The President of the United States, Joe Biden, recalled this Monday the first anniversary of the attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, as well as the Israeli response: a massacre of Palestinians in Gaza which is today costing their lives to some 42,000 people. . , including 17,000 children. In his statement, Biden made no criticism of his Israeli ally nor did he mention the context of illegal occupation – declared by the International Court of Justice – of more than half a century in which the entire conflict takes place.
“A year later, Vice President [Kamala] Harris and I remain fully committed to the security of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist. “We support Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and Iran,” said Biden, who assured that he thinks “every day” of the hostages and their families and condemned “the merciless rise of anti-Semitism”. in the United States.”
According to official data from the October 7 attack, more than 1,200 Israelis and citizens of other nationalities died in the attack, during which more than 14,000 people were injured and about 250 kidnapped.
In his only slight reference to the Israeli massacre in Gaza, Biden blames Hamas: “I think history will also remember October 7 as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas started on that day -there. “Too many civilians have suffered too much during this year of conflict and tens of thousands have been killed, a human cost that has been compounded by terrorists hiding and operating among innocent people. »
The president assures in the press release that he will not stop until a ceasefire is reached, while for a year he has devoted himself to strengthening his military presence in the Middle East to defend Israel and spent $17.9 billion in military aid to its ally, according to a report from Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world and this year’s $17.9 billion exceeds the figure for all previous years.
Unlike the United States’ publicly documented military aid to Ukraine, Costs of War was unable to obtain full details of what the United States has sent to Israel since October 7, so that the $17.9 billion for the year is only part of it. It is a figure, according to the researchers, which denounces “attempts to conceal the total amounts”.
