Israel’s weekend attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians and wounded nearly 700 was reportedly supported by the Biden administration, which provided intelligence to Israel ahead of the raid. “There’s no question that what unfolded in that operation was a massacre,” says Palestinian American political analyst Omar Baddar. “To look at a death toll of this scale and then to celebrate this kind of operation as some sort of success, you would basically have to openly say that the lives of Israelis are more valuable than the lives of Palestinians.” Baddar discusses the political and humanitarian impact of the raid and his outlook on ceasefire negotiations. “When push comes to shove, the Biden administration is unwilling to apply any meaningful pressure on Israel,” he says. “That dynamic is not going to lead to anything positive.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

For more on the Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians, wounding over about 700 people, we’re joined by Omar Baddar, a Palestinian American political analyst, member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute. He’s joining us from Washington, D.C.

If you can, overall, respond to what took place, and then, because you’re in D.C., Omar, talk about the Biden administration response?

OMAR BADDAR: Sure, Amy. There’s no question that what unfolded in that operation is a massacre. I mean, we’ve seen just the bodies of hundreds of people littered everywhere, including the bodies of children. We’ve seen absolutely horrific scenes at the hospitals of weeping parents and bloody children. I mean, to look at a death toll of this scale and then to celebrate this kind of operation as some sort of success, you would basically have to openly say that the lives of Israelis are more valuable than the lives of Palestinians. That is the message that is sent by celebrating this operation.

Now, there is no surprise at the fact that an apartheid government like Israel’s would see it that way. They’ve made very clear that they have absolutely no regard for Palestinian life, that they don’t see Palestinians as equal human beings deserving of the same dignity and rights that Israelis enjoy. But what’s really disappointing is looking at the way that the Biden administration has reacted to all this, where the massacre is reduced to a footnote while the focus is primarily on the lives of the hostages who have been rescued. That kind of contrast, this declaration from the Biden administration that the lives of Palestinians matter less than the lives of Israelis, is just absolutely outrageous and completely indefensible. It speaks to a fundamentally broken dynamic with American foreign policy towards the region for a very, very........

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