Since the outbreak of Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the majority of US administration officials have made statements regarding “Israel’s right to defend itself” and drawn broad outlines of what President Joe Biden’s administration intends to do to protect “Israel”, which is in “existential danger.” 

Throughout six months of military operations, during which the Gaza Strip was subjected to a complete land, air, and sea invasion with the aim of eliminating the Hamas movement and all Palestinian Resistance factions, the war narrative has focused on two main issues, the American position on which has so far not changed: Supporting the Zionist military operation and preventing a ceasefire, conditioned with the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas.

These two main stances branch out into issues, the most important of which are: the killing of Palestinian civilians and accusing “Israel” of committing genocide against them, blocking the entry of aid, targeting hospitals, displacing Palestinians, the two-state solution, the position on the day-after, managing the “extremist Israeli movements” that assault Palestinians in the West Bank, and other issues that the American administration says must be addressed in a way that tips the war discourse to its advantage and steers the consequences of this war away from it, and also to preserve the possibility of later communication with the Palestinians whom the Zionists aim to enable to manage the affairs of the Strip after the cessation of military operations.

This analysis aims to shed light on the role of the United States in this war and expose what the US is attempting to propagate about the differences between the American and Israeli sides to obscure its role and full responsibility for the crimes of this war. The depiction of a personal discord between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to the American administration’s adherence to “impose peace once and for all” according to Biden, protecting both Palestinian and “Israeli civilians”, imposing the two-state solution, and other issues that the US administration raises against the Zionist government, which it claims are behind the verbal quarrels between the two parties, and not the fact that the timeline set to end Hamas and the Resistance movements in Gaza did not match the American administration’s expectations, as it predicted that occupation forces would win a quick battle.

The discrepancy between the American and “Israeli” administrations is due to the two sides attempting to dictate what the other must do. The current American Administration wants a quick military victory to exploit in garnering support in the ongoing presidential elections. Since months have passed without any real progress by the occupation forces in eliminating Hamas and freeing their captives, with the deadlines approaching for the elections on November 5, 2024, and the decline in poll numbers in favor of President Biden, the latter began raising issues that are likely to be the reason for the decline in his popularity, while at the same time reiterating the same issues regarding “protecting civilians”, and almost all first-ranking American officials raising the issue of the need to protect them from being targeted, and the need to differentiate between them and Resistance fighters. 

The stark reality is that during President Biden’s visit to occupied Palestine on October 18, 2023, to show support for the Zionists and participate in their war council, just within his first month as commander-in-chief of the aggression against Gaza, tons of American munitions rained down on the Gaza Strip, targeting civilians. President Biden, at the time, dismissed the Baptist Hospital massacre (October 17, 2023), where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a direct Israeli attack on civilians gathered in the hospital courtyard, and instead attributed it to Palestinian factions.

At that time, the timetable for the elections did not pressure the American President, and the American decision to eliminate the Resistance in Gaza was at the height of its power, his interests in escalating the aggressions against Hamas and threatening the Axis of Resistance aligns with those of Benjamin Netanyahu in unleashing a major military campaign on the Gaza Strip, from which he would emerge victorious and dominate the prime ministership for many years, placing him among the great leaders of “Israel”. However, his aspirations were put to rest by the legendary steadfastness of the Hamas movement and the rest of the Resistance factions.

With the IOF achieving no progress in the original goals of the war; which were the surrender of Hamas and the liberation of the captives, it became necessary for Netanyahu to prolong the war and implement a “different vision” from the American one. The new plan would be based on ending any physical presence of the Hamas movement, whether civilian or military, even at the expense of personnel assigned to organize the distribution of aid, or at the expense of local municipal members carrying out routine work, accusing them of working with Hamas, meaning all civilians could be targeted under this pretext.

In addition to the use of direct military force to impose control, exhausting food and health institutions in the Strip, besiegement, and daily brutal killings in air raids and artillery shelling of residential neighborhoods. This “vision” aims to punish the people in the Strip for enabling the Resistance and adhering to the resistance mentality, making them pay a heavy price. 

