{"id":168530,"date":"2023-10-18T12:15:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T19:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=168530"},"modified":"2023-10-18T12:15:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T19:15:30","slug":"president-biden-on-the-october-7th-terrorist-attacks-and-the-resilience-of-the-state-of-israel-and-its-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=168530","title":{"rendered":"President Biden on the October 7th Terrorist Attacks and the Resilience of the State of Israel and its People"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tel Aviv, Israel&#8230;Good afternoon.  Please have a seat.  I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone.  You are not alone.  As long as the United States stands \u2014 and we will stand forever \u2014 we will not let you ever be alone.  Most importantly, the \u2014 I know the recent terrorist assault on the people of this nation has left a deep, deep wound.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7tsCptaSebM\" title=\"President Biden Delivers Remarks\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>More than 1,300 innocent Israelis killed, including at least 31 American citizens, by the terrorist group Hamas. <\/p>\n<p>Hundreds \u2014 hundreds of young people at a music festival of \u2014 the festival was for peace \u2014 for peace \u2014 gunned down as they ran for their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Scores of innocents \u2014 from infants to elderly grandparents, Israelis and Americans \u2014 taken hostage.<\/p>\n<p>Children slaughtered.  Babies slaughtered.  Entire families massacred.<\/p>\n<p>Rape, beheadings, bodies burned alive.<\/p>\n<p>Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of ISIS, unleashing pure unadulterated evil upon the world.<\/p>\n<p>There is no rationalizing it, no excusing it.  Period.<\/p>\n<p>The brutality we saw would have cut deep anywhere in the world, but it cuts deeper here in Israel.<\/p>\n<p>October 7th, which was a sacred to \u2014 a sacred Jewish holiday, became the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.  It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n<p>The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing.  We will not stand by and do nothing again.  Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.<\/p>\n<p>To those who are living in limbo waiting desperately to learn the fate of loved ones, especially to families of the hostages: You\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re working with partners throughout the region, pursuing every avenue to bring home those who are being held captive by Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t speak publicly about all the details, but let me assure you: For me as the American president, there is no higher priority than the release and safe return of all these hostages.<\/p>\n<p>To those who are grieving a child, a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, I know you feel like there\u2019s that black hole in the middle of your chest.  You feel like you\u2019re being sucked into it. <\/p>\n<p>The survivor\u2019s remorse, the anger, the questions of faith in your soul.<\/p>\n<p>Starting at \u2014 staring at that empty chair, sitting Shiva.  The first Sabbath without them.<\/p>\n<p>They are the everyday things \u2014 the small things that you miss the most. <\/p>\n<p>The scent when you open the closet door.  The morning coffee you shared together. <\/p>\n<p>The bend in his smile, the perfect pitch of her laugh, the giggle of your little boy \u2014 the baby.<\/p>\n<p>For those who have lost loved ones, this is what I know: They\u2019ll never be truly gone.  There\u2019s something that\u2019s never fully lost: your love for them and their love for you. <\/p>\n<p>And I promise you, you\u2019ll be walking along some days and say, \u201cWhat would she or he want me to do?\u201d  You\u2019ll smile when you pass a place that reminds you of them.  That\u2019s when you know \u2014 when a smile comes to your lips before a tear to your eye \u2014 that\u2019s when you know you\u2019re going to fully make it.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what will give you the fortitude to find light in the darkest hours when terrorists believed they could bring down \u2014 bring you down, bend your will, break your resolve.  But they never did, and they never will. <\/p>\n<p>Instead, we saw incredible stories of heroism and courage of Israelis taking care of one another.<\/p>\n<p>Neighbors forming watch groups to protect their kibbutz, opening their homes to shelter survivors.<\/p>\n<p>Retired soldiers running into danger once again.<\/p>\n<p>Civilian medics flying across rescue \u2014 flying rescue missions.  And off-duty medics at the musical festival caring for the wounded before coming victim \u2014 before becoming a victim themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers retrieving bodies of the dead so families could bury their loved ones in accordance with Jewish tradition. <\/p>\n<p>Reservists leaving behind their families, their honeymoons, their studies abroad without hesitation.<\/p>\n<p>And so much more.<\/p>\n<p>The State of Israel was born to be a safe place for the Jewish people of the world.  That\u2019s why it was born.  I have long said: If Israel didn\u2019t exist, we would have to invent it. <\/p>\n<p> And while it may not feel that way today, Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people.  