US sends military aid to Israel
US President Joe Biden said the administration would ask Congress to take "urgent action" to fund Israel's security needs.
(Times of Israel) – US President Joe Biden disclosed unprecedented and explicit details of the “sheer evil” inflicted by Hamas against Israel in an emotional speech on Tuesday during which he promised to ensure that the Jewish state would have what it needs to respond to the shocking weekend onslaught.
“There are moments in this life – I mean this literally – when a pure unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world,” he said in a hushed voice during a speech shown live on many American and Israeli television channels. “This is an act of sheer evil.”
Flanked in the White House by Vice-President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his second address to the nation on the ongoing war launched by the Gaza-based terror group early on Saturday, Biden detailed some of the scenes from the attack.
“Parents butchered, using their bodies to try to protect their children; stomach-turning reports of babies being killed; entire families slain; young people massacred while attending a musical festival … women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies,” he recounted with horror.
“There are still so many families desperately waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones. Not knowing if they are alive or dead or [being held] hostage. Infants in their mothers’ arms, grandparents in wheelchairs, Holocaust survivors abducted and held hostage.
“This is terrorism. But sadly, for the Jewish people, it’s not new,” Biden continued. “This attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people.
“Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people,” he asserted.
“Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond – indeed has a duty to respond – to these vicious attacks,” the President said.
Biden said he had one word – “Don’t” – for any of Israel’s adversaries who might try to get involved, in a clear message to long-term foe Iran, which backs Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah.
And the President stressed he was ready to move “additional assets” if needed to show Washington’s backing for its ally and bolster its presence in the tense region.
He said the US was “surging” additional military aid to Israel, such as ammunition and interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome missile defence system. He pledged to ensure that Israel does not run out of equipment needed to protect its citizens and said the administration would ask Congress to take “urgent action” to fund Israel’s security needs upon returning to session in the coming days.
“This is not about party or politics. This is about the security of our world, the security of the United States of America,” said Biden, who compared Hamas’s actions to the Islamic State terror group.
“For 75 years, Israel has stood as the ultimate guarantor of security of Jewish people around the world so that the atrocities of the past could never happen again. And let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We will make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow as we always have. It’s as simple as that.”
Meanwhile, the leaders of the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy issued a joint statement expressing their “steadfast and united support to the State of Israel, and our unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and its appalling acts of terrorism”.
“Our countries will support Israel in its efforts to defend itself and its people against such atrocities. We further emphasise that this is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage,” Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in the statement.
“All of us recognise the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and support equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike. But make no mistake: Hamas does not represent those aspirations, and it offers nothing for the Palestinian people other than more terror and bloodshed.
“Over the coming days, we will remain united and coordinated, together as allies, and as common friends of Israel, to ensure Israel is able to defend itself, and to ultimately set the conditions for a peaceful and integrated Middle East region. We make clear that the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification, no legitimacy, and must be universally condemned.”
comments