When Joe Biden said he did not have much faith in the figures put out by Hamas about casualties in Gaza, he was only reflecting what everyone of sense knows: Hamas routinely lies. It lies about everything. Some Hamas leaders have even denied they killed babies on October 7, denied that they raped girls, and even insisted they only killed IDF soldiers, and expected the world to believe this. They have always lied in previous campaigns about the number of civilians killed or wounded by Israel. Hamas did so just the other week, when it insisted that “an Israeli airstrike killed 500 civilians at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.” No part of that sentence was true. As the American and UK governments have confirmed from both visual and audio evidence, it was not an Israeli airstrike, but an errant missile fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad toward Egypt that misfired and landed in Gaza. Parts of that missile landed not on the hospital, but in the hospital’s parking lot. Finally, instead of “500 civilians” killed, several foreign intelligence services have concluded that the real figure was 10 to 50 civilians killed. So Biden was fully justified in saying that “I have no confidence in the number [of casualties] that the Palestinians are using.” This infuriated Muslims who expect everyone to take Hamas’ figures at face value.
Biden invited a small group of Muslims to meet with him at the White House, the first such meeting since the war began on October 7. He wanted “to soothe the savage breast” of the Muslim community in America. Only one Palestinian — Rami Nashashibi, a community organizer from southside Chicago — was in the group; anyone who had publicly criticized the President for his remarks on Hamas and Israel was not invited to attend the unpublicized gathering; that is why many Palestinians, such as Rashida Tlaib and Linda Sarsour, were not invited. More on this meeting can be found here: “Muslim leaders criticize Biden over his Palestinian death toll remarks in private meeting,” by Holly Otterbein, Politico, October 27, 2023:
Rami Nashashibi, a MacArthur fellow and founder of the Inner City Muslim Action Network, attended the meeting and said he “very explicitly” talked to Biden about his remarks on the death count.
Biden had replied to a question put to him by PBS correspondent Laura Barrón-López about casualties in Gaza, in which she cited figures put out by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which claimed that Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children. Barrón-López said: “You’ve previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties. Do these numbers say to you that he’s ignoring that message?”
“What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden responded. “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war. I think we should be incredibly careful…. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
“I said this while sitting a few inches away from him, that I know I’m talking to a person who has shown profound capacity for human empathy and suffering,” said Nashashibi. “And yet, the way his comments have been interpreted, not just in the United States but across the globe, as recently as that moment he got up on a mic and started to question the body count, was perceived by so many as gut-wrenchingly painful. Literally, I know people who felt like they had just been hit in the gut watching that.”
According to a person familiar with the conversation, Biden told the Muslim leaders his comments were about Hamas not being reliable and not meant to minimize the deaths.
Without providing specifics, Nashashibi said he was heartened by Biden’s response to his concerns about the statistics and other issues: “We were genuinely hopeful about the way the president received that very honest and unequivocal critique.”…
While Biden offered unqualified support of Israel in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ rampage, he has sought to show more compassion toward Palestinian civilians in recent days. His aides have also spoken favorably about a humanitarian “pause” in the war to allow food, water and medicine into Gaza….
But food, water, and medicine are already entering Gaza through the Rafah Crossing. It was not Israel, but Egypt, that had been holding up such shipments of humanitarian aid. There will not be a “pause” in the fighting; the IDF cannot afford to halt its momentum, now that it has Hamas operatives on the run. The water crisis in Gaza is not Israel’s fault; before the war, Israel was supplying only 7% of Gaza’s water, so the cutoff of water from Israel is not the problem. The real water problem in Gaza comes from the fact that Hamas has taken possession of all the fuel in the Strip — at least 500,000 liters of fuel are in Hamas-controlled tanks. The water that Gazans have relied on came from the Strip’s desalination plants, and those plants are no longer working, because Hamas won’t provide the fuel it possesses to run those plants. It is hoarding the fuel to operate military vehicles.
The Biden administration has rejected calls for a cease-fire, arguing Israel has a right to defend itself. “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” Biden said earlier this week in response to a question about a cease-fire.
“The participants were very clear, very forthright in calling for a cease-fire, telling the president that this is a matter of saving lives and also avoiding escalation,” said the second person in attendance. “More violence is not going to solve this problem. All it’s going to do is kill more people.”
The Biden administration is not going to call for a “ceasefire.” First, it knows that Israel would never agree, because it Is not about to leave Hamas standing just as it is starting to crumble under the IDF’s onslaught on Gaza City. When the Israelis insist that their war aim is the “complete destruction of Hamas,” they mean it. Second, the administration supports the Israeli war effort. From Biden on down, the administration has made that abundantly clear, just as it did in voting against the UNGA resolution calling for a “ceasefire” on October 27, and in vetoing a similar resolution at the Security Council on October 26. The Bidenites, too, want to see an end to Hamas.
Kuffar says
Message to Slow Joe – Go change your diaper ,you FOOL.
The Past says
If I had any problem I wouldn’t want to talk to a dummy.
nicholas tesdorf says
That should read “Biden Meets with Muslims ‘To Soothe The Savage Beast(s)’ “.
James Lincoln says
Just wondering if Biden has figured out that muslims LIE as much as he does.
Jim says
Joe has no compassion. He has calculated immitation sympathy, phony sympathy. He has no soul and no compassion. He just turns on the sympathy act when he thinks it has advantages. He would not do much for the people hurt by the train wreck or Hawaii. They are just collateral damage. Did he ever express any shame about all the bribes his family benefits from or the concessions he gives in exchange? Of course not, like a psychopath.
James Lincoln says
Plenty true, Jim.
Remember Biden constantly checking his watch during the memorial service for fallen servicemembers…
OLD GUY says
Biden’s will do anything for MONEY. I have more respect for a prostitute than him.