President Joe Biden cautioned Israel it would “lose support from around the world” if it opted to continue down its “incredibly conservative” path, Monday via Mediaite.
Speaking to Late Night with Seth Meyers host Seth Meyers about the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Biden said:
There is a path forward, with difficulty. Here’s the path forward. Look, first of all, there are– the hostages being held must be released and if we’ve got at least in principle an agreement, there will be a ceasefire while that takes place. Ramadan’s coming up and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well in order to give us time to get all the hostages out. That gives us time to begin to move in directions that a lot of Arab countries are prepared to move in. For example, Saudi Arabia’s ready to recognize Israel. Jordan, Egypt, and six other states have been working with Qatar.
The president continued, “You need not be a Jew to be a Zionist. I’m a Zionist. Where there’s no Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world who’ll be safe. But here’s the deal, they also have to make up– take advantage of an opportunity to have peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians who are being used as pawns by Hamas.”
After telling Meyers “there are too many innocent people that are being killed,” Biden said:
Look, Israel has had the overwhelming support of the vast majority of nations. If it keeps this up without– with this incredibly conservative government they have, and Ben-Gvir and others – I’ve know every major foreign policy leader in Israel since Golda Meir – they’re gonna lose support from around the world, and that is not in Israel’s interest.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has been called an “extremist” by the Washington Post, AP, Haaretz, and others, attacked the Biden administration this month and suggested that Israel would have been better off with former President Donald Trump.
“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel, which goes to Hamas,” he complained. “If Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different.”
