Biden’s War Speech: A Line-by-Line Breakdown

The president declares a new era of greater global conflict.

Last week on The Zero Hour I played President Biden’s speech and analyzed it line by line. Between those lines, the speech called for a new era of heightened global military conflict.

What follows is a software transcription of that segment. I’ve edited it lightly for clarity or errors where I could. I have undoubtedly missed a few, for which I apologize.

It’s spoken, not written, commentary, which means my phrasing is more vernacular than you would find in a typical essay or email. Here’s the transcript.

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(After introduction of the segment)

In recording the other segments of this program, I had not yet heard the world had not yet heard President Biden's speech on the situation in Israel and Palestine, which he tied in to the situation in Ukraine as well. I think it was an important speech — tragically important, tragically wrong, but important. I think we need to examine that speech and the subtext of that speech very, very carefully.  So, here goes.

Good evening, my fellow Americans.

We're facing an inflection point in history, one of those moments where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come.

I can't argue with the president there. I think that there's no question that these are becoming critical moments in American history and world history, human history. And I'm afraid that we're hurtling down a precipice of conflict and potentially of enormous and incalculable proportion as we do so. That's why I take this speech so seriously.

Now, note that what happens next is that the president describes rightfully and movingly, the suffering of the Jewish people, the suffering of the victims of this crime, the trauma, all of which are deserving of our deepest acknowledgement and honoring and doing everything in the world to comfort. Nobody denies the terrible trauma that this has been for the individuals involved, the families involved, and collectively for many, many people.

We know that.

We understand that.

But bear in mind that well into the first moments of the president's speech, other than describing what Hamas has done, he makes no reference to the Palestinian people at all. And I have to say, I don't believe that that will go unnoticed –  not only among Palestinians, but among people, Muslims everywhere, for example, who see in much of the response to this tragedy a sense that some people, some victims, are more special than others.

Let's play another clip.

As president, there is no higher priority for me to the safety of American hostages.

The terrorist group Hamas unleashed pure unadulterated evil in the world.

But sadly, the Jewish people know perhaps better than anyone, that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict pain on others.

Now, the president still hasn't mentioned the Palestinian people, except to comment on the pure unadulterated evil of Hamas.That’s another couple minutes of empathy for one group, while the only mentioning of members of another group being those perpetrators who are evil.

I don't think that this, again, goes unnoticed. I think it amplifies a sense of alienation among the world's Muslims, and among a lot of what used to be called Third World or developing nations, people people who see in all of this a double standard based on who the victims are.

But let's listen to a little bit more of this speech.

In Israel, I saw people who are strong, determined, resilient, and also angry.

Again, no words about Palestinians who have seen the deaths of more than 1,000 children as well as thousands of others since the bombing began in Gaza –  bombing that was, according to the statements of Israeli leaders, was a self described collective punishment. That's a war crime, and an assault on people they described as human animals, not a word yet about their suffering, not a word yet about the Palestinian people, as a people.

Let's listen to a little more.

I also spoke with President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and reiterated the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people's right to dignity and to self determination.

Notice the sudden and to me, shocking shift in tone when he when he moves to the Palestinians: nothing about their humanity, nothing about their suffering, nothing about their pain, nothing about the good qualities of them. It becomes businesslike, official.

“I spoke to their president” – who, by the way, is not the president of Gaza, because of the political divisions there.

And I told him, you know, we'll do what's right.

This to me, again, devastating, and sending a signal that I don't think the president really wants to be sending at this point. What did the President of the United States say to the President of the Palestinian Authority? Let's listen.

The United States remains committed to the Palestinian people, right to dignity and to self-determination.

The actions of Hamas terrorists don't take that right away.

Now, that's good, right? I appreciate that he said that. I think it's important to amplify that now he's already created an imbalance.  I'm speaking as a speechwriter, among other things, who knows a little bit about how these things work. He has already tilted the playing field so dramatically in favor of one party, but he is saying the right thing. And I'll give him credit for that.

He says, the actions of Hamas don't take away the Palestinians, Palestinian people's right to self-determination. Okay, good. He says, something else too.

Like so many other, I'm heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life, including the explosion.

Now, let's explore that for a second. When he’s talking about the loss of Israeli life, he names the perpetrators. When he talks about the loss of Palestinian life, it's in the third person.

What are his exact words? “I'm heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life,” as if it were just an act of nature, as if there had been an earthquake or a flood or a tornado. Never mentioning who is taking those Palestinian lives, or with whose equipment those Palestinian lives are being taken.

