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Biden Defends Support For Israel, Refers To Himself As ‘Zionist’ In Interview
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. March 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Joe Biden defended his support for Israel in a recent interview, referring to himself as a “Zionist” and painting an optimistic vision for the future of Israel and its Arab neighbors.
In a sit-down with Complex’s Speedy Morman, Biden was grilled over his relationship with Israel and whether he believes his support for the Jewish state will cost him votes among Arab and Muslim Americans.
“Back in April, $26 million in aid was sent, or approved to be sent to Israel. Why?” Morman asked.
“I said defensive weapons,” Biden clarified, “I denied them offensive weapons that they were using, 2,000 lb. bombs and the rest.”
“I made it real clear they cannot use weapons that we provide them to use in civilian areas,” Biden continued.
In May, the White House paused shipments of 2,000 lb. bombs to Israel, citing concern over the Jewish state’s military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The decision to halt the transfer of heavy-duty offensive weapons sparked outrage among Israeli officials, which insisted that extensive military operations in Rafah are necessary to dismantle the remaining Hamas battalions.
Biden added that American support for the Jewish state is necessary because if Israel’s existence were endangered, “every Jew in the world would be at risk.” He stressed that Jews needed, “a place that was their own” following the horrific genocide of roughly six-million Jews during the Holocaust.
“You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and a Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they have been persecuted,” Biden said, declaring his support for Jewish statehood.
The president also outlined his record of supporting Palestinians, claiming he has “done more for” the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank than anyone.
“I’m the guy that opened up all the assets. I’m the guy that made. . . Egyptians open the border to let goods [such as] medicine and food.,” Biden said to Morman.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body of the West Bank. Israeli minister of finance Bezalel Smotrich originally withheld the funds from the PA in response to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Citing concern that the PA would soon collapse, the Biden administration pressed Israel to hand the funds back over.
Following Israel’s capture of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing in early May, Egypt refused to coordinate with Israel on humanitarian aid delivery into Gaza. Egypt demanded that Israel relinquish control of the crossing back to Palestinians. In the face of American pressure, Egypt agreed to allow passage of aid through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
“And, I’m the guy that’s been able to pull together the Arab states to help agree to help the Palestinians with food and shelter,” Biden told the interviewer
Though Biden stressed that he has been “supportive of Palestinians” and remains sympathetic to their struggles, he condemned Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza, as a group of “thugs.”
Biden argued that Arab Americans and Muslim Americans should support his reelection campaign, touting himself as the best choice to achieve “peace” between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Biden claimed that Saudi Arabia has promised to recognize Israel in exchange for a guarantee that America will provide them weapons if they are attacked. The president also stated that Saudi Arabia wants a “civilian nuclear facility” to facilitate their transition away from fossil fuels to green energy.
Biden’s relationship with Israel and the Jewish community has become increasingly more tense in the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1200 people in southern Israel. The White House has issued several statements criticizing the Jewish state’s conduct in the Israel-Hamas war, actions which experts argue increases the terrorist group’s leverage. In December, after facing substantial pressure from progressive lawmakers, Biden accused Israel of “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.
However, Biden has attempted to hold together the bond between Israel and the Democratic Party, a relationship that seems to be rapidly deteriorating. In contrast to left-wing lawmakers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Rashida Tlaib, Biden has not accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza. Biden has also defended Israel from accusations by fellow Democrats that is an “apartheid state”, praising the Jewish nation as a “democracy.” He has repeatedly condemned the surge of anti-Israel protests on college campuses and in front of synagogues following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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