According to media reports, US President Joe Biden on October 13 said, said Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which brutally attacked Israel on October 7, is worse than Al Qaeda, the organization behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva in a report said, the US President Joe Biden on Friday spoke for over an hour with families of 14 Americans who are missing following Hamas’ attack on Israel. Commenting of Hamas pogrom, he said, “The more we learned about the attack, the more horrifying it becomes. More than 1,000 — 1,000 innocent lives lost, including at least 27 Americans. These guys make, they make al Qaeda look pure. They’re pure evil”.
“The United States, make no mistake about it, stands with Israel”, he added.
Biden later said at an event in Philadelphia, “They’re going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children, are. You know, it’s gut-wrenching.
“I assured them of my personal commitment to do everything possible to return every missing American to their families. We’re working around the clock to secure the release of Americans held by Hamas, in close cooperation with Israel and our partners around the region. We’re not going to stop until we bring them home”.
The White House said the president was joined on the phone call with the families by special envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Undersecretary of State John Bass, and National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk, the White House said.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the president told the families they’ve been in his prayers, and expressed the United States’ commitment to doing everything possible to bring their loved ones home.
Biden has been consistent with his condemnation of the Hamas attack and of his support for Israel.
On October 11, Biden spoke to heads of Jewish organizations and said, “My commitment to Israel’s security and the safety of the Jewish people is unshakable. The United States has Israel’s back and I have yours as well, both at home and abroad”.
“The miracle of Israel is Israel itself. The hope it inspires. The light it represents to the world. I was asked in one of my very frank conversations with Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] and [President] Herzog why do I feel so deeply about this? It’s not about the region. I truly believe that were there no Israel, no Jew in the world will be ultimately safe. It’s the only ultimate guarantee”, he added.
A day earlier, Biden delivered an address to the American people and the world focusing on the Hamas terrorist attack.
He noted that the US has a special interest in the war against Hamas for the sake of its own citizens. “We now know that American citizens are among those being held by Hamas. I’m directing my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise their Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts. Because as President, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world”.
But Palestinians and Muslim nations are not paying any heed to President Joe Biden’s remarks. Instead they are intensifying pro-Hamas activities through Muslim media as well by holding so-called protest rallies and openly chanting “Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Jews are enemies of Islam” slogans.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is in Tel Aviv, compared Hamas to the terrorist group ISIS.
“The deliberate cruelty of Hamas vividly reminds me of ISIS: bloodthirsty, fanatical and hateful. And like ISIS, Hamas has nothing to offer but zealotry and bigotry and death”.
Palestinians rally in support of Hamas terrorists
While US President has termed Hamas as worse than Al Qaeda, Palestinians are holding rallies in the United States and rest of the Western nations, while they are targeting, bullying and physically assaulting Jews, including Jewish students in schools, college and university campuses.
According to The Washington Post, hundreds of protesters marched in Times Square, Pittsburgh, Portland and Washington on Friday, with other rallies planned in Los Angeles and elsewhere through the weekend. Law enforcement agencies nationwide said they were stepping up their presence around synagogues, other places of worship and Israeli diplomatic posts, and some Jewish private schools closed as a cautionary measure.
Fox13 channel reports, a pro-Palestinian [read pro-Hamas] rally took place on the steps of City Hall in Tampa area.
According to British newspaper The Guardian, “Tens of thousands of protesters rallied across the Middle East and in parts of Asia, Europe and the United States in support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as it intensified its strikes on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas attacks”. In another report this UK newspaper said, two Jewish schools in north-west London are set to close temporarily because of safety fears.
Meanwhile, The Independent in a report said: “Law enforcement agencies across the world are preparing for a series of demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause. The protests are planned for the next few days and police across the UK, Australia and New York City are among those entering a state of heightened readiness”.
According to France24 news channel, thousands of protesters poured onto the streets of several Middle East capitals, including cities in Iran chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.
BBC in its report said, in France, police in the center of Paris used tear gas and water cannons to break up a pro-Palestinian rally, after the French government banned such demonstrations.