Then he references the explosion at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza.

-- at the hospital in Gaza, which was not done by the Israelis.

There is no proof that it was not done by the Israelis, first of all. Secondly, I think it's important to look at that issue in broader context. And the broader context is this, according to the World Health Organization, I ... just give me a second while I look up the statistics here, okay?

The World Health Organization reports that whoever blew up Al Ahli hospital, and again, there were very serious questions raised about this in the British media and other media. I'll talk about that and write about that at some point too.

So we don't know that that's the case. But even if in this one instance, Israel did not bomb that hospital, which it warned the staff members it would bomb, if somehow this didn't happen that way, what else do we know?  One report from the WHO, lists 115 other attacks on health care by Israeli forces in Palestine in the 10 days from October 7 to October 17.

At least 20 hospitals in Gaza City and North Gaza, and one hospital in Rafah were told to evacuate, something that can be deadly or crippling for severely ill patients. And yet they received repeated evacuation orders from the Israeli military.

77 attacks were also documented against health workers and facilities in the West Bank, 43 of which caused personal physical violence to the workers there. And that same hospital had been under fire already. But all of a sudden we've changed, you know, by mentioning the one incident where there's any question at all, as doubtful as that questioning may be.

First of all, he rushes to judgment by saying that Israel didn't do it. We don't know that. Secondly, and perhaps almost certainly more importantly, he ignores all the other attacks Israelis have made on medical care, direct and indirect. And by indirect I mean the blockade, the embargo, the shutting down of electricity, with all that does to people on life support, babies in incubators and so on. The shutting off of water with the critical impact that has on health, the blocking of food. You know, it's horrendous.

And the fact that Biden does this, it's very much a bait and switch.

He uses his proclamations of concern about the rights of Palestinians as a kind of pro forma, you know, butt-covering exercise. But even in that, he includes something that subverts the real story of what's going on here.

And then there's this.

You know, the assault on Israel echoes nearly 20 months of war, tragedy and brutality inflicted on the people of Ukraine.

That it does, but not in the way the president thinks. The fact is that the parallel between this situation and Ukraine is one where Israel is Russia and Gaza is Ukraine. And anyone who thinks otherwise is not paying attention.

It is Israel that is denying the democratic rights to Gaza. That's not an endorsement of Hamas. That's an endorsement of international law. Israel has openly been violating international law in both Gaza and the West Bank and using military force to do it.

For President Biden to do this inversion and make a terrorist act from a powerless people, the equivalent of what Russia did to Ukraine, is morally offensive.

And yes, I use the word terrorist, in the sense that an odious person named Pat Buchanan used it. Perhaps the only correct thing Buchanan ever said is, “terrorism is the war of the powerless and war is the terrorism of the powerful.” That's what we're seeing here.

Then the president spoke more about the suffering of Ukrainians.  He's identifying with the wrong party here. We forget because we so rightfully empathize with what the Jewish people, including my ancestors, went through, that it's possible to separate a state – Israel – from a people. Innocent people suffered in Israel as people always suffer in war. But states behave as states will behave. And Israel is the occupier here, the invader, not of its own land but the land of other people.

It doesn’t challenge Israel’s right to exist to point out that it is occupying land that should be Palestine's, land that it has seized and overcome by force.

Then the president said this.

Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common.

They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy, completely annihilated.

Hamas, to sustain a purpose for existing, is a destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.

OK, so let’s take that, too.

Again, the party here that wants to annihilate a neighboring democracy is Israel, the current leaders of Israel at least, for sure. I'm not saying there aren’t many people in Israel who want some sort of solution that allows both peoples to live together in the nation. But that's not who's running Israel now, who we’re backing. The people who are running Israel now have made it very clear that they want to eradicate Palestine as a state altogether.

And there's no question that this attack on Gaza is an attempt to destroy at least that portion of Palestine and the Palestinian people forever to kill them or drive them out has been the stated goal of most of the members of the Netanyahu government for a very long time. We can't ignore that.

And then the president said that the stated purpose of Hamas, its purpose for existing, is the destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of the Jewish people. Now, I'm the last guy in the world you want defending Hamas, because I thought that what they did was horrific. But you can't negotiate peace when you demonize and make a Satan out of the people you're dealing with.

So let's take a quick look at what the president asserts here. Does Hamas want to annihilate a neighboring democracy? It certainly did initially, when it wrote its charter. Now, what they don't tell you or rarely tell you is that it revised that charter in 2017 with a little bit more ambiguous language about whether there can be an Israeli state or not. But let's say that is their position.

