President Biden Needs to Use Leverage Against Netanyahu to Respect the Human Rights of Palestinians

Supporting Palestinian Statehood As a First Step in Achieving a Two-State Solution

President Biden is in a difficult position on Israel and Gaza. He has many competing interest groups, lobbyists, individuals and other nations all of whom are applying pressure. But he has recently issued positions that swing from humanitarian concern back to supporting Netanyahu no matter that he ignores Biden and continues his war to some end strategy principally designed to keep him in power so that he does not have to face pending corruption charges.

Like other writers on Israel and Gaza, let me state some of my personal bona fides. I am Jewish and a Zionist but also a long-time opponent of some of Israel’s actions. I had family killed in the Holocaust. I am generally a progressive and what used to be called a free-thinker. I am supportive of all people seeking personal freedom and self-determination and support the effort to achieve a two-state solution to finally bring peace to the Middle East.

The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 was horrific and barbaric, and the perpetrators deserve condemnation and criminal conviction, if still alive. But Hamas got the opportunity to invade Israel because Prime Minister Netanyahu was asleep at the switch and was consumed with supporting Jewish settlers establishing more and more settlements in the West Bank despite the attacks by some settlers on Palestinian villages and people. Netanyahu’s commitment to settler expansion derives from his view of religious entitlement to the lands in the West Bank. Biden should remember, when as Vice-President, he was in Israel on an official visit when a Netanyahu cabinet member announced an expansion of Israeli West Bank settlements, which Biden then took as a personal insult while he was visiting as the U.S. Vice-President.

The Israeli response to October 7 was predictable. Calls for retaliation and revenge were to be expected and understood. The Israeli build-up was slow at first but eventually the Israeli Defense Forces got organized and invaded Gaza, a land Israel had abandoned in 2005, removing the Israeli settlements and commercial interests. But while mobilizing the IDF which had been caught flat-footed on October 7, the Israelis added a new element by cutting off water, fuel, food and medicine to Gaza. This added an aspect of the Israeli response that has been problematic to date as the Israeli response appears to be punishment for all of Gaza and not just the militants of Hamas. It has lead to mass suffering which has only increased in recent days causing the U.N. to pronounce that there was mass famine, particularly among the children of Gaza.

The second Israeli decision causing revulsion in many parts of the world, was the use of immense 2,000 pound bombs, dropped in the highly dense civilian areas of Gaza which predictably caused indiscriminate Palestinian death anywhere in the blast zone. The IDF justification for use of these bunker buster bombs, as they were called, was the destruction of the massive tunnel network underneath Gaza, built by Hamas to hide fighters. munitions and rockets used to bombard Israel. But using these 2,000 pound weapons surely gave the IDF an important edge in being able to destroy many of the tunnels and presumably kill many of the Hamas fighters hiding there, ready to spring out to attack IDF troops. But what of the “collateral damage” caused by use of bunker buster 2,000 pound bombs?

The NY Times published an extensive article, written by John Ismay, on the use of the 2,000 pound bomb in Gaza. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/us/israel-gaza-bombs.html?smid=url-share

““Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Mr. Biden said in remarks to CNN this week.

He was referring to U.S.-made 2,000-pound aerial weapons, the largest in the Pentagon’s Mark 80 series of bombs.

In the military’s banal lexicon, the Mark 80s are “general purpose” bombs, meaning that they can be used on almost any target the military typically expects to encounter in war. In addition to the 2,000-pound Mk-84, they also come in 250-pound, 500-pound and 1,000-pound versions — the Mk-81, Mk-82 and Mk-83.

The president has already delayed a shipment to Israel of 3,500 bombs in the Mark 80 series that he feared could be used in a major assault on Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge.

A New York Times investigation in December found that American 2,000-pound bombs were responsible for some of the worst attacks on Palestinian civilians since the war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

According to a U.S. Army office that manages ammunition for the Pentagon, the ideal targets for weapons of that size are “buildings, rail yards and lines of communication.”

However, Defense Department data indicates that U.S. warplanes typically use far less powerful munitions for supporting ground troops engaged with enemy fighters.

…

About 40 percent of each one’s weight is composed of a high explosive mixture; the rest comes from its steel case. When detonated, the bomb’s smooth skin shatters into razor-sharp fragments that can shred human bodies and unarmored vehicles alike.

