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On May 18th, US President test drove a new electric Ford, and jokingly threatened to run over a journalist for asking a question on Israel.
President Biden took an electric Ford pickup truck for a test drive after speaking to auto workers in Dearborn, Michigan.
"This sucker's quick," Biden said, donning aviator sunglasses in the driver's seat of the new F-150 Lightning. https://t.co/Ja77YIc2jM pic.twitter.com/PQrHBQzuUW
— CNN (@CNN) May 18, 2021
He was so happy with testing-driving the new electric F-150 Ford that he joked that he would run over a reporter asking about Israel.
“Mr. President, can I ask you a quick question on Israel before you drive away, since it’s so important?” a reporter said.
“No, you can’t — not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it. I’m only teasing,” Biden said, with laughter heard in the background.
Everybody was apparently delighted to hear the joke, and didn’t bat an eye that Biden’s policy towards Israel could be summed up in saying that he supported a ceasefire over a phone conversation.
Biden has faced from fellow Democrats in Congress over his approach to recent violence in the Middle East.
Israel has pummeled Gaza with airstrikes as Hamas fires thousands of rockets in its direction.
U.S. Congressmen critical of Biden’s Israel policy have urged the president to show more concern for Palestinian rights.
But Biden has so far refused to explicitly criticize Israel or raise questions about human-rights violations amid the Israeli military’s offensive in Gaza.
The Biden administration also blocked efforts in the UN Security Council to release a statement calling for a cease-fire and condemning the violence in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz thanked the administration for its support in this regard.
“My sincere thanks to the U.S. Administration … for rightly preventing the unjust U.N. Security Council statement criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza,” Gantz said in a tweet.
Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib who has family in the West Bank, in a tweet directed at Biden on said:
“If you support a cease-fire, then get out of the way of the U.N. Security Council and join other countries in demanding it. Apartheid-in-chief Netanyahu will not listen to anyone asking nicely. He commits war crimes and openly violates international law.”
The president praised Tlaib for her advocacy in remarks on Tuesday at a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
“I admire your intellect, I admire your passion, and I admire your concern for so many other people,” Biden said in comments directed at the Michigan Democrat. “It’s from my heart, I pray that your grandmom and family are well. I promise you I am going to do everything to see that they are safe on the West Bank. You’re a fighter, and God thank you for being a fighter.”
It was entirely empty rhetoric.
Since the US blocks the UN, France then said it had proposed a resolution calling for a ceasefire, in coordination with Israel’s neighbors Egypt and Jordan.
Zhang Jun, Beijing’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters his team had heard the French ceasefire proposal and China was “supportive”.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell backed mounting calls for a ceasefire and urged Israel’s military to act in a “proportionate” manner.
To show for it, Israel opened a humanitarian aid border passage, and then immediately closed it after an alleged Hamas shelling lightly injured one IDF soldier.
On May 18th, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second biggest armed group in Gaza, had “received blows they didn’t expect”.
“We’ll continue as long as necessary to bring… quiet back to the citizens of Israel,” he added.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
- The Carrot But No Stick In U.S. Policy Towards Israel
- U.S. Deployed Warships Toward Red Sea, B-52 Bombers In Spain In Thinly Veiled Support For Israel
