It finally happened. It’s finally happened. After months of whispers about President Joe Biden’s disgust with Israel’s attack on Hamas, the commander-in-chief demanded on Thursday “an immediate cessation of hostilities” in a telephone call with Israeli Premier Binyamin Netanya. Biden said that a halt to combat operations was “essential” in order to “stabilize and improve the human situation and protect innocent civillians”.

The unprecedented crisis between the United States and Israel has been growing throughout this war. It was started by Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack against Israel on October 7. The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis – most of whom were civilians. Netanyahu’s revenge has been brutal, and the Israel Defense Forces have executed their largest combat operation in more than four decades with their assault on Gaza Strip. Operation Swords of Iron was launched with a clear goal: to destroy Hamas.

Israel has made significant progress in destroying Hamas since late October. In southern Gaza, the last terrorist battalions have taken refuge in Rafah. There are many Palestinian civilians in this area. Since weeks, the IDF has waited to enter Rafah and finish the job as promised by Netanyahu. Team Biden does not want this to happen.

It’s understandable that the White House is apprehensive. Both sides will pay a high price in the fight for Rafah. Uncertainty surrounds the number of Gazans who have died, but it may be more than 30,000. The IDF claimed a few months ago that it had killed 12,000 Hamas militants. Israel’s military has stated on numerous occasions that two Palestinian civilians are killed for every Hamas terrorist.

The IDF has been trying to minimize civilian deaths throughout this war. However, it is difficult in an urban environment as densely populated as Gaza. This is especially true when Hamas uses hospitals and schools as battlefields. Hamas knows the power of propaganda, and they use dead Palestinian children as a way to influence world opinion.

Biden is faced with a difficult political dilemma. Democrats are divided over this war. Biden will need wealthy Democratic donors – many of whom are Jewish – to win reelection. The problem for Biden is that younger members of the Democratic Party are anti-Israel in an unprecedented way. Biden, two Democratic predecessors and a group of one-percenters hosted a Manhattan fundraiser in which $26 million was raised from wealthy donors while pro-Palestinian protesters rioted outside. This is a perfect metaphor for the dangers Democrats will face over the Gaza War in 2024.

Biden, who has made it no secret that he hates Netanyahu, was triggered by the IDF killing seven aid workers on Monday in Gaza. The seven aid workers belonged to World Central Kitchen – a nongovernmental organisation founded by Jose Andres in 2010. You’re not among the most beautiful people in Washington, D.C., if you don’t recognize the name. Andres, a celebrity restaurateur, activist, and close friend of Democrats including Biden, is Andres. The president cut off Bibi’s knees, in other words because IDF killed people who worked for his friend. As he said himself, “Nobody f***s a Biden.”

The attack on the WCF staffers has left many questions unanswered. IDF leadership has claimed it was a “grave mistake” and promised a transparent probe into what went wrong in the strike that took place in an allegedly “deconflicted area”. The IDF’s claim of a grave error is plausible for anyone familiar with the confusion of urban warfare. Andres, rather than waiting for answers to come out, has accused Israel of deliberately murdering his employees in a “direct attack.”

There’s a strong whiff of projecting here, since Andres didn’t explain why he thought it wise to send WCF employees into an active conflict zone. Bloomberg described WCF in a profile four months ago as “a mess”, largely due to Andres’s flawed and egotistical management, especially when it came to the safety of WCF employees. WCF’s “pseudo security” puts its employees in danger. The article cited WCF’s “dirty-yes” problem, which is “saying yes even when there’s no confidence that something can be done safely”, to please the boss. To understand the tragic incident, we need to look beyond IDF misconduct.

Biden doesn’t seem to care about any of it. The White House did not tell Israel what to do when the IDF attacked USS Liberty and killed 34 Americans. The White House didn’t do the same when Israel was caught operating a spy in Washington, Jonathan Pollard. It did not act when Israel was discovered to be running illegal political influence in Washington.

Biden was harsh on Israel when Israel killed his friends. Don’t bring up that Biden also has blood on his hands. In August 2021, during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Kabul, U.S. troops mistakenly burned down a family of Afghans, killing 10 civilians including seven children. According to the Biden administration this was just a “tragic error”, not a major issue. Why is it such a big deal if the Israelis also make a mistake in a fog of war?

Joe Biden’s call for an immediate Gaza ceasefire at a time when Israel is poised to win a strategic victory against Hamas will have lasting consequences for Western security. Biden’s error is not least because he makes it for the most stupid of reasons.