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The Legendary Troll Kingdom
WASHINGTON—President Biden is facing fresh political tension at home following an Israeli airstrike on Rafah that Palestinian authorities said killed dozens of civilians. Israel said the strike killed two top Hamas officials, but Palestinian authorities said it also led to the deaths of at least 45 Palestinian civilians and wounded others, including women and children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the civilian deaths a “tragic mistake” and promised to investigate.
Coming after weeks of pro-Gaza protests that roiled college campuses around the country, the latest violence underscores Biden’s continuing struggle over how much support to give Israel in its monthslong war with Hamas as he faces a tough re-election race. The left flank of his party argues that the U.S. is abetting immoral behavior in Gaza, including by providing deadly weapons to the Israeli military. His party also contains pro-Israel Democrats.
And Republicans have cast themselves as Israel’s strongest backers, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) inviting Netanyahu to address Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who has criticized Netanyahu and called for new elections in Israel, hasn’t commented publicly on Johnson’s invitation beyond saying he was discussing the issue with the speaker. “It makes a difficult situation worse” for Biden, Richard Haas, a former State Department official and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said of the latest attack. “He is trying to walk a line but the problem with his line is for many it’s too supportive of Israel and for others it’s not supportive enough.”
The immediate response from the White House Monday was measured, with a National Security Council spokesman calling the images following the strike devastating and saying that Israel must take “every precaution possible to protect civilians.” Biden has been vocally opposed to a full-scale Israeli attack in the city, which officials fear would deepen the humanitarian crisis without eradicating Hamas. An administration official said that while the civilian casualties from this strike were concerning, it wasn’t viewed as a major ground invasion.
U.S. opponents of Netanyahu’s strategy condemned the attack. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, said on X: “This was intentional. You don’t accidentally kill massive amounts of children and their families over and over again and get to say, ‘It was a mistake.’”
Brian Finucane, a senior program adviser to the U.S. program at the International Crisis Group, argued the gruesome images should lead to a change in the administration’s policy.
“There are mistakes. There are good faith accidents, and then there are airstrikes adjacent to a displacement camp filled with desperate people who have had to repeatedly flee their homes. The Israelis will have to explain why it was so urgent to strike there at that time given the risk it posed to civilians,” Finucane said.
Polling shows Biden struggling on this issue with many voters. A Wall Street Journal poll of seven presidential battleground states, conducted in March, found that more voters believe former President Donald Trump would be better able to handle the Israel-Hamas war than Biden, 45% to 31%. But surveys also show that issues such as the economy and immigration are bigger priorities for voters.
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said Biden “is standing with Israel as they fight the Hamas terrorists who committed the hideous Oct. 7 attacks, and is making clear that how Israel defends itself matters because we do not want to see any civilians killed.”
Though Trump hasn’t laid out his own plan for dealing with the Israel-Hamas conflict, he has been vocally critical of Biden’s strategy in Israel and has repeated claims that Democratic Party “hates Israel” and that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats “hate” their religion. Biden’s campaign has condemned the comments, and Jewish voters have long heavily favored the Democratic Party.
While Biden has long stressed the close U.S. ties to Israel, he has grown openly critical of its handling of the conflict in recent months. Several weeks ago the White House registered opposition by withholding a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, angering Israel’s supporters in the U.S.
One week after suspending that shipment, the U.S. moved ahead with a $1 billion sale of weapons, one of the largest potential weapons sales to Israel since the start of the war. The U.S. has sent Israel tens of thousands of bombs, tank and artillery ammunition, precision weapons and air-defense equipment since the war began, often drawing on $23 billion dollars worth of weapons transfers that have been previously approved by Congress.
“Biden’s far closer to the GOP than the progressive left,” said Ian Bremmer, president of the geopolitical risk firm Eurasia Group. But he said that “the longer this war goes on the more he’s trying to cover his flank on the left because the Israeli government will not listen to Biden.”
One event that enraged Biden and brought him similar domestic criticism was the deadly strike in April that hit workers with World Central Kitchen—an aid group founded by celebrity chef José Andrés and one of the most important providers of food assistance in the Gaza Strip. The strike drew condemnation from around the globe and put more pressure on Israel to lower the civilian toll of its campaign.