Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Self-righteous and the world’s preacher-in-chief, the US does not believe a “genocide” is going on in the Gaza Strip where over 35,000 people have died in Israeli bombing since October 7, 2023, in its counter-offensive after Hamas terrorists invaded the Jewish state, killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, and fled with nearly 250 hostages, many of whom they are still holding captives.
The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, President Joe Biden’s top national security official said Monday, according to the media reports.
As ceasefire talks stalled and Israel continued striking the southern city of Rafah, bordering Egypt, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with operative group Hamas.
“We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Sullivan told a briefing.
The US was “using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent” to reach this assessment, he added.
President Biden wanted to see Hamas defeated but realized that Palestinian civilians were in “hell,” Sullivan said.
President Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments to press his demands that Israel hold off a Rafah offensive, while there have been protests at US universities against his support for Israel.
The US President believed any Rafah operation “has got to be connected to a strategic endgame that also answered the question, ‘what comes next?’” Sullivan added.
This would prevent Israel from “getting mired in a counterinsurgency campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s strength and vitality.”