White House officials told the Washington Post that US President Joe Biden does not show enough sympathy for Palestinian civilians, despite his sympathy for many people.

The United States says that photos of civilians being arrested in Gaza while they are almost naked are “deeply disturbing.”

At a fundraising event in Boston last week, Biden spoke passionately as he recounted the events of the attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7.

“There are reports of women being repeatedly raped, their bodies mutilated while they were alive, women's bodies being desecrated, and Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible, then killing them,” Biden said.

The US President has repeatedly expressed his "sympathy and sadness for the suffering of Israelis" and "the concerns of Jews" around the world after the October 7 attacks.

But many Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as young voters and anti-war liberals, say the same empathy and conviction were often missing in Biden's rhetoric about the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, even as the death toll there rose to more than 17,000, including children.

Shibli Telhami, a researcher in Middle East affairs at the University of Maryland, said: “The president, other than his graphic description of Hamas’ horrific attack on Israeli victims... rarely spoke about Palestinian children torn apart, or hundreds of thousands of people without water or food,” adding: He talks about (the Palestinians) as if they were victims of an earthquake or a natural disaster, without linking them to what the Israeli government is doing thanks to his support and support.”

Muslims and Arab Americans feel that Biden's emotional tone and expressions of sympathy are starkly different when he talks about Israelis and Palestinians, especially with the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, where about 80% of Gaza's population has been displaced, and an increasing number of them lack basic necessities.

Some were particularly upset by the president's questioning several weeks ago of casualty figures provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza. In response to a journalist's question about the rising death toll, the president replied, "I have no idea that the Palestinians are telling the truth about the death toll."

However, the Department of Health's numbers closely match the internal U.S. census.

According to US government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, in late November, the ministry estimated the death toll at more than 15,000.

The US said: “Officials presented the same number to Congress, saying it matched the latest assessment of US numbers.”

Many Arab and Muslim Americans felt that Biden was denying this by ignoring up to thousands of lives lost.

The next day, Biden apologized to a group of American Muslim leaders and promised to do better, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A White House official said that Biden's comment stems from the fact that the US government does not have anyone on the ground in Gaza to verify the numbers, and the fact that the Ministry of Health's numbers do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

When he talks about suffering and death in Gaza, Biden shows a reluctance to criticize Israel directly, which creates a growing disagreement with some of his employees, as many senior officials in the Biden administration have become more willing to point out Israel’s guilt, and to speak sympathetically with the Palestinians, since Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza struck the south with the same ferocity with which it struck the north.

On a recent trip to the Middle East, Vice President Kamala Harris declared that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” adding: “Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming out of Gaza are devastating.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking Dec. 2 at the Reagan National Defense Forum, also warned Israel that when it comes to civilians, “if it pushes them into the arms of the enemy, it is trading tactical victory for strategic defeat.”

During a recent visit to Tel Aviv, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recalled images of Palestinian children being pulled from under the rubble, saying: “When I look into their eyes through the television screen, I see my children.” Blinken also recently said that there is a “gap” between Israel’s stated intention to protect civilians and what is actually happening in Gaza.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said that Biden and his aides "continuously pressed our Israeli counterparts to do everything in their power to avoid civilian casualties."

US officials say this has led Israel to reduce the size of its ground forces in Gaza and allow in significantly more humanitarian aid.

But officials acknowledged that American warnings to Israel about casualties in southern Gaza were not heeded. The Biden team does not support imposing conditions on US aid to Israel or any other punitive moves that might increase pressure on its ally in the Middle East.

Source: RT