During his visit to Israel on Wednesday, Biden claimed he didn’t believe that Israel fired a missile at a Gaza hospital. But later, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, he appeared to somewhat walk it back.
“People all over the region are upset about the hospital and don’t necessarily believe you or the Israelis that they didn’t have anything to with it. Do you have a message to the people in the streets right now?” a reporter asked.
“Well, I can understand why, in this circumstance, they wouldn’t believe,” Biden replied. “I can understand that.”
He can understand why? U.S. intelligence was saying yesterday that the Hamas-linked Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible for the blast at the hospital.
Biden continued to ramble on. Though he expressed some faith in the assessment that it was “unlikely” that it was the Israelis, it was painfully awkward the way he handled it.
“And — but I would not — you’ll notice I don’t say things like that unless I have faith in the source from which I’ve gotten it. Our Defense Department says it’s highly unlikely that it was the Israelis. It would have had a — a different footprint. And they’ve intercepted some — anyway. They — and so, that’s why, if you notice, I didn’t say it at first. I didn’t — I wanted to make sure that I knew,” Biden said. “And, look — and I’m not suggesting that Hamas deliberately did it, either. It’s that old thing: You’ve got to learn how to shoot straight. You know, and — and it’s not the first time Hamas has launched something that didn’t function very well. So, I — I don’t know all the details, but I do know the people at the Defense Department, who I respect, and the intelligence community that I respect, and it’s highly improbable that Israel did that.”
It’s extremely disappointing the way Biden fails to express more confidence in the U.S. intelligence community’s own assessment of what actually happened.
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Biden’s remarks earlier in Tel Aviv weren’t the most impressive either, especially given the fact that Israel had already made it clear they were not responsible for the blast.
“Based on the information we’ve seen today that appears as a result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” Biden said originally. “The United States unequivocally stands for the protection of civilian life during conflict. And I grieve — I truly grieve — for the families who were killed or wounded by this tragedy.”