Joe Biden warns Israel: don’t make mistakes US made after 9/11
Joe Biden says the attacks on Israel were like ‘15 9/11s’ but warns Israel not to let its ‘primal rage’ take over in its search for justice.
President Joe Biden warned Israel not to repeat the “all consuming” and “primal rage” made by the United States in the wake of 9/11 as it responds to Hamas’ brutality.
Shortly before boarding Air Force One after a whistle stop tour in Tel Aviv meeting with Israeli president Benjamin Netanhayu, Mr Biden cautioned Israel that while it would be feeling shock and pain in the wake of the October 7 attacks, the country shouldn’t be consumed with rage while seeking justice because mistakes will be made.
Mr Biden’s arrival was to lend unbridled support, and to deter any escalation of the conflict throughout the Middle East, but his parting message was to learn from the United States.
He said: “Since this terrorist attack took place, we’ve seen it described as Israel’s 9/11. But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s.
“The scale may be different, but I’m sure those horrors have tapped into some kind of primal feeling in Israel just like it did in the United States. Shock, pain, rage. An all-consuming rage.”
He added: “You can’t look at what has happened here … and not scream out for justice. Justice must be done. But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11 we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
Mr Biden was referring to US’s two decades long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to find those responsible for 9/11, including the mastermind Osama bin Laden, costing the lives of thousands of US military personnel.
He also noted how the Palestinian people were suffering and that the vast majority were not represented by Hamas.
Earlier in his meeting with Mr Netanhayu he remarked the Tuesday explosion on the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza was the fault of “the other team” and later said that was based on analysis from the US Department of Defence. However Hamas and some Arab nations have blamed Israel claiming the massacre killed 471 people.
On Wednesday there were large protests in Beirut, Lebanon amid a call for a day of rage by Hezbollah as well as angry protests in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, and Morocco.
There were also skirmishes on the Israel-Lebanon border in the Kfar Shuba hills with the Israeli defence claiming 10 missiles were launched at Israeli military border posts from inside Lebanon.
Mr Biden said he asked tough questions of Mr Netanhayu and talked about humanitarian assistance, security needs and information about missing US citizens and pledged US$100million in support for Palestine.
He also noted: “There are 31 American citizens that have been killed by Hamas. There are children slaughtered, babies slaughtered and entire families massacred.
“There is no rationalising or excusing it, period.”
Mr Biden was to phone Jordanian and Egyptian leaders on his way back to the United States after the emergency Middle East summit in Amman was cancelled after the hospital explosion.
While he was in Israel Mr Biden spoke to first responders and met with the family members of missing and dead Israelis.
Jordanna Hadas Koppel, a doctor who treated victims of the attacks “but mostly children” told the president “some babies burned in their mother‘s arms, some with stories that I don’t think they’ll ever recover from”. Mr Biden then confided to her about his own tragedy, the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972.
“I got a phone call saying my wife and daughter were dead,” Mr Biden told her, saying he thanked the medical staff who cared for his surviving children Beau and Hunter.
“Nurses, nurses,’’ he said.
Mr Netanyahu thanked Mr Biden for the support of the United States.
“ Israel sees the American commitment to provide us with the tools to defend, the support in the clear message you send our enemies not to test our resolve and in the two carrier battle groups you sent into the region to back up those words with action,’’ he said.
He added: “But above all, the world sees that support in the moral clarity that you have demonstrated from the moment that Israel was attacked. You have rightly drawn a clear line between the forces of civilisation and the forces of barbarism. You described what Hamas did as sheer evil”.
Meanwhile the British prime minister Rishi Sunak said that British intelligence was independently analysing the hospital blast and that a calm and cool approach was needed.
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