Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau assailed President Joe Biden for his refusal to turn on Israel after its military unintentionally killed seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza earlier this week.
Favreau called the president “weak” on social media, making his thoughts clear on the Biden administration’s lack of a strong response to the tragedy.
“The President doesn’t get credit for being ‘privately enraged’ when he still refuses to use leverage to stop the IDF from killing and starving innocent people,” Favreau wrote Wednesday on X, citing a recent Politico article that reported Biden has no intention to change his policy on Israel amid its war with Hamas. “These stories only make him look weak.”
In a public statement Tuesday night, Biden called for “accountability” for those responsible for the strike and demanded more humanitarian assistance be allowed into Gaza. Seven workers from World Central Kitchen died after the Israeli military bombed their convoy while they were delivering food to Gazans Monday night.
“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” Biden said. “Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”
That’s as far as the White House is willing to address the issue, however, according to two senior administration officials.
“That’s all we have planned,” an anonymous official said. “The strike on humanitarian aid — at a time when Israel had recently agreed to do more to get aid into northern Gaza — is deeply problematic,” the other added. One of the officials noted that Biden was “angry” after he was debriefed on the accidental strike.
Favreau’s comments are just the latest example of a deepening intra-party rift among Democrats over the White House’s continued support for Israel.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) predicted Biden would face electoral consequences in November if he doesn’t change tack.
“The polling is very clear: The Democratic base wants to stop funding Netanyahu’s war machine,” Sanders said Wednesday on MSNBC. “So, if your question is: ‘Is it going to hurt the president unless he turns this around?’ Yeah, it will.”
Senator Peter Welch (D., Vt.) said the strike is “more tragic evidence that the way the Netanyahu government is conducting this war is terribly wrong.”
The World Central Kitchen convoy’s three vehicles were clearly marked with the charity’s logo and traveled along a protected route in central Gaza. Yet the strike occurred, despite Israeli forces being informed of their movements along the route. The incident caused the organization to temporarily halt food deliveries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials apologized for the bombings and called for an investigation into the matter.
“Our forces unintentionally hit innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. “As it happens in war, we are investigating the matter fully, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything possible to prevent this from happening again.”
Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi likewise apologized as he revealed a preliminary investigation found that Israeli forces misidentified the convoy as hostile targets in the middle of the night.
“I want to be very clear: The strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers,” Halevi said in a video posted on X. “It was a mistake that followed a misidentification at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed on Wednesday that the U.S. has no current plans to change its Israel policy.
“We are still supporting their right to defend themselves and we’re going to continue to do that. We’re also going to see what the result of the investigation is,” Kirby told reporters. “I’m not going to get ahead of decisions that haven’t been made yet.” There was also “no evidence” that Israel intended to kill the humanitarian workers, he added.
Biden personally called celebrity chef José Andrés, who created World Central Kitchen, to offer his condolences following the strike. Andrés has since accused the Israeli government of carrying out a “direct attack” on his employees.
Biden is set to speak with Netanyahu on Thursday.