Course guides used in teaching American troops how to call in airstrikes state that anyone within 115 feet of a 250-pound bomb’s impact has a 10 percent chance of being incapacitated or killed. That lethal radius jumps to nearly 600 feet for a one-ton version that explodes just above the ground.

For a time, the United States held a monopoly on these bombs. But now Mark 80s are made and sold by a number of countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel makes its own versions, but export data suggests that the country purchases most of its bombs from the United States through an annual $3.5 billion grant of American taxpayer money.

With a lethal radius of 600 feet, the 2,000 pound bomb can inflict massive human casualties particularly in a densely populated area like Gaza. So, IDF had to take into account the massive civilian casualties that would result from dropping the 2,000 pound bomb in Gaza to penetrate and explode Hamas tunnels and kill Hamas fighters below ground. Knowing the lethal capacity of this munition, the estimates of 35,000 Palestinian casualties is to be believed, despite controversy over including all deaths or only verified identity deaths.

I am sure IDF justifies use of this munition in Gaza by comparison to Hiroshima, where the U.S. saved many American soldiers’ lives by unleashing the power of the A-Bomb on the civilian population. But Hiroshima was a first strike used to end World War II, while use of the 2,000 pound bomb in Gaza has been ongoing with no end of the war in sight.

When President Biden delayed shipment of 2,000 and 500 pound bombs to Israel because of Netanyahu’s refusal to stand down from his decision to invade Rafah, in southern Gaza, to which Palestinians fled to avoid the war in the north, Biden’s decision strongly supported humanitarian concerns on the effect of the 2,000 pound bomb in Gaza. Netanyahu may have delayed his Rafah invasion as a result, but now thousands of Palestinians have abandoned the refugee camps in the south to march north to central Gaza. Recent photographs show the Rafah area camps deserted, but where is the Gaza population now going?

The Biden Administration has described the IDF assault as a limited and targeted action unlike the extensive bombing earlier in the war. But reporting in the Washington Post today says those reports are not accurate as the IDF is now engaging in an ambitious assault in Rafah. The Post notes that Biden said a full scale assault in Rafah would cross a red line, but reports in the Post and the NY Times tell us that the Rafah invasion has escalated and caused the mass Palestinian exodus from Rafah with photos of a long line of thousands of Palestinians moving north. So, apparently Netanyahu has ignored Biden’s red line, but Biden’s only response is to downplay what is happening now on the ground in Rafah.

Israel started its Gaza campaign by curtailing food, water, fuel and medicine to Gaza. This has caused real havoc to Gaza residents, and the military campaign has bombed and severely damaged each of the hospitals in Gaza leading to an accelerating crisis in lack of basic medical services. The bombings have resulted in many children suffering extremely serious injuries, and reports of amputations of children’s injured limbs without anesthesia are common.

The U.N. and humanitarian organizations have said there famine, especially among young children. Though some humanitarian assistance had gotten through, but now with the escalating assault on Rafah, Israel has closed the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and photos this morning show a long line of aid trucks backed up and unable to enter Gaza as the IDF has closed the Rafah crossing to enable its military assault on Rafah. So famine escalates in service to the Rafah assault which some aid organizations now describe as hell on earth.

Here is how the Washington Post describes the current conditions in Gaza:

Israeli military operations this month against Hamas in Gaza — from the last, desperate refuge for Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah to the devastated refugee camps of the north — have displaced nearly a million people, according to the United Nations, and further sealed off the territory to outside aid. Aid groups say it has deepened the enclave’s humanitarian crisis and reversed their recent gains in staving off starvation and disease.

Now, aid workers said, they are resorting again to triage.

“Instead of looking at antenatal care for pregnant ladies, instead of looking at malnutrition, now we are looking at how to stop the bleeding,” Abed said in a phone interview, as an explosion rang out in the background. “That’s continuous,” he said. “Day and night.”

Gaza’s latest trial started in early May, when Israel issued evacuation orders in parts of Rafah, signaling the start of a long-threatened invasion it said was aimed at destroying Hamas’s remaining battalions. Aid agencies warned for months that an offensive in an area sheltering more than a million people would be disastrous.

And the New York Times describes similar conditions in Gaza:

For weeks, the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city, Rafah, was one of the few places where desperate Gazans could find some aid and food. Bakeries sold bread; fuel powered generators; markets were open, if expensive.

