basic human right of
life-saving health care and is prohibited
under International Humanitarian Law.
And look, even while the hospital
explosion is getting all of the attention,
[00:08:13]
and there's this big debate
about who is responsible for it,
there's other examples of
hospitals being targeted that
are not getting as much attention
because the death toll is much lower.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society
said the blasts targeted multiple
[00:08:29]
residential buildings and main streets
in the area of Al Quds hospital and
the main headquarters of
the organization in the Tal al-Hawa
neighborhood in western Gaza City
that was just reported today.
As a result of this bombardment, shrapnel
has penetrated the building where more
[00:08:47]
than 8000 displaced
individuals are located,
along with the organization's staff,
according to the Palestinian Red Cross.
And it's not like the Al-Ahli hospital
hadn't been targeted by the IDF
previously.
In fact,
that hospital is an Anglican run hospital.
[00:09:05]
And days prior to the hospital explosion,
the Archbishop of Canterbury released
the following official statement.
The hospital was hit by Israeli
rocket fire last night,
with four staff injured in the blast.
Other hospitals have also been hit.
[00:09:21]
I appeal for the evacuation order on
hospitals in northern Gaza to be reversed
and for health facilities, health workers,
patients, and civilians to be protected.
The evil and
barbaric terror attacks on Israelis
by Hamas were a blasphemous outrage.
[00:09:40]
But the civilians of Gaza are not
responsible for the crimes of Hamas.
But as we've all seen, Palestinian
civilians have suffered the burden of
Israel's retaliation, not just during this
war, but in past wars in Gaza as well.
[00:09:56]
In 2014, Amnesty International put
out a statement condemning Israel's
targeting of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
The continuing bombardment,
they wrote at the time,
of civilian homes in several areas of
the Gaza Strip, as well as the Israeli
shelling of a hospital add to
the list of possible war crimes.
[00:10:14]
The third floor of the Al-Aqsa hospital
in Deir al-Balah was struck by Israeli
shelling, killing four people and
wounding dozens,
according to the Gaza Ministry
of Health spokesperson.
The al-Wafa rehabilitative hospital
was severely damaged after being
[00:10:31]
attacked twice by Israeli forces.
In addition to that statement,
the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem,
Hosam Naoum, said the hospital had
received at least three Israeli
military orders to evacuate
in the days before the blast.
[00:10:47]
It was hit by Israeli shelling Sunday,
wounding four staffers, he said.
And while the Hamas terror attacks
that killed 1400 Israeli civilians
were horrific and absolutely should
be condemned, those who do so would
[00:11:02]
be heartless hypocrites to dismiss the
rising Palestinian civilian death count.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,478
people have been killed in Gaza and
more than 12,000 wounded,
with most of the casualties being women,
[00:11:18]
children, and the elderly.
Another 1,300 people across Gaza are
believed to be buried under the rubble,
alive or dead, health authorities said.
The numbers will continue to grow.
Demonstrating brazen disregard for
civilian lives,
[00:11:34]
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on
Friday that all civilians, all civilian,
citizens of Gaza, are responsible for
the attack Hamas perpetrated in Israel.
Here's his quote, it is an entire
nation out there that is responsible.
[00:11:51]
It is not true this rhetoric about
civilians not being aware, not involved,
it's absolutely not true.
They could have risen up, they could
have fought against the evil regime
which took over Gaza in a coup d'etat,
right?
[00:12:06]
So the civilian Palestinian population
of Gaza is supposed to go against
a terrorist organization in possession of
all sorts of weapons, including rockets.
And if they don't,
then they're culpable for
[00:12:22]
the terror attacks that
Hamas carried out in Israel.
That is the line of thinking that
leads to the absolute undermining
of the severity of targeting civilians,
killing civilians.
Insider also reported
that images released,
[00:12:39]
specifically by the Israeli military, show
that the IDF is using unguided munitions.
Gaza is a densely populated area, and
unguided bombs increase
the likelihood of civilian casualties.
Here are the images in question.
[00:12:55]
It appears that the Israeli Air Force
may be dipping into stocks of older,
less accurate unguided munitions.
At least two recent
Israeli Air Force posts display
the use of 750 pound M117 unguided bombs.
[00:13:14]
There you see it?
There are more people
involved in this story,
more experts who looked at these photos,
and here's what they have to say.
Michael Bohnert, an engineer and
analyst at the Rand Corporation,
said that in the images, there was
no visible GPS-guided JDAM kit or
[00:13:32]
laser-guided Paveway kit.
The bomb in this picture is unguided and
likely highly inaccurate, he said.
