JERUSALEM, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the shocking accusation late Wednesday night during a press briefing in Israel’s capital that Israel is “dehumaniz[ing]” Palestinians in Gaza because of the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza.
“Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7th,” Blinken said. “The hostages have been demonized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.” He did not provide any evidence that Israel has been “dehumanizing” Palestinians, but simply seemed to suggest that the suffering of Palestinian civilians who “had nothing to do with the attacks of October 7th” was a form of dehumanization. “We cannot, we must not, lose sight of our common humanity,” Blinken declared.
The accusation — which resonates with claims made by Israel’s critics and enemies, including at the International Court of Justice at The Hague — was part of Blinken’s prepared text; it was not a gaffe or an off-the-cuff remarks made in the heat of the moment.
Blinken spoke about Hamas’s response Wednesday to a U.S.-backed proposal to free the remaining Israeli hostages in return for a pause in the war. Hamas reportedly demanded a permanent ceasefire and the release of thousands of Palestinian terrorists.
He also spoke in the wake of a public statement, in Hebrew and then in English, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that appeared not only to reject Hamas’s later demands, but to push back against the Biden administration’s apparent willingness to tolerate Hamas’s survival.
Blinken said that while there were some clear “non-starters” in the Hamas counter-offer, he hoped that negotiations would move toward a deal. He also said that the U.S. still shared the goal of making sure that “October 7th never happens again” — though that barely masked a subtle shift away from the goal of destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, suggesting that the Biden administration believes Hamas can be allowed to survive and that it can be convinced, through diplomacy, not to attack.
Blinken stressed the need for Israel to provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to lower the death toll there. “We urge Israel to do more to help civilians, knowing full well that it faces an enemy that would never hold itself to those standards.” He did not address the problem that some 50% to 60% of all humanitarian aid that enters Israel is thought to be seized by Hamas for itself.
Blinken’s trip thus far has included Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar, and will inluded a visit to the West Bank on Thursday.
Asked about Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state as an outcome of the war, Blinken denied that the White House’s vision for the region was collapsing.
He argued that a Palestinian state had been a prerequisite for peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the war, and that it was also a prerequisite following the war, but that peace was still possible.
However, there were reports before the war that a Palestinian state was a White House demand, not a Saudi one.
Reacting in real time to Blinken’s remarks, conservative radio host Mark Levin called Blinken a “traitor” to the United States.
Levin noted that Blinken was “attacking the only country” in the Middle East that has stood up to America’s enemy, Iran.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