But since Israeli forces began an incursion in the city this month — effectively closing the two main crossings where aid enters — Rafah has become a place of fear and dwindling supplies. Bakeries have shuttered. So have malnutrition treatment centers. The price of the firewood that many people now use to cook has doubled. Tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers have grown so expensive that they are sold by the piece, not by the kilogram.

Families hide what canned goods they still have. They eye their emptying sacks of flour, calculating how long they will last.

“There’s always something missing in the tent,” said Ahmed Abu al-Kas, 51, who is sheltering in Rafah with his family. “If we have bread, we don’t have water. If we have firewood, we don’t have some basic vegetables.”

For months, international aid officials and health experts have warned that famine will come for Gaza unless Israel lifts barriers keeping most humanitarian aid out, the fighting stops and vital services such as health care and clean water, which must be in place to fend off malnutrition, are restored.

None of those conditions have been met.

So what does Speaker Mike Johnson do to demonstrate U. S. commitment to peace, he announces that he has invited Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress in order to demonstrate U.S. resolve to support Israel in its war to destroy Hamas. Apparently, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has gone along with the Johnson invitation. This recalls an event a few years ago when Republicans invited Netanyahu to speak to a Joint session of Congress, but Bibi did not then have time to meet with President Obama, so Bibi became a Republican rallying point.

The Times reports that “The International Court of Justice on Friday ruled that Israel must immediately halt its ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, dealing another blow to the country as it faces increasing international isolation.”

The ICJ ruling, read by its president, Nawaf Salam, said, “The court considers that in conformity with obligations under the Geneva Convention, Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The smug American journalists and Israeli politicians note that the ICJ does not have enforcement powers, but the court of international public opinion does.

Netanyahu has not set any goal for his Gaza war except the total destruction of Hamas, but total destruction is a nearly impossible goal as new elements of Hamas are created by the Israeli offensive, and many of the Hamas fighters moved back north in anticipation of the IDF Rafah invasion. Israelis have called on Netanyahu to develop a peace plan for Gaza including what entity will run and rebuild Gaza, but Bibi declines, saying that can be done only after the total annihilation of Hamas.

After the ICJ ruling and order to Israel, on Monday, May 27 the IDF bombed a makeshift refugee camp of people from Rafah and located in the northern part of Rafah. Palestinians were in tents, and the latest reports are that 45 people were killed and about 70 injured from the bombing and resulting fires. Since medical facilities have been severely damaged, only a few clinics were available to assist including one operated by Doctors Without Borders. Dr. Smith from the Doctors Without Borders clinic said the bombing and fires at these refugee camp were the worst he had seen. The IDF said it killed two Hamas leaders in the strike at this refugee camp. Will Biden declare this strike, killing 45 Palestinians refugees many of whom were evacuated from southern Rafah, a violation of his red line and an act of genocide or in violation of the ICJ Order or international human rights law. So far, the White House is silent. The IDF said it was an “incident,” but they would investigate.

Many have said that the only possible endgame is a two-state solution: Israel and a Palestinian state. Netanyahu categorically rejects any discussion of a two-state solution. He has inflamed the Israeli public against any consideration of a two-state solution. But a two-state solution is the only solution if peace is to be achieved.

One hundred forty countries have recognized a Palestinian state, providing a starting point to develop a comprehensive two-state treaty. Of course, many issues are raised about how to structure the relationship, who decides what to do about the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and will there be any coordinated government to deal with issues affecting Israelis and Palestinians, and what of the many Palestinians who are now Israeli citizens in a Jewish state.

This week Norway, Ireland and Spain issued coordinated statements saying they recognized a Palestinian state. This is a first for western governments.

Will other European countries follow the three in supporting a Palestinian state? Ironically, the intensity of the Israeli assault on Gaza may be the catalyst for real international progress on formation and recognition of a Palestinian state. As to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, they should be given dual citizenship in both Israel and the Palestinian state, and their rights as Israeli citizens should be expanded.

When the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu for war crimes, Biden said that was outrageous. So Biden apparently prefers to whole heartedly support Netanyahu’s campaign to deprive Palestinians, including young children, of food, water and medical supplies. Those actions of Netanyahu that Biden apparently supports are reminiscent of collective punishment practiced by Nazi Germany in World War II. Does Biden really want to be complicit in that genocidal action by Netanyahu and his War Cabinet? Why doesn’t Biden use the immense leverage the U.S. has to force Netanyahu to open the gates at Rafah and let into Gaza all the aid trucks waiting in Egypt as Palestinians in Gaza starve.