It may succeed in creating an anti-resistance movement, or at least, enable a Palestinian segment or Palestinian leaders to take the initiative in allowing the occupation to devise plans to control the Gaza Strip, while sidelining existing Hamas authorities. 

Through this, Netanyahu expects to achieve some of the original war goals by saying that he has eliminated the presence of Hamas and all of its brigades in the Gaza Strip, which is the argument that he wants to implement to justify his invasion of Rafah near the border with Egypt, where Palestinians are concentrated due to their displacement from the north. This displacement portends huge humanitarian disasters to human lives and properties, a situation that the Biden administration rejects completely, due to its negative impact on domestic affairs, especially as the presidential elections approach. 

At the same time, Netanyahu knows that prolonging the war and avoiding a successful deal with Hamas to free the captives would alleviate his personal political and judicial crises which had been looming before October 7. Simultaneously, evading a political settlement with the Palestinians according to the American administration's vision also serves his interests.

Thus, on the one hand, the American administration raises secondary issues that harm its reputation, such as “protecting civilians” and confronting Zionist extremists within Netanyahu’s government in order to compensate for the decline in support rates, while on the other hand the US continues to arm "Israel" which has received more than 300 aircraft and about 50 ships carrying ammunition and military equipment containing about 35 thousand tons of weapons systems, ammunition and other weapons, according to Israel Hayom, in a clear example of American duplicity. 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu strikes the emotional chord in reducing the support of American Jews for Biden by accusing him of intending to abandon the “State of Israel”, while looking forward to the arrival of his rival, former President Donald Trump. It’s noteworthy that Trump has clear political choices that absolutely support “Israel” and Netanyahu’s tendencies to the two-state solution, and his ability to impose normalization by threatening to deny US protection from the regimes and rulers of Arab and Gulf countries.

Therefore, “Netanyahu’s vision” regarding the long term paths of the war, with the aim of evading internal accountability and the President Biden’s tight timetable, led to a personal conflict of interests between the two men, while one fact unites them, which is the elimination of Hamas, with the US administration and President Biden fully responsible for the escalation that is happening in Gaza and the rest of the Middle East.

The killing of civilians

With more than 40,000 dead and missing and 80,000 wounded Palestinians, and the Zionists failing to collect their declared political goal of defeating Hamas and recovering their captives, the results are the opposite of what President Biden had in mind when he allowed the Zionist killing machine to shed the blood of Palestinians in the first months of the escalation. 

Biden continued his open game of inflaming feelings toward civilians and directing the US army to build a pier so that food aid would enter Gaza rather than stopping arms deliveries to “Israel”, which would automatically end the war. 

To manipulate public opinion, US and Israeli newspapers published the news of the signing of a memorandum of guarantees in the middle of March, by Israeli Minister of Security Yoav Gallant, regarding the use of US weapons, which includes conditions that they are used in accordance with international law, and which could have not been announced, as this is a routine internal American procedure regarding American aid and donations to foreign parties.

This move gives the suggestion that Israeli military operations are legitimate, justifying the continuation of massacres against Palestinians after the signing of the memorandum, at food distribution points, targeting homes and residential buildings, storming hospitals, and most recently, storming Al-Shifa Hospital for the second time and executing hundreds of people whom the occupation army spokesman claimed were “saboteurs”. 

The United States stated, according to what was reported by CNN on December 14, 2023 from American officials, “The US does not consider the killing of civilians as a result of a military operation in itself as a violation of the law of armed conflict, but rather it judges the legitimacy of the Israeli operations based on whether its strikes are proportionate and seek to achieve a legitimate military objective.”

Until proven otherwise, the American administration’s seriousness in its threats to withhold armament from the occupying entity as a result of the large number of civilian casualties, and its opposition to the Israeli government’s policy of withholding food aid and causing massive famine and suffering to the Palestinians, and its amendment of its first decision to wage war on Gaza and asking the occupying entity to implement a temporary ceasefire for the exchange of captives with Hamas, and before Netanyahu proceeds with his decision to invade Rafah without sufficient coordination with the Americans, which will cause additional damage to the reputation of the United States due to civilian casualties, the good cop and bad cop game will continue by Washington. 

