President Joe Biden delivered a strong message of support for Israel on Thursday, confirming a mutual unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants while vowing full U.S. support to replenish the Jewish state’s Iron Dome missile rocket-intercepting system.
Speaking from the White House Cross Hall, Biden delivered his first extended remarks on the conflict, 11 days into the fighting that erupted when Hamas fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on May 10 following what the Palestinian side took as several aggressive acts by Israeli officials, including the eviction of Palestinian families in an East Jerusalem neighborhood. Biden said he had commended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call earlier, his sixth with the Israeli leader, who confirmed Israel’s support for a ceasefire. But he credited President Abdel Fattah al Sisi of Egypt, with whom he spoke for the first time since taking office on Thursday, with helping to secure the agreement. He also said he spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “more than once.”
Biden’s calls with Sisi, Abbas, and Netanyahu were just a few of the more than 80 engagements with senior leaders in the region the White House said it held while pressing for an end to the fighting. The approach, Biden said, could be characterized as “quiet and relentless diplomacy.”
BIDEN BUCKED DEMS ON ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT, THEN NUDGED NETANYAHU TOWARD A CEASEFIRE
Biden said he believed there was a “genuine opportunity” for peace, where Israelis and Palestinians could “live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy.”
“And I’m committed to working for it,” he said of a two-state solution.
At least 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, were killed in the fighting, according to Gaza health officials, while 12 people in Israel were killed by rockets from Gaza, including two children.
The president said the U.S. would work with the United Nations and others to deliver aid to Gaza “in full partnership with the Palestinian Authority.”
“Not Hamas, the Authority — in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal,” Biden said.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is expected to go into effect by 7 p.m. EST, was negotiated by Egypt, which has been the intermediary with Hamas during the recent conflict and will send a team of officials to Israel and Gaza to monitor the truce. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will soon head to the region, the State Department said.
For Egypt, the deal marked steps toward a return to its status as a regional power broker. Egypt borders both Israel and the Gaza Strip and has been instrumental in mediating conflicts between Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s ruling militant group, which has fought several wars in the last decade. Neither Israel nor the United States has diplomatic relations with Hamas, and Cairo played a similar role during the last significant violence in the 2014 50-day war and during conflicts before that.
Former President Donald Trump fostered close ties to Sisi, whom he once called “my favorite dictator,” but the effect of Israel’s normalization with several Gulf states during the last administration diminished Egypt’s importance as a political and economic intermediary between Israel and other Arab states. Sisi has also pledged $500 million in aid to rebuild Gaza.
Rockets continued overhead until moments before the start of the agreement went into effect.
While Biden painted the ceasefire as a victory for all parties involved, including Washington, Israel did not mention the U.S. when announcing the agreement and instead praised Sisi.
During the last war, a first ceasefire came less than a week into the conflict. This time, Biden weathered nearly two weeks of pressure from Democratic allies who urged him to demand that Israel cease fighting and sought to block military aid to the U.S. ally. The president’s reluctance to do so quickly and publicly drew criticism from even centrist allies on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and one of Israel’s most vocal supporters in the Democratic Party.
As the days ticked by and the death toll on both sides rose, and pressure on Biden mounted, the White House began to shift its tone.
Stepping up his demands on Netanyahu, Biden said Wednesday he “expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire.” Behind the scenes, Biden and top officials stressed that it was past time to bring an end to the conflict.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Asked on Thursday whether Biden intended to escalate his calls on the Israeli leader, as dozens of Democratic lawmakers urged, a senior White House official declined to comment.
