President Biden’s condemnation of the Israeli airstrike that killed seven food aid workers in Gaza earlier this week isn’t sitting well with some critics, who called the president’s reaction “obvious hypocrisy.”
Biden responded after the World Central Kitchen (WCK) nonprofit, founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, announced Tuesday that it was pausing all its operations in Gaza after seven of its food aid workers – including a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen — were killed by an “unforgivable” Israeli airstrike.
“I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday,” Biden wrote in a statement. “They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.”
Israel pledged to investigate what exactly took place and how the airstrike mistakenly killed the food aid workers, with Biden remarking that the investigation “must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.”
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Left: President Biden. Right: Emal Ahmadi surveys the damage to his family home that was damaged when a U.S. military drone strike killed 10 of his friends and family members in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021. (Getty Images)
“Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident,” the president added. “This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”
Biden’s comments on the incident quickly drew the ire of some individuals who blasted the president’s remarks as hypocritical, since the U.S. conducted a drone strike in August 2021 that killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan. The strike happened just days after the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members when ISIS terrorists detonated a bomb at an entrance to the Kabul airport.
“There’s obvious hypocrisy there and lack of self-reflection,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “I think it reflects the president’s posture right now to be hypercritical of Israel whenever possible, as part of a sustained political warfare campaign against the Israeli government if there’s an opportunity to amplify that criticism in order to make his left wing happier.”
Aimal Ahmadi stands next to the wreckage of a vehicle that was damaged in a U.S. drone strike in the Kwaja Burga neighborhood of Kabul on Sept. 18, 2021. (Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)
“The White House certainly knows that Israel is a democracy like the United States, that the Israeli military conducts itself in a moral and lawful manner and holds itself to the highest ethical standards, just like the United States military,” he added. “And I think if we look back on what the U.S. response was to the mistaken strike in Kabul, I remember the face of the apology was not President Biden, but it was General [Kenneth] McKenzie.”
Highlighting “confusing times” of war and pointing to the fact that McKenzie issued an apology for the deadly strike while taking ownership of what took place, Goldberg said: “When you are a democracy, your military will make mistakes.”
“What separates democracies from our adversaries is the willingness to be transparent and own the mistake and apologize for the mistake, investigate how it happened, and try to find if there’s a way to prevent it from happening again in the future,” Goldberg said. “Our enemies like to see more deaths, they take advantage of events like these to amplify their narrative. Hamas is celebrating this strike while Israel is reeling from it. The contrast is striking and telling of who’s our friend and who’s not.”
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While recognizing the importance of individuals expressing sorrow for the lives that were lost, Goldberg said now is not the time for the Biden administration to “take this mistake and exploit it to amplify Hamas disinformation.”
People inspect the site where World Central Kitchen food aid workers were killed in the Gaza Strip, on April 2, 2024. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Others criticized the president for his remarks through social media, including Morgan Ortagus, who served in former President Trump’s administration as spokesperson for the State Department from 2019 to 2021.
“War is a terrible thing. Errors happen that are deadly. Case in point: in our hasty and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, we tried to hit ISIS and instead hit an innocent man carrying water jugs home to his family. To date, there has been no public accountability to Biden’s NatSec team for this grave error – which very likely could have gone all the way up to the President for sign off on that strike,” Ortagus wrote in a post on X.
Townhall.com contributor John Hasson also weighed in after the president commented on the issue, saying in a post shared on X, “Biden’s last act in Afghanistan was a drone strike killing 10 civilians – including seven children.”
In a video message acknowledging the deaths of the aid workers in Gaza, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel Defense Forces chief of the general staff, said he spoke to Andres and “expressed the deepest condolences of Israel Defense Forces to the families in the entire World Central Kitchen family.”
“We also expressed sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need,” he continued. “We have been reviewing the incident in the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what happened and how it happened. We will be opening a probe to examine this serious incident further.”
Additionally, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari noted how WCK was one of the first NGOs to come to Israel’s aid following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which launched the ongoing war.
“The work of WCK is critical, they are the front lines of humanity,” he said.
The World Central Kitchen said, “Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse” on Monday. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday there was “no evidence” Israel meant to intentionally strike and kill the food aid workers.
“We continue to look at incidents as they occur, the State Department has a process in place, and, to date, as you and I are speaking, they have not found any incidents where Israelis have violated international humanitarian law,” Kirby added while speaking to reporters from the White House.
Fox News’ Gabriel Hays and Greg Norman contributed to this report.