Biden Implores Israel to Stop 'Indiscriminate Bombing' of Gaza

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday cautioned Israel's far-right leadership to change how it wages war on Gaza, warning that the country is losing support around the world largely due to its "indiscriminate bombing" of the besieged Palestinian strip.

According to Politico, Biden claimed during a closed-door fundraiser in Washington, D.C. that Israel "has most of the world supporting it"—a curious assertion that came on the same day the United Nations General Assembly voted 153-10 on a resolution demanding "an immediate humanitarian cease-fire" in the 67-day war.

"But they're starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place," the president added.

Referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his nickname, Biden continued:

It was pointed out to me—I'm being very blunt with you all—it was pointed out to me that, by Bibi, that 'Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.'

I said, Yeah, that's why all these institutions were set up after World War II to see to it that it didn't happen again—it didn't happen again.

It did happen again, as the U.S. killed around 20% of North Korea's population and then, in its next war, rained more bombs on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos—the latter two nonbeligerent nations—than all sides combined dropped during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children have also been killed cumulatively during U.S. wars in more than 20 nations since 1945, including the ongoing so-called War on Terror.

"Don't make the same mistakes we made at 9/11," Biden implored. "There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did."

Responding to Biden's admission that Israel is engaging in "indiscriminate" killing of Palestinians, Amnesty Internationalsaid on social media that "while we welcome President Biden's increasing concern with the Israeli military's indiscriminate bombings in Gaza, his words must be followed by action."

Biden also said during his fundraiser speech Tuesday that Netanyahu "has got a tough decision to make" regarding the composition of his government, which the president called the "most conservative" in Israeli history. He singled out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—who is also the leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party—a man convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Despite showing signs of impatience with Israel's prosecution of an AI-aided war that has killed, maimed, or left missing more than 70,000 people in Gaza and forcibly displaced around 85% of the territory's 2.3 million people, Biden still hailed his country's "unshakeable" commitment to its key Middle East ally.

Biden's staunch support for Israel—which includes asking for an additional $14.3 billion in U.S. military aid atop the nearly $4 billion the country already receives from Washington—has led to many people calling him "Genocide Joe." He's also been accused of genocide denial for doubting Palestinian officials' casualty figures.

Critics have also noted how Biden called Russia's invasion of Ukraine a genocide, while refusing to recognize Israel's war on Gaza—which experts say is orders of magnitude worse—as such.