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Joe Biden’s Team Is Rewriting Its History on Gaza

Interview with
Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Biden administration officials like Antony Blinken and Brett McGurk have embarked on media tours trying to whitewash their records over Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Their excuses for enabling genocide are as flimsy and threadbare as their ethical codes.

Anthony Blinken and Joe Biden attend a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 20, 2023.

Biden administration officials always knew that the United States had the power to restrain Israel if it wanted to. They chose not to use that power as Israeli forces laid waste to Gaza and doctored their own reports so the flow of arms to Israel could continue. (Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After three years of slaughter in Gaza, some leading officials of the Biden administration are trying to justify their record. Figures like Antony Blinken and Brett McGurk have been on media tours recently giving their version of the story. Meanwhile, Akbar Shahid Ahmed has been working to provide a serious account of what really happened.

Akbar’s book Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel’s War in Gaza cuts through the spin and presents a damning picture of Joe Biden and his team. Akbar is the diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Sun. He previously covered foreign policy issues for the Huffington Post.

This is an edited transcript from Jacobin’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the interview here.

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