Do you try to slaughter an entire people over that?

And by the way, is the stated purpose of Hamas the murder of Jewish people? Let me quote from their charter. You could say they're lying if you want, but Biden didn't say that's their real intent. He said their “stated intent” is the murder of Jewish people. So, let's read their stated intent as written in their revised charter.

This is paragraph six.

Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project, not with the Jews because of their religion.Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish, but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.

OK, so you can agree with that, disagree with that. You can take offense at the use of the word Zionist. You can say they’re lying. You can whatever you want with it — except that their “stated purpose” is the murder of the Jewish people. They’ve clearly stated otherwise.

The new charter also says in paragraph 17 that Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. They say that there are people in Palestine of all religions and they are all Palestinians. So do whatever you want in terms of that information, except misrepresent their stated purpose.

Let's listen to a little bit more of what the president has to say here.

Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields and innocent Palestinian families are suffering greatly because of it.

So, OK, he's saying that that that this is all about human shields when they destroy an entire city block. That is a violation, a clear violation of the rules of war. You can't say that the rules of war allow us to blow up an entire city block to get one person. Now, if somebody was firing, shooting their guns out a window of a house, you could attack that house under the rules of engagement, the rules of war. But you can't blow up the entire neighborhood.

And if you don't even know who's in the house, you just think somebody might be in the house, you can't blow it up – much less the entire neighborhood, much less an entire people.

This is, I'll say it again, a violation of the rules of war, which this rhetoric about human shields is using to justify war crimes. Now, I won't say Hamas has never used people as human shields. I've heard that accusation before, but it's clearly not the case here.

And now we have the targeting of hospitals, again, I repeat, the targeting of hospitals, the bombing of mosques and now a church, which I very much doubt was harboring Hamas by Israeli forces.

This human shield reference is an under-the-table endorsement of the crimes Israel is committing. Let's go on.

Meanwhile, Putin did not ...

Whoa, that's a big pivot there, Mr. President.

... agree that Ukraine has or ever had real statehood.

But who is denying statehood here, Mr. President? Yes, I suppose the weak members of Hamas have sometimes taken the position there should be no Israeli state. But wow, Mr. President, you are really stretching a point to try to link two completely different forces into a single, well, I guess, axis of evil, to use one of your predecessors' words. That's the rhetoric of a military state, that every enemy is all enemies or make up one great enemy. And anyone we deem to be an enemy is part of the Great Evil.

This is not a moment of honor for the president of the United States.

Let's get the next clip.

I know these conflicts can seem far away, and it's natural to ask, why does this matter to America?

So let me share with you, by making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed, it is vital for America's national security.

Who told the president that this would work? Who told the president that people could be persuaded to mentally link Israel and Ukraine into the same entity, one that requires the projection of American military violence directly or indirectly around the world? Who said that? Who said that is vital for America's national security? You mean if we don't fight Hamas over there, we'll fight them over here?

He tries to tie Iranian interference, Russian interference in the region of the Middle East into all this. But the fact is, everything he's doing is strengthening the hand of the people he calls American enemies, whether it's the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians. This is strengthening them by unifying them against the United States of America. I honestly don't know how he thinks that can go over or what's really on his mind.

You know, history has taught us that when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror, when dictators don't pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction.

That is certainly true, as we've seen in 75 years of occupation of Palestine.

It's done nothing for the Israelis, as we now know. If you really believe in peace and security for Israelis, even if you have no feelings of compassion or humanity for the Palestinian people, do you really think this is the way to get it? Let's listen to the president again.

It has been the cornerstone of American security.

And if Putin attacks a NATO ally, we will defend every inch of NATO, which a treaty requires and calls for. We'll have something that we do not seek. Make it clear, we do not seek.

We do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia or fighting against Russia.

Now, first of all: scary, scary, scary. Biden's policy has always been stated clearly, that we will not send American troops to fight in Ukraine. Now he says we do not seek to send American troops to fight in Ukraine, which is very different. In fact, he said something even scarier. Listen carefully. He said “we do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia or against Russia.”

This government, the United States government, is playing with nuclear war. Let's see what else the president had to say.

The United States and our partners across the region are working to build a better future for the Middle East.

You know, if current events came with a laugh track, somebody would cue it right now. The people in the Middle East do not feel that. They do not see it. They do not believe it.

