President Joe Biden's approval rating has taken a massive hit during Israel's war on Gaza. His handling of the war, which can be summed up as unconditional support for Israel, has also highlighted internal divisions in his administration. [00:00:16] But in a new piece, The Washington Post makes clear that Biden is attempting to basically, in my opinion, launder his reputation and soften his image in regard to how he's handling this war in Gaza. So reporters at The Washington Post spoke to 27 white House officials [00:00:35] for their reporting. That includes senior administration officials and also some outside advisers. And here's what they found that the division within the white House is, to some degree, between Biden's senior longtime aides. They tend to be a little more sympathetic toward Israel and an array of [00:00:54] younger staffers with diverse backgrounds. So the younger staffers are the ones that are more likely to speak out against Biden's unwavering support for Israel. Regardless of what Israel does, regardless of how far right the Israeli government [00:01:09] is, regardless of how many civilians are killed in the Gaza Strip. They've got a problem with that. And I have to say, this might be the first time I see the very real benefits of hiring young, diverse staffers because they provide a perspective that otherwise [00:01:30] would not be provided in the white House. You know, typically with the Biden administration, especially when it comes to cabinet positions, there was a lot of tokenism going on. I'm just keeping it real. A lot of, oh, look, you know, we we have diversity in like the appearance [00:01:46] of our administration, but there really wasn't diversity of thought when it came to a lot of these appointments. Now I'm hearing about these staffers. Apparently there's a lot of diversity of thought in that area. And so I just want to say that is that is a win. That is something that I actually commend Biden for. [00:02:02] Now, with that said, I thought that this excerpt from the Washington Post piece was fascinating. Even top advisers said they recognized the conflict has hurt America's global standing. Quote, we're taking on a lot of water on [00:02:20] Israel's behalf, one senior official said. I've never heard that phrasing before. I don't know what taking on a lot of water is, but it's it sounds bad. It seems like this top adviser is fully aware that, yes, this is actually hurting the global standing of the United States and the way the world really views [00:02:40] our country and our government. But most of the piece is basically looking to paint a less hawkish President, Joe Biden, or a president who is, you know, trying to hold Israel accountable behind the scenes. And I want to give you examples of how the piece seeks to do that. [00:02:56] They write that white House officials contend that Biden's bear hug approach to Israel has given him credibility, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowing the president to exert the kind of pressure that led to the current hostage deal and fighting pause. [00:03:14] Okay, but this isn't a cease fire. We all know that. And the Israeli government, along with the IDF, has made it abundantly clear that as soon as the hostage exchange ends, they will intensify the airstrikes, likely in the southern region of the Gaza Strip, where all of the millions, [00:03:33] 1.7 million Palestinian civilians have fled to for safety. Okay. As the bombardment took place, mostly in the northern region of the Gaza Strip. So now they're going to focus on the South. So, like Biden bragging about this pause. [00:03:50] Sure. I guess it's something. But does the unwavering support for Israel. Really lead to the kind of peace that we desperately need in this ongoing war. US officials are now using the pause to urge Israel to make its expected [00:04:08] military operation in the south of Gaza, where nearly 2 million Palestinians are concentrated more targeted and less deadly, according to two senior administration officials. But how are they going to do that when we're supplying them with 200 0 pound bombs that they're dropping, in my opinion, indiscriminately? [00:04:28] And keep in mind, you have Palestinians from northern Gaza evacuating to southern Gaza. Gaza already overall was densely populated. Now the south is going to be even more densely populated [00:04:44] as 1.7 million Palestinians fled from the north to the south. It's going to be a lot harder to do targeted operations in southern Gaza. We know that, right? We know that the death toll is going to explode once the airstrikes continue, right. [00:05:00] That's the reality of the situation. How exactly does the Biden administration think that the IDF is going to do targeted attacks? How? But we'll see. I mean, they say they're working overtime behind the scenes, trying to persuade the Israeli government to, you know, maybe don't slaughter as many innocent [00:05:19] Palestinian civilians as they have been since the beginning of this war. There was some concern in the Biden administration about an unintended