A Palestinian child injured in Israeli air raids, Oct. 18, 2023, in Khan Yunis. Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

Eva Borgwardt February 22, 2024

This week, the United States vetoed for the third time a widely backed resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, alleging that it would muddle ongoing hostage negotiations. Instead, the U.S. circulated its own resolution calling for a “temporary” ceasefire pending a return of all hostages in Gaza. 

The U.S. resolution comes amid a suite of President Joe Biden’s recent expressions of concern about Israel’s relentless and indiscriminate assault on the people of Gaza, which he recently described as “over the top.” Yet it has been clear for months that this has always been the war Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government planned to fight. In the days immediately following Hamas’s horrific attack on Oct. 7, Netanyahu invoked Amalek, against whom Israelites carried out a massacre in the Bible, President Isaac Herzog said that “the entire nation [of Palestinians] is responsible” and an Israeli military spokesperson said that “we’re focused on what causes maximum damage” to Gaza, even at the expense of bringing the hostages home.

Biden’s latest call for a “temporary” ceasefire at the U.N. while continuing to provide blanket financial and diplomatic support to Netanyahu is far too little, far too late. It is past time for the Biden administration to change course by leveraging U.S. diplomatic and financial support to secure an actual, lasting ceasefire. Only this will end the massacre of Palestinian civilians, secure the release of the hostages and forge a path for equality, justice and safety for Israelis and Palestinians.

In October, despite our collective grief, thousands of American Jews heard the genocidal rhetoric of Netanyahu and his ministers and saw the horror that was coming. We took to the streets to demand a ceasefire, hostage exchange and a long-term political solution. But Biden’s aides dismissed calls for a ceasefire as “disgraceful” and claimed that an end to the war “only benefits Hamas.”

Four months later, it’s clear that this administration’s strategy has failed with devastating consequences: The Israeli military has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, and forced millions from their homes and prevented them from accessing basic necessities like food, water and medicine. According to the International Court of Justice, it is “plausible” that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention. Meanwhile, Israel’s all-out offensive has failed to bring home Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, only putting them in further danger.

Even now, with Israel on the brink of invading Rafah, the Administration is pushing forward a bill in Congress that would provide an additional $14 billion to Israel, most of it for military purposes. While the proposed U.N. resolution warns against an invasion of Rafah, these cautionary words ring hollow against the backdrop of a continued push to send more weapons for Israel’s killing and displacement campaign.

Advocates for a ceasefire should be skeptical of the U.S.-sponsored “temporary” ceasefire for several reasons. A temporary pause would be a break in the bloodshed only for it to resume once it expires. We witnessed this in November — for seven days, the bombardment stopped, 105 hostages were reunited with their families, and an end to the bloodshed seemed possible. But the temporary ceasefire expired on Nov. 30, and since then, the Israeli military has killed thousands more civilians and an estimated 130 hostages remain in captivity. 

A call for a brief ceasefire that does nothing to address the root causes of this crisis risks allowing Netanyahu and his allies to launch a renewed assault on Gaza, and creating a runway for future anti-Palestinian violence and displacement.

The Biden administration has also not made any meaningful attempt to hold the Israeli government responsible for its unconscionable actions in Gaza, including the killing of thousands of children, starvation of civilians, and wholesale destruction of homes, schools, mosques and medical clinics. There have been no substantive conditions placed on military sales. As Israel used U.S.-made weapons to blanket Gaza with bombs — killing thousands of children — the President bypassed Congress twice in December to rush weapons to Israel. 

At press conferences, Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other administration officials deflect and obfuscate questions about atrocities likely committed with U.S. weapons. Nothing yet has spurred anything beyond empty promises or vague statements of concern from the United States. 

The Biden administration continues to be unwilling to breach a vital threshold: leveraging U.S. military, financial and diplomatic support in order to bring an end to the bloodshed. But Netanyahu has persistently made clear he will respond to nothing less. The time for empty words has long passed. If Biden cares about the value of each and every human life, he will use the United States’ financial and diplomatic power to push Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire, and refuse to send weapons to fuel further war.

Our tradition teaches us that to save a life is to save a whole world. Biden has already enabled Israel to extinguish more than 29,000 of them. It is time for him to take leadership to save the lives that hang in the balance. We, along with the majority of Americans calling for a ceasefire, are waiting for him to find the courage, and the humanity, to do so.

To contact the author, email [email protected].

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