They see a government that has consistently worked against their interests, a government that helped overthrow the advances made by the Arab Spring, a government that only allies itself with wealthy Middle Easterners like the Saudi so-called royal family and its brutal war of attrition against Yemen and on and on and on. A country that destabilized Syria and gave rise to ISIS, a country that caused a million civilian deaths in Iraq in retaliation for an attack that had nothing to do with Iraq.

So the fact that the president of the United States and a representative of the head of the Democratic Party can make such a statement to me is nothing short of — you know, I'm at a loss for words. Mind boggling, I guess I would say.

After promising to sharpen what he called Israel's “qualitative military edge,” the president said this.

We're going to make sure Iron Dome continues to guard the skies over Israel. We're going to make sure other hostile actors in the region know that Israel is stronger than ever and prevent this conflict from spreading.

What they're doing is not preventing this conflict from spreading. They're ensuring that the conflict will spread and that the bitterness toward the United States throughout, as I say, not just the Middle East, but the developing world, will deepen. And here's what he says next.

Look, at the same time, President Netanyahu and I discussed again yesterday, the critical nature is to operate by the laws of war.

That means protecting civilians in combat as best as they can.

And yet the president has done nothing to ensure that. The United States has done nothing to actually intervene, not even to make a statement against some of the violations of basic rules of humanity, as well as rules of war, cutting off the water, cutting off the food, attacking hospitals, which again, I'll reiterate, they have done about — whatever happened at Al-Ahli Hospital.

It's worse than hollow words. It's hollow-point words, if you will.

Then the president says, the people of Gaza urgently need food, water and medicine. But he has made none of its billions of dollars of aid to Israel contingent on giving them food, water or medicine. The other day he was boasting that he was arranging 20 trucks filled with humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. Now, as I speak, I've heard nothing to suggest that those trucks have reached their destination.

But okay, 20 trucks, let's do the math. For 2.1 million people trapped in an open air concentration camp without water or food, that comes out to one relief truck for every 105,000 people in Gaza.

Is that something to brag about? Really, Mr. President? Let's continue.

I secured an agreement for the first shipment of humanitarian assistance from the United Nations to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

If Hamas does not –

Agreements don't feed people, Mr. President, food feeds people.

Then he says, “if Hamas does not divert or steal this shipment,” because, well, you know how these people are, right?

And he says, if it doesn't divert or steal this shipment, we will provide an opening for sustained delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians.

So let me get this right. We finance the slaughter of Palestinians and arm the military that is denying them food, water, medical care. But then we'll throw a few crumbs at them to offset that. The only commonality here is the spending of American money and the ultimate outcome of the slaughter of Palestinians, with a little bit, a homeopathic level of aid, to help them.

But bodies, human bodies, and societies are not the same. And homeopathy, whatever you think of it, is not going to help in this situation.

The president said, and I quote, the people, “President Netanyahu and I discussed again yesterday the critical need for Israel to operate by the laws of war.”

Shall we list the war crimes so far? I will. I’ll so it. Fasten your seatbelts. First of all, who made the following statement, Hamas or Israel?

“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”

That’s a call for collective punishment, the collective blaming of people.

If you guessed Hamas, which killed Israeli citizens, you were wrong. You just got the buzzer. If you suggested Israeli President Isaac Herzog, you were right. He said it at a press conference.

How that’s any different from the rationale of any terrorist beats me.

I said earlier that Hamas committed a war crime by targeting civilians, but condemning them obligates us all the more to condemn the way we’re giving arms and money to aid the massive war crimes being conducted by Israel.

Let me let me lay out some of those war crimes for you, since I promised. The Geneva Convention state in Article 50, Paragraph One, that “the presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians” – that means combatants – “does not deprive the population of its civilian character.”

In other words, you don't have the right to bomb a city block or a hospital or a mosque because you think there might be a combatant in there, or even if a combatant is there.

Article Eight of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the following as war crimes:

“intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival”

I would say that food and water and medicine are objects vital to their survival, wouldn’t you? Okay, war crime.

Here's another” “intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, which are not military objectives,” like medical facilities, schools, mosques, so on.

Then in terms of attacking hospitals, as the British Medical Journal reported, it's difficult to prosecute people for the war crime of attacking hospitals, because usually you can't prove whether the attack was deliberate. But Israeli officials have very helpfully removed that obstacle when they ordered Gazan hospitals to move their patients, which they did, you remember, more than 20 times.

They made it clear they intended to attack them. Therefore, the war criminals have already admitted their own guilt.

And as the New York Times reported, “ At Al Shifa Hospital” –  that's one of the hospitals that got these warnings – “patients included 70 people on ventilators, 200 receiving dialysis and many babies in incubators.”

