At a closed-door meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan this week, one of President Biden’s top foreign policy advisers acknowledged flaws in the administration’s response to the war in Gaza and said he had “no confidence” in the Israeli government is ready to take “meaningful steps” towards a Palestinian state.
The comments came after months of public and private exhortations from the Biden administration to Israel to take a more surgical approach to a conflict that health authorities say has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians in Gaza. On Thursday, Mr. Biden himself declared that Israel had “overreached” in its response to the October 7 Hamas attack.
Biden adviser Jon Finer, a deputy national security adviser, expressed some of the administration’s clearest regrets over what he called “missteps” it had made since the violence began and vowed it would do better.
During Thursday’s meeting with Arab American political leaders in Dearborn, Michigan, Mr. Finer said: “We are acutely aware that we have made missteps in responding to this crisis since October 7,” one said Record of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. A National Security Council official confirmed that the recording was authentic.
Mr. Finer added: “We have left a very damaging impression based on a wholly inadequate public representation of how much the president, the administration and the country value the lives of Palestinians.” And that started, frankly, quite early in the year Conflict.”
The war in Gaza has become part of a cascade of political problems for Mr. Biden, who continues to publicly support Israel and resists calls within the Democratic Party to call for a ceasefire. His stance since Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, as well as his comments casting doubt on the death toll from Israeli airstrikes and calling the loss of life “a price for waging war.” , have angered young people, black voters and many other progressives who are more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
Mr. Biden himself has acknowledged the pro-Palestinian protesters who are often present at his public events. Last month, a campaign rally on abortion rights in Virginia was repeatedly interrupted by protesters urging Mr. Biden to call for a ceasefire.
After that rally, Mr. Biden met privately with about 40 invited participants and urged them not to view the protesters as political enemies. He said they deserved compassion and that their cause was “really important,” according to three people who attended the meeting.
A spokeswoman for the Biden campaign declined to comment.
But the recording of the Dearborn meeting offers an unusual behind-the-scenes look at the administration’s attempts to shore up support in the critical battleground state of Michigan, which has a large Arab-American population in Dearborn and other Detroit suburbs. Polls show Mr. Biden’s support has declined in the state. His allies there have warned the White House in recent months that he is at risk of losing the state he held in 2020.
Mr. Finer and several other senior Biden administration officials, including Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, traveled to Dearborn on Thursday for a series of meetings, including the meeting at which Mr Finer were recorded.
Those meetings came a week after Biden campaign aides, including Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the manager of his 2024 bid, quietly traveled to the city and met with some officials, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American progressive, which is at the top of the Democrats is calling for a ceasefire.
However, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn and several other local officials declined to meet with Ms. Chávez Rodríguez. Mr. Hammoud later issued a statement saying he wanted to speak to policymakers rather than campaign officials. White House officials then scrambled to arrange a visit.
During Thursday’s meetings, Mr. Finer expressed the American government’s efforts to end the war in Gaza. The establishment of a formal diplomatic relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia is a crucial step towards the creation of a Palestinian state. This, he added, requires politically difficult sacrifices from both countries and the United States.
“We are going to have to do things for Saudi Arabia that will be very unpopular in this country and in our Congress,” Mr. Finer said. “Will Israel be willing to do the difficult thing that is being asked of it, namely, take meaningful steps for the Palestinians on the two-state issue? I don’t know if the answer to that is yes. I have no trust in the current government of Israel.”
Mr. Finer also said the Biden administration should have been quicker to publicly condemn comments from some Israeli officials who, in his words, compared “Gaza residents to animals.” He said the officials did not do so because they were trying to cooperate with the Israeli government.
“Out of a desire to somehow focus on solving the problem and not engage in a rhetorical back-and-forth with people who, in many cases I think, all find somewhat abhorrent, we did not adequately point out that we and totally rejected “I didn’t agree with those views,” Mr Finer said.
