When President Biden delivers a prime-time speech in the Oval Office on Thursday about the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it will be his third major speech on the Middle East conflict as he grapples with a fragile Democratic coalition that is watching closely to see how he deals The outbreak of the Middle East conflict avoids violence.
In his remarks last week and again on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, Mr Biden sought to gloss over the dispute between the United States and Israel – although in his second speech he warned Israelis not to allow themselves to be “consumed” by their anger at Hamas This month’s attack killed more than 1,400 people. He appealed to Israelis not to overreact, as the United States did after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The centrist Democrats who form the core of Mr. Biden’s political base were almost unanimous in their praise.
“I am grateful to have the thoughtful leadership of @POTUS at this moment,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri wrote on social media. “As we continue to work to save the lives of hostages and hold Hamas accountable, I encourage him to continue to use his platform to call for restraint and the protection of innocent Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Representative Steny Hoyer from Maryland said Mr. Biden “speaks for me and speaks for all of America” to Israel. And Richard Haass, former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, called the Wednesday speech “nothing less than masterful.”
And while Biden campaign officials insist they have no plans to use the trip to Israel as campaign fodder, Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts predicted what a contrast the president’s aides and allies could and should be with former President Donald J. Trump he wins the Republican presidential nomination.
“Joe Biden flew to a war zone to stand with Israel,” Auchincloss said late Wednesday. “Trump wouldn’t even visit a cemetery of American war dead.” (Mr. Trump canceled a planned trip to a French cemetery in 2018, citing rainy weather.)
Liberal Democrats, who have criticized how Mr. Biden has tied the White House to Israel while the Israelis carry out attacks on the Gaza Strip, focused their attention on Wednesday on increasing attention on anti-war protesters who marched around the Capitol and their demands for a Fire renewed ceasefire.
“We cannot bomb our path to peace,” wrote Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri. “We need a ceasefire,” said Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana. And several left-wing congressmen republished a message from Pope Francis in which he called the situation in Gaza “desperate” and called for “silencing the guns; Let the call for peace be heard by the poor, by the people, by the children!”
Some used particularly heated language: Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan said outside the Capitol: “We’re literally watching people just like that commit genocide and kill the vast majority, and we still stand by and say nothing.”
Some Democrats began attacking their party colleagues who are skeptical of Israel’s war effort. Representative Jerry Nadler of New York condemned the organization behind the protest at the Capitoland Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida said Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota that “you have directed your outrage at the wrong party” after Ms. Omar repeated her call for Mr. Biden to seek a ceasefire.
Progressive activists shared a video of Dilawar Syed, a deputy administrator at the Small Business Administration, being booed while speaking at a vigil for Wadea Al-Fayoume, the 6-year-old Palestinian boy from a Chicago suburb who was killed in an attack that prosecutors say was motivated by hatred of Muslims during fighting in Israel and Gaza.
Another meme circulating on left-wing social media showed a stylized Mr. Biden behind the wheel of a convertible with the caption “Genocide with Biden.”
And Josh Paul, a career State Department official, announced he was resigning because the Biden administration was “blindly supporting one side,” which he said led to policy decisions that were “short-sighted, destructive, unfair and contrary to the values that which we represent publicly”. get engaged.”