Biden needs to tell Israel some difficult truths. Only he can do it.

When Hamas launched its gruesome terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, President Biden made a decision based on conviction and calculation. He announced his complete solidarity with the country. Biden must have calculated that the only way to have any influence on Israel would be to hug it close, show real empathy, send it the arms it needed and thus earn Israel’s trust to shape its response. It was a thought-through strategy, but it has failed almost completely.

From the start, the administration urged the Israelis to consider proportionality in their response to Hamas. Israel heard it and went ahead with one of the most extensive bombing campaigns in this century against a population of about 2.2 million people that, by Israel’s own estimates, contained about 30,000 Hamas militants. By one January estimate, more than half of the buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

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