The United States' continued support for Israel's military action in Gaza is provoking fury in the Arab world, a US diplomat has warned the Biden administration, according to a diplomatic cable obtained by CNN.
The cable reflects US diplomatic concerns at rising malcontent from Arab countries in the Middle East over Washington’s endorsement of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in retaliation to Hamas’s October 7 cross-border attack, the news network reported on Friday.
“We are losing badly on the messaging battlespace,” the cable, received by the White House on Wednesday from its embassy in Oman, said, according to CNN. It added that the conclusion was drawn from conversations with “a wide range of trusted and sober-minded contacts.”
Figures in the Arab world view the Biden administration's support for Israel’s unprecedented siege of the coastal Gaza enclave as being “material and moral culpability in what they consider to be possible war crimes,” the cable continued.
Another diplomatic communication seen by CNN, this time from the US Embassy in Cairo, warned American officials of an op-ed in an Egyptian state-operated newspaper which said that “President Biden’s cruelty and disregard for Palestinians exceeded all previous US presidents.”
Palestinian officials said on Thursday that at least 10,812 people had been killed so far in air and artillery strikes in the densely-populated Palestinian territory, about 40% of them children. Aid organizations have also warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe, as supplies dwindle and streams of wounded people seek treatment in an already over-capacity healthcare system.
Israel, meanwhile, says that 33 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza in operations conducted as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to “eliminate Hamas” following its assault last month, during which Israel says more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, died.
President Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday that there is presently “no possibility” of a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, emphasizing a belief that doing so would only serve to allow Hamas an opportunity to regroup.
US officials, though, have increased efforts to ramp up the flow of aid to Gaza and pushed for the introduction of daily four-hour ‘pauses’ in the conflict to assist humanitarian efforts.
Several pro-Palestinian demonstrations have taken place close to the White House in recent weeks, CNN said – with one entrance near the West Wing recently covered with blood-red handprints and graffiti that read ‘Genocide Joe.’