April 4, 2024, New York, NY – The American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) released a statement following President Joe Biden’s call with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel earlier today:
“We welcome President Biden’s clarity and leadership in protecting America’s interests and in supporting our ally Israel at war while striving to mitigate the inevitable harm that a military conflict does to innocent people on all sides. The President speaks and acts like a true friend of Israel, including in his conversations with Israeli leaders with whom he enjoys years of familiarity and partnership. Defeating Hamas terrorism and mitigating the harms of war in Gaza are shared goals that leaders in Washington and Jerusalem can and are jointly addressing. We note with satisfaction today’s announcement by Israel’s Defense Ministry that 240 trucks and close to seven million pounds of aid entered the enclave today alone, inspected and transferred by the Israeli government and military, who also refueled 35 water pumping facilities in northern Gaza that serve hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s Palestinians. And the Israeli war cabinet approved the opening of the Erez crossing with Gaza Strip for the first time since October 7 to scale up aid delivery. These Israeli steps deserve greater recognition, and so does the need to definitively acknowledge that the situation in Gaza and the devastating innocent deaths is a deliberate Hamas strategy from day one and not an Israeli goal. While Israel should hold itself to a higher moral standard, the fact remains that Hamas has methodically delayed negotiations and avoided the decisions that could have ended the war. Hamas does not share the American and Israeli concern for the innocent suffering in Gaza.
The President has shared with the Israeli Prime Minister his vision for the steps ahead to contain the humanitarian suffering in the enclave and to secure the release of Israeli hostages. The President has given Israel the space to plan and share its next steps on those issues. In the end, these steps should help return the debate back to the key goals in this war: To dismantle the Hamas network and deprive other Iran-backed terror proxies in the region of a precedent in the shape of the October 7 attack that can pose a future threat to both Israel and our moderate Arab partners.”
