ARAB AND WORLD

Wed 17 Jul 2024 6:31 pm - Jerusalem Time

Biden says he has done more for “the Palestinian community” than anyone else

President Biden claimed in an interview published Monday that he has done more for “the Palestinian community” than anyone else, comments that come more than nine months after his administration supported Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.


“I am the man who has done more for Palestinian society than anyone else,” he said on the “360 with Speedy” program on YouTube.


As an example of what he has done for the "Palestinian community," Biden said: "I'm the guy who opened up all the assets, I'm the guy who made sure to get the Egyptians to open the borders to let goods and medicine and food through."


However, Biden also supported the Israeli operation to seize the Rafah border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border, which has been closed since.


Biden also appeared to indicate in the interview that he had only provided “defensive weapons” to Israel even though his administration had shipped tens of thousands of bombs and other types of munitions.


“I sent defensive weapons,” Biden claimed. “I deprived them of the assault weapons that they were using like 2,000-pound bombs and the rest because I made it clear that they couldn't use the weapons that we were giving them, in fact, for use in civilian areas.”


The president appears to be referring to his administration halting the shipment of 500-pound and 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. However, the 500-pound bombs were approved for delivery despite Israel continuing to drop heavy munitions on civilians.


While the administration held back one shipment of the 2,000-pound bombs, it had shipped 14,000 of them to Israel before that. Israel is still using heavy munitions against civilians, as Israeli officials told the American website Axios that the army dropped five 2,000-pound bombs on the Al-Mawasi camp over the weekend in a raid that killed at least 90 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Israel said the raid targeted Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas military commander, but Hamas denied that claim, saying it was a pretext to slaughter civilians.


In the interview, Biden expressed his strong support for Israel and the idea of Zionism. “Do you know what a Zionist is? If there were no Israel, every Jew in the world would be in danger. There is a need for it to be strong, a need for Israel to be able, after World War II, for Jews to be able to have a place of their own. Not "It is necessary to be Jewish in order to be a Zionist."

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Biden says he has done more for “the Palestinian community” than anyone else