It may be mentioned here that, BBC has refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, in his video address, President Emmanuel Macron urged the French people to stay united, saying “let’s not add national divisions to international divisions”.
He described Hamas as a terrorist organization that wants the death of the people of Israel. Some 13 French citizens have been confirmed dead in Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Meanwhile, although police in Germany’s capital Berlin banned planned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, citing the risk of antisemitic statements and glorification of violence, according to Sky News, clashes broke out after around 50 people gathered for a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin.
UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman told senior police officers that waving a
Palestinian flag or singing a chant advocating freedom for Arabs in the region may be a criminal offence.
In a letter to chief constables in England and Wales, the home secretary urged them to clamp down on any attempts to use flags, songs or swastikas to harass or intimidate members of the Jewish community.
In another report Sky News said, a 22-year-old woman was held under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organization following a speech at a protest in Brighton.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in a report said, demonstrators showing their support for Palestinians filled a downtown square in Montreal, while many of the demonstrators covered their faces or were unwilling to give their name to the media.
In Bahrain, pro-Hamas protestors walked on a depiction of the Israeli flag.
In Iran, protestor chanted “Down with USA”, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” slogan. It may be mentioned here that Iran, a country with a predominantly Shiite Muslim but non-Arab population, financially and militarily supports Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Israel is their mutual sworn enemy.
Jordan, which has long had a peace treaty with neighboring Israel, more than 20,000 people gathered in central Amman, near the Grand Husseini Mosque, after a call for protests from the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, and several leftist and youth groups.
In Lebanon, supporters of Iran-backed Hezbollah rallied in the southern suburbs of Beirut in support of the Palestinians. At the event, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem, standing in front of a banner depicting Palestinian terrorists and the Al-Aqsa mosque, with a Palestinian scarf on his shoulders, said Hezbollah is “fully prepared” to join its ally Hamas in the war.
According to MEMRI, Egyptian media has expressed support for Hamas pogrom on Israel. Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement, published on the morning of the attack, that entirely ignored Hamas’s barbaric acts against civilians and blamed Israel for the escalation.
MEMRI report further said, Cairo-based Al-Azhar institution, the leading center of religious learning and supreme source of religious authority in the Sunni Muslim world, showed pro-Hamas spirit by “saluting” the invasion.
Egyptian politicians, journalists, artists, and cultural figures have similarly expressed open and clear support for the Hamas invasion. Senior Egyptian media figures affiliated with the regime of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi praised the terror attack, calling it a “victory” and a “100% successful operation”.
The Egyptian Journalists’ Union congratulated Hamas, stating: “The Egyptian Journalists’ Union announces its full support for the right of the Palestinian people to resist and respond with all legitimate means in accordance with international agreements to the repeated crimes of the Zionist entity. The union congratulates and praises the Palestinian resistance for Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which it carried out today [October 7] at dawn, as the Arabs were celebrating 50 years since the spectacular October victories [i.e. the Yom Kippur War]. This is the biggest and first high-quality operation of its kind by the resistance inside the [Israeli] entity… In addition, the Union emphasizes that the Palestinian people, which have been suffering from the crimes of the occupation for many decades, have the right to resist and respond by any means necessary”.
Jordanian-Palestinian businessman and former senator Talal Abu Ghazaleh said on an October 12, 2023, show on NBN TV (Lebanon) that the Israelis fear death, “we on the other hand welcome death”. He continued to say that Palestinians want their children to die as martyrs, and that this does not exist in the Israeli mentality. Abu Ghazaleh added: “People who flee death cannot defeat people who seek death”. Abu Ghazaleh continued to say that Russia willingly sacrificed 27 million of its people during World War II so it could survive. He explained that until now, Gaza has only lost thousands of people, and Israel cannot possibly kill all the two million people in Gaza, because half of them are in the underground tunnels. Abu Ghazaleh continued to claim that a German cabinet minister had told him that Hitler left some Jews alive “on purpose” so that people would understand why the Holocaust was justified.
In conclusion, it is essential to draw attention of the esteemed members of the US administration to the above-stated facts and impose a global ban on any protest in favor of Hamas – the Al Qaeda or Islamic State (ISIS) of Gaza.