consequence of this pause. I just want to remind you of this reporting from Politico that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to [00:05:35] further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel. So while publicly, the Biden administration is bragging about the pause internally, privately they were concerned that the pause was actually going to reveal just how brutal the IDF's military actions [00:05:53] and aerial bombardments in Gaza have been. Now, back to the Washington Post. The white House also insists that it has influenced Israel's military tactics, pointing out that more than 100 aid trucks a day are arriving on average in the Gaza Strip. [00:06:10] Remember that prior to the war, 500 aid trucks would enter the Gaza Strip every day. So going from 500 to 100, especially with a brutal war taking place where people are going to need a lot more humanitarian aid, not really something to write home about, if you ask me. [00:06:27] The piece also says that Biden has taken a strong stance against Israeli settlers. So Biden has. Okay, I got to say this quote from this one unnamed official. I don't know if they intentionally worded it this way. I don't know why they worded it this way. [00:06:44] I'm sorry, I get it. I'm a child. This is not a laughing matter, but come on. Biden has banged Bibi really hard on settler violence and civilian casualties in private, one official said. Now what does that mean? [00:06:59] How hard did Biden bang Netanyahu on settler violence? Well, Biden said that the United States is prepared to issue visas, visa bans against Israeli settler extremists who have attacked Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. So that's the threat being issued by Biden. [00:07:17] He issued that threat through an op ed that he wrote in the Washington Post. However, it's also important to remember that the Israeli government apparently. Got called out for a budget commitment that they made recently. So let's go to Josep Fontelles, who is the vice president [00:07:35] of the European Commission. Here's what he posted this morning on X, formerly known as Twitter. Quote I'm appalled to learn that in the middle of a war, the Israeli government is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements. This is not self-defense and will not make Israel safer. [00:07:53] The settlements are grave international humanitarian law breach, and they are Israel's greatest security liability. So the way Biden is framing the violence carried out by Israeli settlers makes it [00:08:08] appear as though they're acting on their own accord, that these are individuals who are untethered to the Israeli government and the IDF, when in reality, the Israeli government has been funding the illegal settlements in the West Bank, in the occupied West Bank. [00:08:24] So is Biden going to hold the Netanyahu government accountable for that, or is he just going to pretend like the settlers are acting on their own accord, and that they should be sanctioned individually without ever having to deal with the Israeli government and their support for what the settlers are doing? [00:08:41] That's the real question. Now there's more. The piece also addresses the fallout that Biden suffered after expressing deep speculation over Gaza's death toll numbers. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the moment the Hamas controlled Gaza health. Ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6000 Palestinians, [00:08:58] including 2700 children. You've previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties. Do these numbers say to you that he is ignoring that message? What did they say to me is, I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. [00:09:15] Okay, so that was the moment that upset a lot of people, especially Palestinian Americans and Muslim Americans. So the post reports that the following day, Biden met with five prominent Muslim Americans who protested that they saw as his insensitivity [00:09:32] what they saw as his insensitivity to the civilians who were dying. All spoke of people they knew who had been affected by the suffering in Gaza, including a woman who had lost 100 members of her family. Biden appeared to be affected by their account, quote, I'm sorry, [00:09:50] I'm disappointed in myself, he told the group, according to two people familiar with the meeting. I will do better. The meeting, scheduled for 30 minutes, ended up lasting more than an hour, according to one white House official, and ended with Biden hugging one of the participants. [00:10:06] But as this attempt of softening Biden's image continues deep within this Washington Post piece near the very end, there's an excerpt that's relevant. They write that the central dispute between Biden and Netanyahu [00:10:22] is not over a cease fire. No, no, no, no, no. They both agree a cease fire would be unacceptable. Neither one of them supports it. But over the view in Washington that Israel has an unacceptable standard for proportionality. So Netanyahu doesn't like that some members of the US government [00:10:41] are looking