Did Biden say India – Middle East – EU corridor caused Hamas attack?
Mainstream media falsely reports on US President Biden’s statement and White House refutes these claims.
Claim
Announcement of India-Middle East corridor possible reason for Hamas attack suggests Joe Biden
Rating
Explanation
Israel has been bombing Palestine and launched a land offensive into the Gaza strip in its bid to combat Hamas, after the terror organization launched an attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023. Several public places including hospitals and religious sites are reported to have been destroyed in the air strike and thousands of people have been killed in Gaza, which includes children, due to Israel’s response to Hamas attack.
120 in favor
14 against
45 abstentions
Countries adopt resolution calling for immediate & sustained humanitarian truce in the Middle East during an Emergency Special Session of #UNGA. https://t.co/XjKyOXQqu8 pic.twitter.com/nDh3Qj3MtV
— United Nations (@UN) October 27, 2023
The international community has been trying to bring peace to Gaza on humanitarian grounds as thousands of civilians are killed and displaced in Gaza and Israel is also accused of indulging in war crimes as allegations are made that the country has been using banned weapons. Shockingly, India has abstained from voting for such a motion in the United Nations. Meanwhile, several news reports from ANI, The Hindu, The Times of India, Mint, NDTV, India Today etc are claiming that US President Biden had said that the recently announced India – Middle East – European Union Economic corridor might be the reason for Hamas’ attack on Israel.
What’s the truth?
The alleged quote of US President Joe Bident is reported to be from the joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the White House during the Australian Prime Minister’s visit to the US on October 25, 2023. However, going through the video and the transcripts of the press conference, there is no such mention from either Joe Biden or Anthony Albanese.
In fact, the very quote that the news outlets cite is as follows:
I’m convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did — and I have no proof of this; just my instinct tells me — is because of the progress we were making towards regional integration for Israel and regional integration overall. And we can’t leave that work behind.
– Joe Biden, US President
From this statement, it is quite clear that the US President is talking about relationship of Israel with other neighboring Arab nations, especially Saudi Arabia as it is a matter of strategic importance for the United States. The very quote that the news outlets cite to make the case for their claim talks about regional integration of Israel, which includes recognition of Israel as a country by the other Arab nations in the region.
This has been again confirmed by the White House representative John Kirby, NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications in a press conference on October 26, 2023 when a question was asked to him regarding the earlier statement that was made by Biden. He responded by saying that the statement made by the US President has been ‘misunderstood’.
The exact reply from John Kirby is as follows:
“I think you misunderstood him. What he said was that he believed that the normalization process and the agreement that we were trying to reach between Israel and Saudi Arabia for normalization, which we believe is an important stepping stone to getting to a two-state solution, was what may have motivated Hamas to — to conduct those attacks. I think you misunderstood what he actually said.”
– John Kirby, NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications
Quite laughably, several of these established news reports based on a misquote mentioned that this was the second instance of Biden mentioning about the India – Middle East – European Union corridor in recent times. It is important to note that many such false reports have been made in the past by the mainstream news outlets. Some of them include PM Modi being a strong contender for Nobel Peace Prize, PM Modi can stop war in Ukraine etc.
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Conclusion
Biden did not say that he believes India – Middle East – European Union Corridor may be the reason for Hamas’ attack on Israel. His actual statement was misquoted by several news outlets in India.
