President Joe Biden issued a statement on Saturday welcoming the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, but repeating his call for ceasefire deals in Gaza and Lebanon, despite Israel’s advance toward victory.
The full text of Biden’s statement is as follows:
Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.
The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.
The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.
Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means. In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.
The Times of Israel reported that the Biden administration was angry about the airstrike because Israel did not inform it until the operation was in progress, and appeared to have strung the White House along about a ceasefire.
Israel had reason to worry that the White House might not keep the operation secret. The head of intelligence at Biden’s National Security Council, Maher Bitar, is a former radical pro-Palestinian activist. Moreover, President Barack Obama was thought to have leaked information to the media about a potential Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to warn the Iranians and prevent the Israelis from attacking.
The Biden administration has tried, throughout the war that erupted with the Hamas terror attack last October 7, to prevent Israel from destroying terrorist organizations. Vice President Kamala Harris warned Israel against entering Rafah to destroy Hamas.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