He did not make clear which Israeli officials he was referring to, but in the early days of the conflict, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said: “We are fighting against people and we are acting accordingly.” Some other Israeli officials have also been criticized for their dehumanizing language.
Mr. Finer’s clearest expression of remorse involved a statement released under Mr. Biden’s name on January 14, marking the 100th day since the conflict began. The statement focused on the plight of American and Israeli hostages held in Gaza and made no mention of the Palestinians killed.
“The loss of Palestinian lives in the first 100 days of the conflict was not addressed in any way,” Finer said. “There is no excuse for that. It shouldn’t have happened. I believe it won’t happen again. But we know a lot of damage has been done.”
Mr. Finer, who declined to comment, is the second-ranking official on the National Security Council under Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser.
Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said: “The president and Mr. Finer reflected on the concerns we have had for some time and will continue to have as the Israeli operation continues about the loss of Palestinian lives.” Conflict and the need to reduce harm to civilians.”
Michigan residents who attended Thursday’s meetings with Biden administration officials described them as intense and said they were disappointed that the delegation from Washington did not commit to policy changes.
For example, administration officials declined to say whether they had advised or would advise the president to call for a ceasefire demanded by participants.
“You’re not going to get that answer,” said Steve Benjamin, the head of the White House Public Engagement Office.
However, the officials committed to issuing a letter making clear that the government supports the work of the United Nations relief agency, for which the United States temporarily cut funding after Israel accused some of its employees of being involved in the attack of October 7th to have been involved. Biden officials did not address questions from Michigan leaders about the president’s election prospects in the state.
“We have emphasized that there is a need for policy change beyond communications,” said Abraham Aiyash, a Democratic state representative and majority leader in the Michigan House of Representatives. “We were clear that there would be no follow-up meetings of any kind unless there was a change in policy based on the concrete steps we outlined to them today.”
Abbas Alawieh, a former congressman who attended the meeting, said it was “outrageous” that it took more than 100 days after the war began for the administration to contact Dearborn and that Mr. Biden is not visiting himself have.
Mr. Biden met with Arab and Muslim American leaders in October amid rising tensions inside and outside the White House and apologized for questioning the Gaza death toll and other administration messages. However, he largely defended his support for Israel’s war, citing foreign policy considerations.
In November, administration officials also met via video conference with Palestinian-American leaders who expressed concern about polls showing declining support for Mr. Biden in their communities. The officials told them that poll numbers do not dictate the president’s foreign policy decisions.
“People feel not just a vague sense of betrayal, but a deep sense of betrayal by President Biden,” Mr. Alawieh said.
Wayne County Deputy Executive Assad I. Turfe, who also heard from the Biden staff on Thursday, said Mr. Biden should be judged on how quickly the conflict in Gaza is resolved.
“The Biden administration must act quickly and decisively to end this violence while respecting the principles of justice and human rights,” Turfe said.
On Tuesday, a group of Arab-American and Muslim leaders in Michigan, led by Ms. Tlaib’s sister, announced a campaign to persuade Democrats angered by Mr. Biden’s stance on Israel to “non-commit” against the president in the state’s Democratic primary to vote election on February 27th. Although such a move would most likely have little practical impact, it could embarrass the president if enough voters decided to participate.
Former Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan called the campaign “a constructive thing for the president” and said he was encouraging his fellow Democrats to vote for “Uncommitted” – although he declined to say how he planned to vote in the primary.
“As far as Gaza is concerned, we have to keep pushing it forward,” Mr. Levin said in an interview.
Osama A. Siblani, the influential editor of The Arab American News, a Dearborn newspaper, met with both Ms. Chávez Rodríguez and Mr. Finer’s delegation. He said Arab-American voters in Michigan felt betrayed after supporting Mr. Biden in large numbers in 2020, arguing that they had received “nothing” “except lip service” since then.
“I have been committed to this community every day for 40 years,” said Mr. Siblani. “I can tell you now that I cannot convince my community to vote for Biden if I kiss their feet. They won’t do it.”
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2024-02-10 02:41:28
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