And I promise you: We\u2019re going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be.<\/p>\n<p>Seventy-five years ago, just 11 minutes after its founding, President Harry S. Truman and the United States of America became the first nation to recognize Israel.  We have stood by your side ever since, and we\u2019re going to stand by your side now.<\/p>\n<p>My administration has been in close touch with your leadership from the first moments of this attack, and we are going to make sure we have \u2014 you have what you need to protect your people, to defend your nation.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, we\u2019ve ensured Israel\u2019s qualitative military edge.  And later this week, I\u2019m going to ask the United States Congress for an unprecedented support package for Israel\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p>We are going to keep Iron Dome fully supplied so it can continue standing sentinel over Israeli skies, saving Israeli lives.<\/p>\n<p>We have moved U.S. military assets to the region, including positioning the USS Ford carrier strike group in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the USS Eisenhower on the way, to deter \u2014 to defer further aggression against Israel and to prevent this conflict from spreading.<\/p>\n<p>The world will know that Israel is \u2014 Israel is stronger than ever.<\/p>\n<p> And my message to any state or any other hostile actor thinking about attacking Israel remains the same as it was a week ago: Don\u2019t.  Don\u2019t.  Don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Since this terrorist attack \u2014 terrorist attack took place, we have seen it described as Israel\u2019s 9\/11.  But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9\/11s.  The scale may be different, but I\u2019m sure those horrors have tapped into so- \u2014 some kind of primal feeling in Israel, just like it did and felt in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Shock, pain, rage \u2014 an all-consuming rage.     I understand, and many Americans understand.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t look at what has happened here to your mothers, your fathers, your grandparents, sons, daughters, children \u2014 even babies \u2014 and not scream out for justice.  Justice must be done. <\/p>\n<p>But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don\u2019t be consumed by it.<\/p>\n<p>After 9\/11, we were enraged in the United States.  And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m the first U.S. president to visit Israel in time of war. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve made wartime decisions.  I know the choices are never clear or easy for the leadership.    There\u2019s always costs. <\/p>\n<p>But it requires being deliberate.  It requires asking very hard questions.  It requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you are on will achieve those objectives. <\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas.  Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. <\/p>\n<p>Hamas uses innocents \u2014 innocent families in Gaza as human shields, putting their command centers, their weapons, their communications tunnels in residential areas.<\/p>\n<p>The Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well.    We mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives.  Like the entire world, I was outraged and saddened by the enormous loss of life yesterday in the hospital in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the information we\u2019ve seen to date, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza. <\/p>\n<p>The United States unequivocally stands for the protection of civilian life during conflict, and I grieve \u2014 I truly grieve for the families who were killed or wounded by this tragedy. <\/p>\n<p>The people of Gaza need food, water, medicine, shelter. <\/p>\n<p>Today, I asked the Israeli cabinet \u2014 who I met with for some time this morning \u2014 to agree to the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.  Based on the understanding that there will be inspections and that the aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas, Israel agreed that humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Let me be clear: If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people and it will end.  As a practical matter, it will \u2014 it will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re working in close cooperation with the government of Egypt; the United Nations and its agencies, like the World Food Program; and other partners in the region to get trucks moving across the border as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, I asked Israel that the global community demand that the International Red Cross be able to visit hostages.  I just demanded that the United States fully \u2014 a just demand that the United States fully supports.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I\u2019m also announcing $100 million in new U.S. funding for humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank.  This money will support more than 1 million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians, including emergency needs in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>You are a Jewish state.  You are a Jewish state, but you\u2019re also a democracy.  And like the United States, you don\u2019t live by the rules of terrorists.  You live by the rule of law.  And when conflicts flare, you live by the ru- \u2014 law of wars.