Obama Criticizes Israel Over Actions Towards Gaza

Former President Barack Obama has now chastised Israel for the manner in which it is “dismantling” the Palestinian terror group, having previously stated that Israel should “dismantle” Hamas.

In a statement Monday, Obama wrote:

“As I stated in an earlier post, Israel has a right to defend its citizens against such wanton violence, and I fully support President Biden’s call for the United States to support our long-time ally in going after Hamas, dismantling its military capabilities, and facilitating the safe return of hundreds of hostages to their families.

But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters.

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Still, the world is watching closely as events in the region unfold, and any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire. Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes. The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region.”

As a recent expert pointed out, a siege of Gaza would be legal under international law. Furthermore, as noted by Israel's ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, only 7% of Gaza's water comes from Israel in any case.

Obama disregarded Israel's long history as one of, if not the best, nations in the world at upholding human rights and humanitarian law while waging war against a merciless, terrorist foe.

Per Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, “No other country with comparable internal and external threats has as good a human rights record as Israel.”

When Obama was president, his own strategy against terrorism was criticized for being ineffectual. Foreign Affairs wrote:

“[W]hereas [George W.] Bush’s approach was sometimes marred by an overly aggressive posture, Obama has sometimes erred too far in the other direction, seeming prone to idealism and wishful thinking. This has hampered his administration’s efforts to combat the terrorist threat: despite Obama’s laudable attempts to calibrate Washington’s response, the American people find themselves living in a world plagued with more terrorism than before Obama took office, not less.”

Obama allowed the rise of ISIS, the so-called “Islamic State,” after hastily leaving Iraq and mocking them as the “JV team” in an almost never-used justification for his administration's lack of action against radical Islamic terrorism.

According to Politico, Democrats are beginning to fear a backlash from Arab-American voters in swing states like Michigan who are angry that the majority of elected Democrats — with some very notable exceptions — have backed Israel against Hamas.