As President Biden took the podium on Tuesday and stared into the camera, he held nothing back. He bristled with righteous indignation as he denounced Hamas’s bloody attack in unforgiving terms and promised to stand by Israel without question.
For 10 minutes, Mr. Biden called the attack on Israel “pure, unadulterated evil,” “pure evil,” and “indiscriminate evil.” The outrage broke out again and again: “Atrocities.” “Disgusting.” “Disgusting.” “Brutality.” “Violation of every code of human morality.”
He recounted one case of rampant violence after another, a list of horrors that shocked much of the world, not to mention his White House. Even for a president who often wears his emotions on his sleeve, it was a searing moment, perhaps the most personal anger he has shown in public since taking office nearly three years ago. It was raw and unforgettable.
It was also an attempt to leave no daylight between him and Israel during the greatest crisis in half a century, no room for the exploitation of his political opponents at home or of America’s and Israel’s enemies abroad. Unlike other presidents during previous outbreaks of violence in the Middle East, he made no move to express his understanding of the different sides, no move to urge restraint or seek diplomatic solutions. Instead, he promised that more military equipment was on the way.
“At this moment we must be crystal clear: we stand with Israel. We stand with Israel,” Mr. Biden said in the state dining room as he concluded a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly afterward. “And we will ensure that Israel has everything it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack.”
The attack was all the more personal for Mr. Biden and his team because at least 14 Americans were among those killed and 20 or more others remain missing, possibly being held hostage by Hamas. The White House has reached out to the families of the missing as American intelligence agencies try to locate them.
The president’s anger reflected a long history with Israel, dating back to the early 1970s, when he was a senator and has positioned himself as a supporter of the Jewish state for many years since. And it reflected the emotions that have shaken much of the White House in recent days amid graphic reports of massacres of women and children.
John F. Kirby, a normally stoic retired rear admiral who speaks for the National Security Council, choked up briefly during a CNN interview On Monday. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s face appeared tense, his lips pursed as he stood next to Mr. Biden on Tuesday. Jake Sullivan, the president’s ever-disciplined national security adviser, became more impassioned during a briefing after Mr. Biden’s statement.
“You heard his voice, and this has been a deeply emotional time for all of us,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters, his own face flushing and his voice full of emotion. “We have all developed close relationships with our Israeli colleagues.”
Of the president, Mr. Sullivan said: “He can hear the pain in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s voice when he speaks to him.” He added: “This is not about politics or strategy. This is personal to us.”
Although they didn’t say it on camera Tuesday, Mr. Biden and his team were also angry at Republicans who began blaming the president just hours after the attack in Israel on Saturday.
Republicans led by former President Donald J. Trump have argued that Iran, the longtime sponsor of Hamas, was emboldened by Mr. Biden’s recent agreement with Tehran to release five American citizens in return for the release of six Iranian oil revenues billions of US dollars.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday that “Joe Biden has blood on his hands.” Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said that “Biden’s weakness and appeasement toward Iran” are America’s enemies and encouraged Israel.
What Republicans fail to mention is that the release of the $6 billion came as part of a waiver program put in place by Mr. Trump while he was in office, and the money is currently sitting in a bank in Qatar and used only for food, medicine and other humanitarian needs Disposition is intended by Trump policy. White House officials note that not a single dollar of the $6 billion has actually been spent so far.
However, when Mr. Biden arrived at the State Dining Room on Tuesday, it may not have been a big surprise that Mr. Biden would be so excited, since he and Vice President Kamala Harris had just chatted with Mr. Biden. Netanyahu.
The Israeli prime minister opened the call by thanking Mr. Biden for Mr. Kirby’s expression of sentiment the previous day. He told the president it was “an attack of a cruelty we have not seen since the Holocaust,” and then cited one frightening example after another.
“Hundreds were massacred, families were wiped out in their beds in their homes, women were brutally raped and murdered, over 100 were kidnapped, including children,” Netanyahu told Mr. Biden, according to a transcript released by the prime minister’s office. “They took dozens of children, tied them up, burned them and executed them. They beheaded soldiers. They mowed down these young people who came to a nature festival.”
Mr. Biden appeared to adopt some of the same language and stories when he arrived in the State Dining Room with Ms. Harris and Mr. Blinken shortly afterward.
“This was an act of pure malice,” Mr. Biden said. “More than 1,000 civilians were slaughtered – not just killed, slaughtered – in Israel, including at least 14 American citizens. Parents slaughtered using their bodies to protect their children, harrowing reports of babies being killed, entire families being murdered and young people being massacred while attending a music festival celebrating peace.”
The president made no move to call on Israel to exercise restraint in its response. “Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right, indeed the duty, to respond to these vicious attacks,” he said.
And he rejected suggestions that the attack was understandable, if not justified, given what critics see as Israeli oppression of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“There is no justification for terrorism,” he said flatly. “There is no excuse. Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Their declared goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of the Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed, regardless of who pays the price.”
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.