<\/p>\n<p>What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life \u2014 Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian \u2014 everyone.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t give up what makes you who you are.  If you give that up, then the terrorists win.  And we can never let them win.<\/p>\n<p> You know, Israel is a miracle \u2014 a triumph of faith and resolve and resilience over impossible pain and loss.<\/p>\n<p>Think about October 7th \u2014 the Jewish holiday where you read about the death of Moses.  A tragic story of a profound loss to an entire nation.  A death that could have left he- \u2014 a helpless \u2014 hopelessness in the hearts of the entire \u2014 of an entire nation.<\/p>\n<p>But though Moses died, his memory, his message, his lessons have lived on for generations of the Jewish people as well as many others \u2014 and just as the memory of your loved ones will live on as well.<\/p>\n<p>After reading the story of Moses\u2019s death, those who observe the holiday begin reading the Torah from the very beginning.  The story of creation reminds us of two things.  First, that when we get knocked down, we get back up again and we begin anew.  And second, when we are faced with tragedy and loss, we must go back to the beginning and remember who we are.<\/p>\n<p>We are all human beings created in the image of God with dignity, humanity, and purpose.  In the darkness, to be the light unto the world is what we\u2019re about.<\/p>\n<p>You inspire hope and light for so many around the world.  That\u2019s what the terrorists seek to destroy.  That\u2019s what they seek to destroy but \u2014 because they live in darkness \u2014 but not you, not Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Nations of conscience like the United States and Israel are not measured solely by the example of their power.  We\u2019re measured by the power of our example.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why, as hard as it is, we must keep pursuing peace.  We must keep pursuing a path so that Israel and the Palestinian people can both live safely, in security, in dignity, and in peace. <\/p>\n<p>For me, that means a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<p>We must keep working for Israel\u2019s greater integration with its neighbors.  These attacks have only strengthened my commitment and determination and my will to get that done.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m here to tell you that terrorists will not win.  Freedom will win.<\/p>\n<p>So, let me end where I began.  Israel, you are not alone.  The United States stands with you.<\/p>\n<p>I told the story before and I\u2019ll tell it again of my first meeting with an Israeli prime minister 50 years ago as a young senator.  I was sitting across from Golda Meir at her desk in her office.  And she had a guy named \u2014 a guy who later became prime minister sitting next to me, just before the 1973 Yom Kippur War.<\/p>\n<p>And she flipped the maps up and down, te- \u2014 telling me how bad things were and how terrible they were.  All of the sudden, she looked and me, and she said, \u201cWould you like a photograph?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And I looked at her \u2014 she got up from her desk and walked out into that hallway \u2014 I think it\u2019s marble flooring \u2014 walked out in the hallway. <\/p>\n<p>We walked out, and there were a bunch of photographers standing in front of us.  We were standing shoulder to shoulder. <\/p>\n<p>Without her looking at me, she said to me, knowing I\u2019d hear her, \u201cWhy do you look so worried, Senator Biden?\u201d  And I said, \u201cWorried?\u201d  Like, \u201cOf course, I\u2019m worried.\u201d  And she looked at me and \u2014 she didn\u2019t look, she said, \u201cWe \u2014 don\u2019t worry, Senator, we Israelis have a secret weapon: We have nowhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, today, I say to all of Israel: The United States isn\u2019t going anywhere either.  We\u2019re going to stand with you.  We\u2019ll walk beside you in those dark days, and we\u2019ll walk beside you in the good days to come.  And they will come.<\/p>\n<p>As you say in Hebrew, which I\u2019m not going to attempt to do because I\u2019m such a terrible linguist, I\u2019ll say it in English, \u201cThe people of Israel live.\u201d  \u201cThe people of Israel live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israel will be a safe, secure, Jewish, and Democratic state today, tomorrow, and forever.<\/p>\n<p>May God protect all those who work for peace.  God save those who are still in harm\u2019s way. <\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tel Aviv, Israel&#8230;Good afternoon. Please have a seat. I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone. You are not alone. As long as the United States stands \u2014 and we will stand forever \u2014 we will not let you ever be alone. Most importantly, the \u2014 I know the recent terrorist [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Fullscreen-capture-10182023-121105-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=168530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168532,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168530\/revisions\/168532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/168531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=168530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=168530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=168530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}