BRIAN BENNETT
Amid a surge in hostile clashes on college campuses across the country over the war in Gaza, President Biden on Thursday gathered reporters in the cramped Roosevelt Room across the hall from the Oval Office. In televised remarks, he said peaceful protests are an American tradition but “violent protest is not protected.”
As he walked out, a reporter asked if the protests had forced him to reconsider his policies in the Middle East. Biden was unequivocal.
“No,” he said.
Biden has stuck with Israel despite his own mounting frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, widespread criticism of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Gaza as well as its blocking of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and increasing protests against his policy. He’s done so because Biden sees threats to Israel coming from beyond Hamas, says a White House official, and believes bolstering Israel’s security as pivotal to preventing current conflicts from mushrooming into a wider war across the Middle East.
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