“As we manage challenges at home, we’re also managing crises abroad, including in the Middle East,” President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union address on Thursday night.
He presented a timeline of events beginning on Oct. 7: a massacre by Hamas; 1,200 slaughtered, sexual violence endured; the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust; hostages taken. There were family members of some of the hostages sitting there as he spoke.
Israel has a right to go after Hamas, he said, and Hamas “could end this conflict” by releasing the hostages and “surrendering those responsible,” and Hamas, he said, “has an added burden, because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population. But,” he added, “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza.”
And here, too, he ran through the destruction: tens of thousands of innocent people killed; children orphaned; millions displaced; people starving.
And he described what the United States was planning on doing about it: pushing for a six-week cease-fire and “directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters.” Israel had to allow more aid in, he said, and humanitarian assistance isn’t a bargaining chip. He concluded the section by arguing that the only solution for Israelis, Palestinians, the region, and America is a two-state solution.
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