US President Joe Biden said Saturday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel” more than helping it by not doing more to prevent more civilian deaths in Gaza, after saying Israel has the “right to defend” itself.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, the US president made several contradictory remarks concerning Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Biden claimed that Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,” but added that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
“In my view, he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” he said.
Since October 7, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip from air, land, and sea, killing nearly 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, trapped in the blockaded territory.
Biden has repeatedly warned Netanyahu against the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza while continuing to provide the Israeli regimes with bombs to kill civilians amid Israel’s chokehold on aid.
Elsewhere, Biden said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, is “a red line” for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli settlers from rocket attacks in the region.
“There is no red line (in which) I want to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome (air defense system) to protect them,” he said.
Biden said he was willing to make his case directly to the Israeli Knesset, its parliament, including by making another trip to the country. He traveled to Israel in October shortly after the war began.
However, he declined to elaborate on how or whether such a trip might materialize.
Biden has been called “Genocide Joe” by American protesters due to his administration’s unwavering support for Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The Biden administration has backed Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory as an instance of “self-defense” since the start of the war and has provided the regime with thousands of arms consignments.
Washington has also been casting its veto against the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions that would call on the occupying regime to cease its aggression.
