Pandering and political posturing proved the president a hypocrite as “outraged” condemnation against Israel harkened back to his own administration’s response to an errant drone strike.
Readily identified as a tragedy, the Israeli government was quick to take responsibility after an airstrike in Gaza prompted by a “misidentification” resulted in the killing of seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen.
Faced with pressure from radicals and Hamas sympathizers within his party to increasingly distance himself from being allied with the cause of Israel, President Joe Biden was quick to leverage the accidental deaths to that end.
“I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen,” the president’s X account read along with his statement that demanded the planned investigation by Israel “be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.”
I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday.
Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen.
Here is my full statement. pic.twitter.com/Nl2jq8wqTt
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 3, 2024
Biden’s righteous indignation woven with victimhood over the difficulties of providing aid and the challenges of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza wasn’t enough to rewrite the history of his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that had included a long scapegoated drone strike that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, of which Townhall contributor John Hasson reminded.
“Shot: Biden attacks Israel for accidentally killing 7 civilians in a drone strike…Chaser: Biden’s final act in Afghanistan was an airstrike killing 10 civilians, including 7 children,” he posted with over a side-by-side of the president’s post and a report from August 2022 about the strike in the lead up to 13 U.S. service members getting killed in a bombing along with nearly 200 Afghan civilians.
“And he has not faced a single journalist who has asked him a single question about this, in an interview or a press conference,” added The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller.
And he has not faced a single journalist who has asked him a single question about this, in an Interview or a press conference. https://t.co/cAWrTb0R11
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 3, 2024
Heaping on to the reality glossed over by Biden was former Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Outreach in Public Affairs and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot Amber Smith who slammed the holier-than-thou demand for accountability after his administration avoided it at length.
“You launched a drone strike that killed 10 civilians including 7 children in Afghanistan that you claimed was ISIS-K and then the Pentagon lie about it for weeks until the [New York Times] uncovered the truth and you had to come clean about it,” asserted Smith.
You launched a drone strike that killed 10 civilians including 7 children in Afghanistan that you claimed was ISIS-K and then the Pentagon lie about it for weeks until the NYTs uncovered the truth and you had to come clean about it. https://t.co/jXuBsSjelD
— Amber Smith (@AmberSmithUSA) April 3, 2024
By comparison, Tal Heinrich, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office had told CNN, “When Israel makes mistakes, even the most tragic ones to admit, we take responsibility.”
“We admit to the most painful incidents, so we tell the truth, even when it’s the most inconvenient thing to say,” she added as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued a statement that read, “Israel deeply regrets the tragic incident which claimed the lives of seven humanitarian aid workers. Our hearts go out to their families and to their home countries. The [Israel Defense Forces] is conducting a swift and transparent investigation and we will make our findings public.”
“Israel,” he added, “is fully committed to enabling humanitarian aid to reach the civilian population in Gaza and we will do everything in our power to ensure that such tragedies do not occur in the future.”
Israel deeply regrets the tragic incident which claimed the lives of seven humanitarian aid workers.
Our hearts go out to their families and to their home countries.
The IDF is conducting a swift and transparent investigation and we will make our findings public.
Israel…
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 2, 2024
Polish prosecutors told state news agency PAP that they had also launched an investigation as one of their own, 35-year-old Damian Sobol, was among those killed.
Further aim was taken at Biden’s politicization of the tragedy during an election year by former White House Middle East Envoy for then-President Donald Trump Jason D. Greenblatt who posted a considerable rebuttal to the resident-in-chief’s statement against the weaponization of innocents “against Israel in a blame game.”
Key among his points was that “The fault for every civilian death in Gaza remains with Hamas, not Israel. Hamas started this war. It hides among civilians to make tragedies like this more likely. It steals food and supplies, making aid like this necessary in the first place. Hamas refuses to give up the hostages it has been holding for six months. Hamas refuses to surrender, which causes terrible suffering…The war can end if Hamas surrenders and returns the hostages.”
I recognize that it’s hard to try to maintain nuance when emotions are running high, as they do in the midst of war. Nonetheless, we must remember a few basic principles to help us make sense of the tragic strike that killed 7 workers of @WCKitchen in Gaza.
1. The deaths of… pic.twitter.com/FowLoN2mIn
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@GreenblattJD) April 3, 2024
The recent tragedy came roughly two years after four World Central Kitchen workers were wounded and another person had been killed during a missile strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine during the early weeks of the war.
Tuesday, the nonprofit founder Celebrity Chef José Andrés shared a message honoring those who were killed in the strike: Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25; Lalzawmi Frankcom, 43; John Chapman, 57; James Henderson, 33; James Kirby, 47; Sobol; and dual U.S. and Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger, 33.
“Angels that the only crime they committed was feeding people…” wrote Andrés.
Angels that the only crime they committed was feeding people….️ https://t.co/fcvHUDvZ3Q
— Chef José Andrés ️ (@chefjoseandres) April 3, 2024
- More allegations of misogynist and inappropriate office behavior drop on Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff: report - October 8, 2024
- Disgusting shock jock video resurfaces amid Kamala’s raunchy interview tour: ‘I’m sure CNN will be outraged’ - October 8, 2024
- ‘She’s so bad at this’: Kamala sets herself up for big self-own suggesting men have total bodily autonomy - October 8, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.