Jeremy Hammond: Biden's concerns for humanitarian situation in Gaza is a cynical PR ploy

Under the administration of President Joseph R. Biden, the US government has been portraying itself as being seriously concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging a devastating military assault that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 26 judged to be a plausible genocide...  Biden also said that his administration had been “working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire” that would “ease the intolerable humanitarian crisis”. 

“We have been very, very clear about our concerns over the humanitarian situation there and how unacceptable it is that so many people are in such dire need,” White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters.

But the reality is that the US government has been fully supporting Israel’s military assault on the civilian population of Gaza, including by arming Israel and repeatedly blocking ceasefire resolutions in the United Nations (UN) Security Council aimed at enabling the delivery of urgently required humanitarian aid.  Transparently, the Biden administration’s proclaimed desire to help the people of Gaza is a cynical public relations effort aimed at trying to create an illusion that the US government is not complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity.

The Biden administration is seeking to distance itself from responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe because of the support he has been losing among members of his own Democratic party, and with the ICJ already having judged the situation to be a plausible genocide, US government officials are undoubtedly motivated by a desire to avoid potential future charges of complicity and failing in its own moral and legal obligation under the 1948 Genocide Convention to act to prevent genocide.

[...] 

The objections to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s months-long assault on the civilian population of Gaza coming from within his own political party have created a public relations problem for the White House during an election year, but American voters should not delude themselves into the belief that the US government is a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. The American people have the power to change the course of history for the better, but they have to actually use it. A simple first step would be to recognize that there are certain positions that ought to automatically disqualify a presidential candidate from consideration—and supporting a genocide is certainly one of them. 

If upholding basic moral values this way rules out all three of the top contenders in the presidential race—Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—then so be it. 

~ Jeremy R. Hammond, "US Humanitarian Aid to Gaza Is a Cynical PR Ploy," Foreign Policy, March 20, 2024