The Biden administration is sending mixed signals as it continues to reject growing calls for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, even as President Joe Biden appears to be trying to placate some Americans’ calls for a ceasefire. fire in Gaza.
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, reiterated the administration’s long-standing position that a ceasefire at this point would only benefit Hamas.
Israel insists its military campaign will not stop until the US-designated terrorist group is eliminated.
“We continue to support humanitarian pauses but not a blanket ceasefire at this time,” Kirby told VOA during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. “The president has not reported any changes.”
On Monday, in response to hecklers urging him to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, Biden said he was “quietly working with the Israeli government” using every means at his disposal “to get them to significantly reduce and leave Gaza.
“I understand the passion,” Biden said, addressing the group that interrupted his speech at a campaign event in South Carolina by chanting “Ceasefire. Now!”
The incident is one of the most public displays yet of how the conflict is dividing voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election in November.
Biden’s statement is “an insult” to the American people who “demand American leadership” to stop the war, said Wendy Pearlman, a professor of Middle East studies at Northwestern University.
“It’s almost embarrassing to talk about quiet whispers behind the scenes when the Biden administration’s actions toward Israel speak so loudly,” she told VOA, pointing to financial, military and diplomatic support American to Israel.
Pearlman is one of more than 1,350 American political scientists who have signed an open letter calling on Biden and other U.S. political leaders to push for an immediate ceasefire.
The administration strongly supported the Israeli military operation in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and others.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 23,000 people in the Palestinian enclave – the bloodiest episode of the decades-long conflict.
Biden in an impasse
With the scale of death and destruction rapidly increasing in Gaza, Biden, who is launching his re-election campaign, is at an impasse, said Melani Cammett, professor of international affairs at the Center for Middle East Studies. Harvard University.
“There is still a significant portion of the American public that very strongly supports the Israel-U.S. alliance and views any effort not to support Israel 100 percent as a threat to that alliance,” he said. -she declared to VOA.
A poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute, an organization that describes itself as “an independent, nonpartisan organization” dedicated to deepening understanding of American Jewish participation in American democracy, shows that three in four American Jewish voters support the administration. of war by Biden.
At the same time, Biden’s policies toward Israel are becoming a potential electoral liability among ever-widening swaths of voters beyond Arab and Muslim Americans, to include young, progressive Democrats, and even some members of the American Jewish community.
On Monday, Americans for Peace Now, a left-wing pro-Israel organization, became the first American Zionist group to call on Israel to “adopt and implement an immediate exit strategy from the war,” a sign that American Jewish support for Israel can be a divide.
“The Biden administration must push Israel to bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities and move from war to peacemaking,” said James Klutznick, the group’s president.help with a statement.
Anti-Zionist and non-Zionist American Jewish groups have criticized Israel’s conduct since the early stages of the conflict, but until the NPC’s statement, the rest of the Jewish organizational spectrum had expressed support for Israel’s war effort. ‘Israel and that of Biden in the campaign.
“The Jewish community is grateful for President Biden’s efforts to stand with Israel in its response to the horrific Hamas attack on October 7 and to stand with American Jews as we face the rise of anti-Semitism,” said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Party. Council of America, in a statement to VOA. JDCA aims to be “the political home and voice of Jewish voters.”
“Jewish voters also support President Biden’s efforts to encourage the release of hostages, reduce the loss of life in Gaza, and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinians,” she added.
A December Gallup Poll shows that 38% of Americans believe Israel receives enough support, while 36% think it receives too much and 24% say it receives too little. Forty percent of Democrats and independents believe the United States provides too much support for Israel, compared to 26% of Republicans.
Another round of shuttle diplomacy
Biden’s remarks come as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returns to the Middle East for a new round of shuttle diplomacy amid signs that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is expanding to various hotspots in the region.
In one of his harshest rebukes of Israel, Blinken stressed that “Israel must be a partner with the Palestinian leadership” in supporting “a lasting solution that ends the long cycle of violence.”
Israel, he said, “must stop taking steps that undermine the ability of Palestinians to govern themselves effectively.”
Beyond Washington’s role, economic factors will be key in determining when Israel ends its campaign, said Michael Knights, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“It is necessary to demobilize the enormous reserves that have been mobilized since October 7,” Knights told VOA. “There will probably come a time, say in January or February, when the Israeli military will say: ‘We have done enough, and neither we nor the Americans can stand any more political pressure. It’s time to stop ‘fire.'”
If Israel ends its high-intensity fighting in the first quarter, the war will cost an estimated $13.8 billion in 2024, according to the Israeli Finance Ministry. This figure includes the cost of mobilizing 350,000 reserve troops.
The Biden administration’s $14 billion request to aid Israel has been blocked in Congress.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the name of the organization that conducted the poll of American Jewish voters.
VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.