Gaza Is Set To Torpedo Joe Biden's Claim To A Human Rights Legacy

The president promised he would champion values like universal rights and the dignity of every person. Then the Israel-Hamas war began.

Visiting the State Department 10 days after his inauguration, President Joe Biden said his foreign policy would prioritize an approach to diplomacy defined by: “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.”

Nearly three years later, Biden’s handling of the biggest international crisis of his presidency — a shock Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and a devastating U.S.-backed Israeli campaign of retaliation since — has shattered any credibility he had in claiming those guiding lights.

Biden’s narrative of championing human rights globally crumbled in striking ways throughout his presidency. But foreign affairs watchers say his actions over the last three months have dealt a knockout blow to that image — and to Biden’s pledge to represent America in the world in a meaningfully more humane way than his predecessor and likely 2024 presidential election rival Donald Trump.

“Biden and his administration told us in their own words … how all this stuff is important, so this is the standard that they created for themselves,” said Yousef Munayyer, a senior fellow at the Arab Center think tank. “The scale of destruction of Palestinian life, the mass killing, the cruelty that we’re seeing the United States support and stand by is unlike anything we have ever seen, and not like anything we saw during the Trump administration.”

Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, where Hamas is based, has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority women and children, local health officials say, and displaced nearly 2 million people. The Biden administration has rejected nearly all global calls to force Israeli restraint. Officials say they are encouraging Israel to avoid hurting civilians, but repeatedly note it is establishing no red lines in support for the U.S. ally that the president has long defended, even despite concerns from other Israel supporters who see its war strategy as self-defeating.