Why doesn’t Biden adopt some forward thinking and announce support for a Palestinian state as did Norway, Ireland and Spain? Yes the terms of formation of a Palestinian state requires negotiation among Israel and the Palestinians, but now Biden is running as the lackey for Netanyahu by letting him continue his total opposition to even discussion of formation of a Palestinian state.

What position will Biden take? His pause in delivery of 2,000 and 500 pound bombs sent a humanitarian message, but his failure to accelerate his opposition to a Rafah invasion left him subject to Netanyahu’s invasion plans. Biden’s statement that Israel is not engaging in genocide despite the conditions on the ground, which U.N. agencies and international relief organizations describe as hell on earth with widespread famine and lack of humane living conditions, puts Biden in the hard liner camp supporting Israel in whatever it does.

Biden has an eye on Jewish donors, AIPAC, Republican pro-Israel positions, and mixed feelings and messages from Democrats. He is on a tightrope.

He has not given sufficient recognition to the views of young people, many of whom have adopted pro-Palestinian positions. He said he heard them, but he is not taking action to support college student views and has done little to help Jewish students on campuses where pro-Palestinian sentiments may have become extreme.

In electoral terms, Biden needs to motivate young people and particularly college students. From reading polls and my own perceptions, Biden has done little to motivate the 18-30 year old voters. He needs to take bold action on Gaza and Israel. In my view, he needs to take an aggressive position supporting a two-state solution as the only solution that will bring peace. He not only needs to tell young people that he hears them, but he must show he will take a leadership role in promoting a two-state solution.

Biden was not active in the Civil Rights Movement or in opposition to the Vietnam War. For those of us who did participate in those movement actions, we were thrilled when LBJ said “We Shall Overcome” in pushing for the Voting Rights Act after the Alabama assault on Civil Rights demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and when he announced he would not run for re-election. But young people have become active and aware of humanitarian needs in Gaza and the West Bank, where Jewish settlers have attacked Palestinian villages. The civil rights of both Palestinians and Jews have become important rallying positions, and using encampments instead of marches shows young people having new ideas on how to get attention for their issues in their hope to promote change in the Middle East.

Ukraine can be another rallying point for young people as well as opposition to saber rattling by Xi Jingping in China seeking to demonstrate his commitment to seize Taiwan. Biden has been an international leader on assisting Ukraine, and if he let the Ukrainians use weapons provided by us and Europe to attack inside Russia, he might be able to alter the course of the Ukrainian-Russian war.

Biden needs to motivate young people and older Democrats to unite in an effort to defeat Mr. Authoritarian, who this week thought about supporting restrictions on birth control. With Trump taking unpopular positions, Biden should be able to use Trump’s words and advertisements against him. Just this week, Trump posted an article on his mislabeled, Truth Social, saying that he will have a “Unified Reich.” Trump kept those words glorifying Adolph Hitler on his website for 19 hours to universal criticism. Hitler had his Third Reich, and his Holocaust and World War II. Is that what Trump wants now? Biden needs to vigorously tell young people that Trump will support Israel no matter what they do, and he will oppose a two-state solution to give Bibi what he wants.

But Biden cannot be a humanitarian one day on Gaza and then shift to becoming a Netanyahu enabler by criticizing the International Court of Justice decision the next. He cannot pause shipments of 2,000 pound bombs one day and then provide Israel One Billion Dollars of arms, bombs and offensive weapons the next. Biden cannot announce a red line prohibition on invading Rafah and then backing down and doing nothing when the IDF invades Rafah and cuts off aid supplies waiting in long lines at the Israeli closed Rafah crossing.

Biden needs to use the tremendous leverage he has to alter Netanyahu’s unattainable goal to totally annihilate Hamas; there will be replacements radicalized by Israeli military action. So far, except for the heavy bomb pause, Biden has not used that leverage. What will Biden do when Netanyahu speaks to a Joint Session of Congress? Will Biden support negotiation of a treaty recognizing a Palestinian state? If Biden cannot use the immense leverage he has to shift Netanyahu’s opposition, then Biden will seem weak, which he will be, sand he may be defeated by Trump who likes to play Strongman to Biden’s weak office holder. Unless Biden radically changes his Mideast policy, he is setting up the conditions for his defeat by Trump. Biden needs to show strength to counter Trump and control Netanyahu.