at the high Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza, and they're arguing that this is not proportionate, that this is unacceptable. Netanyahu can't stand that. And by the way, these are criticisms that are made behind closed doors. They're not criticisms that are made publicly. [00:10:59] And so that's the area where apparently there's some disagreement between Biden and Netanyahu. But the fact of the matter is they're both against a cease fire. They're both against an end to the bombing that has displaced, you know, countless [00:11:17] Palestinians, 1.7 million of them, that has killed thousands of innocent civilians, many of whom are children. Biden is totally cool with that continuing. Now. [00:11:33] I do want to move on though, because the concern I feel that the concern from the Biden administration about the civilian death toll is also kind of hollow, because when you look at what Biden is doing, like his actions mean way more than his words or what he's allegedly saying behind closed doors to Netanyahu. [00:11:51] Okay, he is trying to loosen restrictions to the stockpile of weapons that the United States has based in Israel. So how are you going to loosen those restrictions and make it easier for the IDF to access all sorts of weaponry in secret, by the way, [00:12:09] without having to notify Congress while simultaneously pretending to be concerned about the high civilian death toll? If you are concerned about the high civilian death toll, then your actions should bear that out. But they're not. So finally, I do want to juxtapose the meeting that he had with some Muslim [00:12:29] Americans, which ended with a warm embrace of one of the participants with a meeting that he had with a few people following the death toll skepticism meeting that he had one meeting between white House aides and about a dozen Palestinian Americans turned contentious when participants warned that [00:12:46] Biden would lose Arab and Muslim voters over his handling of the war. An aide explained that Biden was not thinking about the issue in political terms, and instead was trying to prevent World War three. According to one person familiar with that meeting, one of the Palestinian Americans [00:13:03] in the meeting, though, said the participants left with more resolve to organize their communities not to vote for Biden in the 2024 election. The person said Arabs and Muslims would also not vote for former President Donald [00:13:18] Trump, who has called for banning travel to the United States from Muslim majority countries but could sit out the race. So they're just abstaining from voting in the presidential election. But speaking of the presidential election in politics, obviously this effort to [00:13:37] soften Biden's image is political because Biden has been hurt politically by his unwavering, undying devotion to Israel. So in the beginning of the conflict, says, says one official, [00:13:54] in the beginning of the conflict, we had a more nuanced approach to this. If we had a more nuanced approach to this, the administration could have distanced itself in a way that would be safer for it diplomatically and politically, said Stephen Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies [00:14:11] at the Council on Foreign Relations. The no daylight strategy is causing a lot of problems for them, meaning the Biden administration. And I want to go to graphic 12, which makes it again, very clear to me that this is all political. Biden's foreign policy team has long been mindful of the influence of Washington's [00:14:29] pro-Israel lobbying organizations, groups like AIPAC and the Democratic majority for Israel. But the changing demographics of key swing states, such as Michigan, home to a growing Arab-American community, is prompting some Democratic analysts to question the conventional political wisdom. [00:14:47] So again. Biden could attempt to soften his image by softening his rhetoric. But the fact of the matter is, you have to take a look at his actions. And if he's willing to transfer more weaponry to the IDF [00:15:05] with less transparency. If he's willing to refuse any ceasefire that would end the aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip. If he's willing to continue through his actions, support the Israeli government [00:15:20] and whatever the IDF wants to do in Gaza, well, then what he has to say is really irrelevant. Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words, and I'd like to see Biden actually make some moves that would hold the Israeli government and the IDF accountable for the high civilian [00:15:38] death toll, and take some action to prevent this from happening in the future. - And we have yet to see that. - Thanks for watching the video, guys. We also love it if you hit the join button below, because that makes you a member. And members allow us to be independent, honest. We can be as progressive as we want. [00:15:53] No corporate media influence. And that's all because of you guys. We love doing the show with our members. Hit the join button. Become one of the Young Turks.