President Joe Biden managed to clear the lowest of low bars this week by not joining in with the radical left’s attempts to defend or add “context” to Hamas’s savage attack on Israel, but still, this led New York Times columnist David Brooks to hail the idea that “this was one of Joe Biden's best weeks as president” on Friday’s PBS NewsHour.
Host Geoff Bennett kicked things off, “President Biden's deep emotional reaction to the Hamas terror attacks has really translated into a forceful American response and defense of Israel. And, David, he seems to be navigating this line of saying that he understands the necessity of Israel's overwhelming retaliation, but he's also saying that he sees the importance of sparing the lives of civilians and making sure that Israel adheres to the rules of law — rules of war.”
The media seem to be under the impression that if it wasn’t for Joe Biden or others imploring them to avoid civilian casualties, Israel would be targeting civilians for sport. Brooks put that issue aside and responded:
This was one of Joe Biden's best weeks as president. You know, he was a voice of moral clarity. He was one of the early voices to remind everybody that what Hamas has become looks like ISIS, sort of a death cult. He did in the face of divisions on the left. There are a lot of mainstream liberals who are appalled by what happened. There are more progressive voices, many who think this is a legitimate part of ‘decolonization.’
In addition to managing to clear the bar that was buried ten feet underground, there aren’t many weeks of Biden’s presidency that could be credibly considered “the best.” Yet, Brooks was not done praising Biden for recognizing obvious truths, “And yet Joe Biden knows Israeli history. He knows the Palestinians. He's been doing this for a long time. And he knows that this is a case of someone who wants to — of a group that wants to destroy Israel and push the Jews into the sea. And so he said that.”
Brooks wrapped up, “And so I just think it was just a marvelous display of moral clarity and real storytelling for a guy who — for whom grand narrative storytelling and rhetoric is not always the great gift, but I just thought a magnificent week.”
Bennett then turned to Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart, “Moral clarity and grand storytelling. What's your assessment of the administration's response?”
Capehart concurred, “I agree with David 100 percent. And it's not just the president. It's the secretary of state, who spoke from the heart next to Prime Minister Netanyahu. It's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin being there earlier in the day today also showing solidarity.”
Naturally, the word “Iran” did not come up once in the segment meaning that any discussion of ransom payments to Hamas’s benefactors or of scandals involving Biden’s Iran envoy were also missing.
Here is a transcript for the October 13 show:
PBS NewsHour
10/13/2023
7:35 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: So, President Biden's deep emotional reaction to the Hamas terror attacks has really translated into a forceful American response and defense of Israel.
And, David, he seems to be navigating this line of saying that he understands the necessity of Israel's overwhelming retaliation, but he's also saying that he sees the importance of sparing the lives of civilians and making sure that Israel adheres to the rules of law — rules of war.
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, I—look, this was one of Joe Biden's best weeks as president. You know, he was a voice of moral clarity. He was one of the early voices to remind everybody that what Hamas has become looks like ISIS, sort of a death cult. He did in the face of divisions on the left. There are a lot of mainstream liberals who are appalled by what happened. There are more progressive voices, many who think this is a legitimate part of “decolonization.”
And yet Joe Biden knows Israeli history. He knows the Palestinians. He's been doing this for a long time. And he knows that this is a case of someone who wants to — of a group that wants to destroy Israel and push the Jews into the sea. And so he said that.
I think he's also making the case, which I think Zelensky's a little ahead of him on, that Ukraine and Israel, the war against Hamas and against Putin are joined. They're wars against barbarism. And I think he sees that clearly.
And so I just think it was just a marvelous display of moral clarity and real storytelling for a guy who — for whom grand narrative storytelling and rhetoric is not always the great gift, but I just thought a magnificent week.
BENNETT: Moral clarity and grand storytelling. What's your assessment of the administration's response?
CAPEHART: I agree with David 100 percent. And it's not just the president. It's the secretary of state, who spoke from the heart next to Prime Minister Netanyahu. It's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin being there earlier in the day today also showing solidarity.
But I — what happened a week ago tonight or tomorrow is really — it's beyond disturbing. And I just feel compelled — as an African American, I understand the ancestral pain and terror felt by my Jewish friends and Jews around the world by what happened. This was not — what Hamas did was not the “usual” Middle East back-and-forth.
This was barbaric. And so I understand and feel that pain. And that carnage and barbarism needs to be addressed.
I also grieve for the innocent Palestinians who are being — who have been used and are being used as human shields by Hamas, people, terrorists who are living among them, putting munitions in residential areas, who couldn't care less about their lives, couldn't care less about the rules of war.
And their leadership — their leadership, living in Gaza right now, do they even care that the people who've been told to evacuate have nowhere to go? And so we are in a completely different time now when we're talking about conflicts in the Middle East. And it's — what we're about to see in the coming days is going to be unlike anything we have ever seen. And it's going to tear our hearts out.