Justin Bronk,
a senior research fellow for airpower and
military technology at
the Royal United Services Institute think
[00:13:48]
tank who's also a professor at
the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy,
also identified the bomb as
a 750 pound M117 dumb bomb.
The weapons used, the evacuation
orders toward hospitals, the previous
targeting of health facilities, and
the overall disregard for civilian lives
[00:14:08]
has led to the rage that protesters in
the Middle East are expressing today.
So as rage spread through the region
because of the hospital carnage,
Jordan's foreign minister said that
his country is deciding to cancel
a regional summit that was
scheduled today in Oman.
[00:14:26]
Biden was supposed to meet with
Jordan's King Abdullah II,
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Now, that's not going to happen.
The war between Israel and
Hamas was pushing the region to the brink.
[00:14:43]
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi
told state-run television.
He said Jordan would host the summit
only when everyone had agreed its
purpose would be to stop the war,
respect the humanity of the Palestinians,
[00:14:59]
and deliver the aid they deserve.
Biden's visit to Israel led to
one concession from Netanyahu.
Israel said that it will allow Egypt
to deliver limited quantities of
humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu's office said the decision
was approved in light of a request
[00:15:19]
from visiting U.S. President Joe Biden.
In a statement, it said it, quote,
will not thwart deliveries of food,
water, and medicine as long as
the supplies do not reach Hamas.
The statement made no
mention of badly needed fuel.
[00:15:36]
In addition,
Biden announced today that the United
States will be sending aid to Gaza.
I just announced, he wrote on X,
formerly known as Twitter,
$100 million for humanitarian
assistance in Gaza and the West Bank.
[00:15:52]
This money will support
over 1 million displaced,
conflict-affected Palestinians, and
we will have mechanisms in place so
this aid reaches those in need,
not Hamas or terrorist groups.
And in an update to this story,
which we just received,
[00:16:09]
apparently the Egyptian President,
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi
agreed to open the Rafa crossing
into Gaza for humanitarian aid.
After President Joe Biden
spoke with the leader for
more than an hour on Air Force One,
[00:16:25]
he agreed that what he would do is
open the gate to do two things.
One, let up to 20 trucks
through to begin with.
Biden told reporters who were traveling
with him on his way back from Israel.
My ambassador is in Cairo now,
he's going to coordinate this.
[00:16:42]
He has my authority to do what is
needed to get it done, Biden said.
But honestly, it's not clear when
the aid will begin to enter Gaza.
Egypt's Rafah crossing has
only a limited capacity, and
Egypt says it has been damaged
by Israeli airstrikes.
[00:17:00]
On Sunday, for instance,
Secretary of state Anthony Blinken said
the Rafah crossing out of Gaza,
which leads into Egypt and
is the only exit point from the Strip that
does not lead into Israel, would reopen.
Egyptian officials echoed that message,
and on Monday, the U.S. embassy to
[00:17:18]
Israel told the hundreds of Americans
trapped in Gaza to head to the crossing.
Then Israel bombed it for
the fourth time this month, and
it remained closed all day.
On Tuesday, far-right
Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared
[00:17:35]
that the only thing that should be
allowed into Gaza until Hamas and
allied militants free their nearly
200 hostages captured on October
7th are hundreds of tons of explosives,
not an ounce of humanitarian aid.
So I'm not gonna hold my breath
hoping that that humanitarian aid is
[00:17:54]
gonna reach Palestinian civilians soon.
I hope it does, but
we keep getting conflicting reports, and
it's easy to say that the Egyptian
government is gonna open that
border to allow humanitarian
aid to flow into Gaza, but
[00:18:09]
that's difficult to do when that area
is constantly riddled with airstrikes.
Now, at the same time, Israel refuses to
allow aid into Gaza from its territory.
And the associated press reports that
the Israeli strikes on Gaza continued
[00:18:26]
Wednesday, meaning today, including
on cities in south Gaza that Israel
had described as safe zones for
Palestinian civilians.
Let's keep it real.
This is relentless brutality
toward Palestinian civilians and
[00:18:41]
does little in creating a safer world for
Israelis.
The indiscriminate bombing of Gaza could
expand this war to neighboring countries,
including Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.
Biden has made clear that the United
States will not pressure Israel to pump
[00:18:58]
the brakes, and Americans with
a conscience feel powerless as our money,
including a possible additional
supplemental military aid package for
Israel, flow toward this asymmetrical and
brutal war.
That's the reality of the situation.
[00:19:13]
Regardless of whether Israel is finally
really cleared of that explosion
in the hospital, it would be a mistake
to just focus on that one instance.
Should look at the broader war,
look at the death toll, and
look at the endless statements coming from
Israel's far right government making it
[00:19:32]
clear that the lives of civilians
really don't matter that much.
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