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WILMINGTON, Del. – President Biden’s unwavering support for Israel is coming under increasing pressure as some of his staunch supporters within his party warn about the way the Israeli response is being implemented.
Biden has resisted calls to join other Democrats seeking a ceasefire and has largely avoided commenting on how Israel is pursuing a new phase in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned over the weekend “will be long and long”. difficult.”
But in recent days, other Democrats have sharply criticized the pace of humanitarian aid, a communications blackout and the insurrection Death toll among Palestinian civilians. As one of America’s closest allies now prepares for a potentially prolonged conflict, they also expressed concerns about whether Israel has clear and achievable goals in launching a major ground attack.
In a recent one Parade, a group of more than two dozen Senators including Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) called on Biden to work with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to achieve results Fuel to Gaza amid humanitarian crisis.
“We should support Israel’s right to self-defense. Hamas must be held accountable,” Murphy wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “But if America wants to pay a large part of the cost of the war, then of course we should take care of the war plan. It wouldn’t be good to fund a plan that doesn’t work.”
Today’s worldview: Israel’s Gaza offensive triggers a wave of global protest
Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon for the first time since Israel expanded its ground operations in Gaza. and the president, the White House said, “underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza.”
The criticism within his party poses new challenges for Biden, who feels so closely tied to Israel and its right to retaliation that he risks being held accountable for the way the country responds. Administration officials say they hold Israel accountable — and that they share some of the same concerns that their Democratic counterparts have raised — but that they often conduct some of the tense diplomacy in private.
“We have pressed them on issues such as objectives and matching means to objectives, as well as tactical and strategic issues related to this operation,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN in one of several interviews on Sunday shows. “But we did it all behind closed doors. Therefore, I will not address the specific nature of these conversations here today.”
He acknowledged that the situation on site was complex. “Hamas is doing everything it can to make things even more difficult. They hide among these civilians, integrate among them and turn them into human shields,” he said, but added that this does not relieve Israel of responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.
“The Israeli government should use all tools at its disposal to distinguish between Hamas terrorists, who are legitimate military targets, and civilians, who are not,” Sullivan said.
However, Sullivan largely avoided commenting on whether he believes the Israeli government is doing so. He also made it clear that the ultimate responsibility lies with the Israelis, not the Americans.
“We will continue to talk to our Israeli colleagues. We’re going to continue to ask tough questions about how they think about it and how they operate,” he said on ABC News. “But ultimately these are their decisions. This is their action and they are best placed to answer questions about what happens next.”
The US is calling for a humanitarian pause in Gaza as part of a policy change
According to the White House readout of the call between Biden and Netanyahu, the leaders discussed Gaza and efforts to release hostages, including American citizens who remain missing and may be held by Hamas.
“The President reiterated that Israel has every right and responsibility to protect its citizens from terrorism and emphasized the need to do so in accordance with international humanitarian law, which prioritizes the protection of civilians,” it said Summary of the call.
Biden also spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi on Sunday about trying to speed up aid to Gaza. “They also discussed the importance of protecting the lives of civilians, respecting international humanitarian law and ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza are not displaced to Egypt or any other country,” the White House said.
In the statement from the 25 senators, they focused on getting fuel to Gaza to ensure hospitals can treat patients and water pumping stations can provide drinking water.
Murphy also warned that a protracted ground conflict could benefit Hamas, and he also wonders what would fill the vacuum if the network were eliminated, since Hamas currently provides government services.
“It is quite likely that a long, open-ended Israeli operation – like our disastrous campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan – that cuts off fuel, water and internet and causes widespread harm to civilians, will produce as many Hamas fighters as eliminate them will,” he said wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who also signed the statement, said Saturday evening he was “deeply concerned” about the disruption of communications in Gaza.
“There is already a dire humanitarian situation, including dangerous proximity to military operations for civilians and insufficient quantities of food, water, medicine and fuel,” he wrote on X.
“If the more than two million people in Gaza are unable to communicate with each other or with the outside world, the crisis risks further worsening – hindering the important work of aid organizations and journalists on the ground,” he added. “I demand full communication be restored immediately.”
Israel cut communications to Gaza on Friday, causing a near-total blackout that has cut off Palestinians from the rest of the world. Communications partially resumed Sunday and the United States pressured the Israeli government to turn them back on, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Mich.), a progressive ally who has supported Biden’s reelection bid, said she is concerned that Biden risks falling out of step with the broader American electorate and losing support among younger voters that he needs to mobilize for his re-election.
“He was brave domestically,” Jayapal said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “The president needs to be just as bold on this issue.”
“I’m definitely concerned about his approach to this issue,” she added. “I want President Biden to be the next president, and he needs to call us to a higher moral plane.”
Jayapal’s comments about Israel have drawn criticism in the past, particularly this summer when she called Israel a “racist state.” She later retracted that statement, suggesting that some of the Netanyahu government’s people and policies were racist.
On Sunday, Jayapal expressed concerns that Biden’s stance on the current fighting in Gaza could ultimately hurt him politically at home.
“I think he will have the challenge of explaining to people an issue of this moral importance,” she said. “The American people are actually pretty far removed from where the president and even Congress, the majority of Congress, were on Israel and Gaza.”
“They support Israel’s right to defend itself and exist. But they do not support a war crime exchanged for another war crime. And I think the president has to be careful about that.”
A new Gallup poll highlighted some of the challenges Biden faces in winning support from members of his own party. His approval rating for the Democratic job fell 11 percentage points last month, marking the worst rating from his own party since he took office.
In the poll, conducted Oct. 2-23, about 75 percent of Democrats approve of his job. This sharp decline among members of his own party caused his overall approval rating to drop to 37 percent, a four-point drop and equal to his personal low.
Gallup noted that while the poll was not designed to provide statistically reliable estimates during the three-week poll period, the daily results “strongly suggest that Democrats’ approval of Biden has increased following the October 7 attacks by Hamas and Biden Promises of full support for Israel declined sharply on the same day.”
Gallup also found earlier this year that for the first time, Democrats’ sympathies for the Palestinians had exceeded those for the Israelis. That March poll found that 49 percent of Democrats said their Middle East sympathies lay more with the Palestinians, compared with 38 percent who said they were Israelis.
Devlin Barrett in Washington and Claire Parker in Cairo contributed to this report.