Does John Kirby Know Who He’s Working For?

By Noah Rothman

Wednesday, April 03, 2024

 

Jim Geraghty makes an important point in detail in today’s Morning Jolt. It’s one my former boss, Commentary editor John Podhoretz, has emphasized for some time. Despite the Biden White House’s theatrical expressions of hostility toward Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and its conduct of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the administration has given Jerusalem all the material support it has sought from the United States.

 

We could argue over just how superficial the White House’s withdrawal of the political cover America typically provides Israel at the United Nations, but, by and large, the observation is correct. The administration’s rhetorical critiques of Israel’s conduct appear cosmetic when compared with its actions. But as Jim observes, if there is confusion regarding Biden’s intentions toward Israel, it’s confusion Biden has cultivated. After all, he wrote, “A lot of people, including Joe Biden, want you to think the Biden administration is turning its back on Israel more than it actually is.”

 

Israel’s supporters are justified, however, in asking themselves if they are in any position to argue with the impression the Biden White House actively seeks to convey. Is it incumbent on Israel’s boosters to understand that the melodrama to which they are privy isn’t for their benefit? That is only a modest comfort to those who demand moral clarity from the president on a defensive war inaugurated by Hamas following one of the most horrific attacks on Israeli Jews in living memory. Nor is the Biden White House’s carefully choreographed dance entirely cost-free. The president’s rhetorical flourishes are surely contributing to the steady erosion of support for Israel’s just cause in public polling.

 

Fortunately, Israel supporters are not entirely bereft of figures in the administration articulating a full-throated case in Jerusalem’s favor. If the Biden White House wants the public to think that it is growing impatient with the Israeli government, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby didn’t get the memo.

 

When asked on Tuesday about a tragic incident involving an Israeli strike that Jerusalem admits accidentally targeted aid workers with the group World Central Kitchen, one of the few international humanitarian organizations Israel trusts to operate in the Strip, Kirby unloaded on Israel’s critics:

“Is firing a missile at people delivering food and killing them not a violation of international humanitarian law?” one reporter asked. “Your question presumes, at this very early hour, that it was a deliberate strike, that they knew exactly what they were hitting, that they were hitting aid workers and did it on purpose,” Kirby replied. “And there’s no evidence of that.” He might have stopped there, but Kirby continued.

 

I would also remind you, sir, that we continue to look at incidents as they occur. The State Department has a process in place. And to date, as you and I are speaking, they have not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law. And lest you think we don’t take it seriously, I can assure you that we do. We look at this in real time.

 

Kirby’s assessment is sure to frustrate the Jewish State’s critics, its factual basis very much notwithstanding. But his comments also illustrate the incoherence of the White House’s political strategy. As Jim observed in today’s Jolt, Biden gets no credit from Israel’s detractors for straddling the fence. He merely irritates them more by articulating the logic for cutting Israel off while refusing to demonstrate the courage of his own convictions. Meanwhile, Israel’s supporters, who vastly outnumber their opponents in the United States, are asked to compartmentalize Biden’s rhetoric and subordinate it to his actions — an intellectual exercise the White House doesn’t demand of the Jewish State’s detractors.

 

Why wouldn’t that double standard foster resentment?