CNN reported three months ago on these justifications of Zionist violations against civilians, stating that the US administration “currently has no plans to impose conditions on the military aid it provides to Israel, despite increasing calls by Democratic legislators and human rights organizations to stop providing weapons, unless Israel does more to protect civilians in Gaza. The White House already expects allies and partners to use American-made equipment, in accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law. Israel integrates military lawyers with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) units, where they determine in advance whether a strike will be ‘proportionate and lawful’. Biden ultimately believes that the strategy of quietly pressuring Israel to change its tactics is more effective than the threat of withholding weapons. The United States advised Israel not to open another front in the war by launching a large-scale attack on Hezbollah, but did not threaten to cut off aid if it did so.”

Conclusion

Those who follow the events of the “American-Israeli” exchange over the past months recognize the US’ responsibility for everything that is happening in the Gaza Strip, starting with the direct American decision to wage war and mobilize fleets in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea in support of the occupying entity and to protect it from being targeted in its state of weakness, arm it with all the required ammunition, to vetoing ceasefire resolutions in the Security Council, all to achieve the goal of eliminating Hamas. 

Moreover, the dozens of visits by President Biden and officials of the American political and military establishment to occupied Palestine, alongside those by European leaders, to coordinate supply operations, achieve political and military goals, and provide moral support and condolences to the victims, ending with the emergence of the discrepancy between US President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, all of these happened as a result of the legendary resilience and resistance shown by people of Gaza. 

“Israel” has dropped bombs over Gaza whose total destructive power equals four nuclear bombs, with the aim of forcing Palestinians to surrender and submit, yet this did not happen.

Like every war waged by the United States, American propaganda advances to cover its blaze with bright slogans such as “protecting civilians” and adhering to international law, while the American administration gives the occupying forces a large margin in its military operations on land, sea, and air, continuously supplying it with the latest weapons and equipment, logistical and technical assistance to search for captives, destroy tunnels also providing them with military advice. This all happens as Biden, his Secretary of State, and the Minister of War partook in the sessions of the Israeli war cabinet more than five times to enable the entity to achieve a quick and decisive achievement in eliminating Hamas.

However, the resilience of the Palestinian people, the defeat of the "Israeli" military machine in the face of the Resistance, their valor, and their impressive military, media, and intelligence preparation for the battle of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, turned things upside down and revealed direct American complicity in the Gaza war and in the killing of civilians. There is indeed a difference in the agendas of Biden and Netanyahu, as the first wants a quick victory in a short period of time and the second wants a long war with impunity, achieving the accomplishment of occupying Gaza and controlling the security threats emanating from it. 

However, the United States is the main responsible party, as it decided to launch a war against Hamas directly, and prepared the equipment for it, including deploying fleets and threatening all those who support Gaza.

The continuation of the brutal killing of Palestinians, especially with the expectation of launching a military operation in the highly populated Rafah area due to the displacement of more than a million and a half people there from the northern Gaza Strip, carrying the risk of expanding the war regionally, affects the American presidential elections. 

This ongoing American game of double standards, in which Washington attempts to evade responsibility for killing civilians and starving them, will necessarily end in a major expected failure, due to the resilience of the people of Gaza and their Resistance, and the sacrifices made by the Axis of Resistance and its wise position in opening supportive fronts.

This reality will ultimately hold the United States responsible for waging this war, including all its humanitarian, social, economic, legal, and judicial ramifications, as the decision for the killing and wounding of more than one hundred thousand Palestinians to no avail and without a corresponding political price was its own from the beginning

On December 14, Newsweek expressed this by saying, that “Israel”, two months after the war, said that it killed 20% of the pre-war estimate of the number of Hamas fighters, explaining this as a classic case of winning the battle and losing the war, qualifying “Israel’s” attack on Gaza as an attack on civilians. 

As an Israeli Army official asks, ‘Why would Washington sell us bombs weighing two thousand pounds if it is worried about us using them?’”