President Joe Biden appears to be facing mounting pressure from within his administration—and his reelection campaign—over his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. On Wednesday, a second administration official, Tariq Habash, a policy advisor to the Education Department, resigned in protest, writing in a letter that Biden had “turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives” by Israeli forces.
The same day, seventeen Biden campaign staffers called on the president to demand a ceasefire, describing it, in an anonymous letter, as his “moral and electoral imperative” to de-escalate violence in Gaza. “You have said numerous times that silence in the face of human rights violations is complicity,” the staffers wrote. “We agree, which is why we are speaking out now. Every minute that passes without a ceasefire is another life that is lost—a life that could have been saved with political action from you.” They added, “Only with an end to violence can we achieve a real and lasting peace that upholds the right to self-determination, safety, and freedom for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
At least 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its counter-offensive to Hamas’ October 7 terror attack, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations said in a report late last month that one in four people in Gaza is starving. “It doesn’t get any worse,” Arif Husain, chief economist for the UN’s World Food Program, said at the time. “I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza. And at this speed.”
Biden has expressed frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government but has also emphasized that Israel has his “unshakeable” support. He has pressed for a two-state solution and warned that the country is losing international support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. “I think he has to change,” Biden said of Netanyahu last month. But his administration has also stood in the way of UN ceasefire resolutions and enabled Netanyahu’s bombardment—including by bypassing Congress twice in December, most recently last week, to provide weapons to Israeli forces. “The United States is committed to the security of Israel,” the State Department said in announcing the sale, “and it is vital to US national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces.”
But some voters and members of Biden’s party have expressed frustration with his approach. “Why should the Admin bypass Congress on arms sales to any nation?” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine wrote last week, suggesting the move was “keeping the American public in the dark.” Independent Senator Bernie Sanders called on lawmakers to reject the unconditional military aid to Israel the administration has sought. He said in a statement Tuesday, “The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.”
The matter could also have political implications for the president, who is heading into what is expected to be a tight reelection bid—likely against Donald Trump, who represents a dire threat to democracy at home and the international order Biden has strained to hold together abroad. Indeed, as his campaign staffers warned in their open letter Wednesday, Biden’s lack of moral clarity on the humanitarian crisis threatens to erode voter enthusiasm and the fragile coalition that put him in office the first time—with some Muslim leaders saying they’ll withhold support from Biden and younger voters expressing disapproval in polls over his handling of the conflict. “It is not enough to merely be the alternative to Donald Trump,” the staffers cautioned, urging the campaign to “shift the feeling in the pits of voters’ stomachs” by de-escalating. “This Administration’s profound sense of empathy is one of the reasons we felt inspired to join your reelection campaign,” the staffers added. “Now, we have faith that you will listen to the two-thirds of the country and three-quarters of our fellow Democrats who support a ceasefire.”
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