So, we've got an admission of war crimes there.

Here's another quote from the ICC Rome Statute, “declaring that no quarter will be given,” meaning that no mercy will be shown. I quote Israeli defense minister Gallant, “We are dealing with human animals and will act accordingly.”

Another war crime is collective punishment, which was spelled out in that comment from Herzog that the entire nation of Palestine is guilty.

Here's another war crime, quote, “deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory to within or outside this territory.” Remember, we just heard an order that a million Gazans had to move or face death.

Now, if we move beyond Gaza itself into the West Bank, there's a whole other litany of war crimes like “destroying or seizing the property of an adversary unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of the conflict.” We've all seen the Israeli policy of tearing down the homes of any family member accused of engaging in violence.

Another war crime, “the transfer directly or indirectly by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” This 100 percent applies to the West Bank settlements, which are not only tolerated but are financially subsidized by the Israeli government.

These war crimes also include this: “journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians.” Even before October 7th, 20 journalists had been killed by the Israeli military, including an American citizen killed by an American bullet.

And nobody was punished for any of these killings. Since October 7^th, fifteen journalists have died, have been killed in Palestine.

Look, I can go on and on, but you get the idea.

And yet we have another member of the US government, a Biden appointee in the State Department, saying that it's “armchair quarterbacking” to to tell Israel how to wage this war – even though we are funding it, backing it, encouraging it and defending it from UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid.

I suppose we should continue with the president's speech. Before we do, I will quote Doctors Without Borders as quoted in on NPR as saying, quote, hospitals have also run out of pain killers. Doctors Without Borders says, in NPR’s words, that “the wounded, many of them children, are left screaming in pain.”

Oh, I'm sorry, was I armchair quarterbacking? Forgive me.

Let's go back and wrap up the speech, shall we?

Let me be clear about something. We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment, equipment that defends America and is made in America.

Patriot missiles for air defense batteries made in Arizona, artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and so much more.

You know, just as in World War Two today, patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.

Well, ain't that just Rosie the Riveter of you?

So, what the president is saying here is that we're giving arms to other countries around the world, fueling conflict rather than using diplomacy to resolve those conflicts. But it's okay. It's okay if we're bombing elderly women and infants in incubators in Gaza, because you will get a few jobs out of it. We'll get we'll be able to make batteries in Arizona – as if you can't create jobs in other ways with government money, and more efficiently on a per-dollar basis.

But oh, sure, go ahead. And so just like in World War Two, boys, let's roll up our sleeve and do something for the cause.

Sounding in the distance, I feel something I've always believed more strongly than before.

America is a beacon to the world. Still, still.

As my friend Madeline Albright –

Oh, you mean the Madeline Albright who said that if sanctions killed 500,000 Iraqi children, it was worth it? You mean that “beacon to the world”?

OK, I'll let him continue.

–  said, we’re the indispensable nation. Tonight, there are innocent people all over the world who hope because of us, who believe in a better life because of us, who are desperate not to be forgotten by us and are waiting for us.

You know, what makes me really sad about that, actually, is that there was a time when that might have been true. There was a time when people fighting for freedom after World War Two and countries around the world thought the United States would be their beacon, thought it would be their guiding light, thought it would help them. And instead, they were not only let down, they were attacked by the country that they hope would be their salvation.

It's so sad, really, so sad that we're still doing that now.

OK, let's wrap this up, shall we?

I refuse to let that happen. In moments like these, we have to remember who we are. We're the United States of America, the United States of America. And there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.

Nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together, except calling for peace or using diplomacy to save lives. Apparently that’s beyond our capacity.

My fellow Americans, thank you for your time.

May God bless you all.

May God protect our troops.

This is a little beside the point, I guess, but I wish that just once the president of the United States would end a speech by saying, God bless our teachers. God bless our nurses. God bless the people who were on the front lines of the COVID crisis every day risking their lives.

I wish he would say, God bless all of those people who sacrifice for what is true and just and right, even if it earns them contempt from all sides, because we need that kind of moral standard now.

It is unfortunately, shockingly lacking in the president of the United States. This president, this party have learned nothing in the last 60 years since we entered Vietnam about the self-destructive nature of its insatiable appetite for military violence and military domination.

I fear we are entering yet another cycle of increasing violence –  and throughout it all will remain the fear of nuclear devastation.

This page from Jewish Voice for Peace includes easy-to-use tools for contacting your elected representatives. You can use those tools to let them know you support the Ceasefire Now resolution and want to see the killing end immediately. Thank you.