The co-founder of a feminist grassroots organization that campaigns against U.S. involvement in war has come out against President Joe Biden over his Israel policy and has suggested Donald Trump is a better politician.
Biden has faced political pressure from the left since October, when he supported Israel’s military response to Palestinian militant group Hamas carrying out a surprise attack in the south of Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people and resulted in the seizure of hostages. Israel’s response in Gaza has killed over 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Associated Press, citing health authorities in Gaza.
The conflict hasn’t just been limited to Israel and Gaza and the U.S. and its allies have carried out attacks on Houthi bases in Yemen after the rebel group targeted shipping in the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza.
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The U.S. has long been an ally of Israel and Biden has supported the country with aid and weapons. He has also resisted calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, amid a global outcry, but he has been toughening his approach to Israel recently. In December, he told a campaign fundraising event that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “starting to lose support” and that changes needed to be made because of the mounting death toll in Gaza.
Biden has faced backlash for his backing of Israel, with a December poll by the New York Times/ Siena College finding that nearly 75 percent of a sample of voters aged between 18 and 29 disapprove of how the Democrat is handling the conflict in Gaza and Irish politicians criticizing him.
Now, the co-founder of feminist group CODE PINK has turned against Biden. Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Medea Benjamin wrote: “Tell me this: I think Trump is awful but is there anything Trump did during his terrible 4 years as president that comes even close to the horror of Biden’s support for genocide in Gaza?”
Tell me this: I think Trump is awful but is there anything Trump did during his terrible 4 years as president that comes even close to the horror of Biden’s support for genocide in Gaza?
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) January 22, 2024
Newsweek contacted Medea Benjamin on X, and CODE PINK and a Biden representative via email to comment on this story.
CODE PINK is a left-wing, feminist grassroots organization founded in 2002 that is working, according to its website, to “end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.”
In October, when members of the group protested outside Democrat Bernie Sanders’ office to try and secure peace in Ukraine, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene posed with them for a picture. The group later said she had “opportunistically approached” them.
As for Trump’s Israel policy, in an op-ed published by Newsweek on October 17, he outlined plans to prohibit anyone supporting Hamas from immigrating to the U.S. and reaffirmed his support for Israel.
“When I return to the White House, I will once again stand with Israel 100 percent,” the former president wrote. “The United States will fully support Israel in defeating, dismantling, and permanently destroying the terror group Hamas.”
He also said he would reinstate and expand his Muslim travel ban and “begin the largest deportation operation in American history,” among other actions.
During a rally in November, he suggested the Hamas attack on Israel would not have happened if he had still been president.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.