In a closed-door meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan this week, one of President Biden’s top foreign policy aides acknowledged mistakes in the administration’s response to the war in Gaza, saying he had “no confidence” that Israel’s government was willing to take “substantial steps” toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The remarks came after months of public and private urgings by the Biden administration for Israel to take a more surgical approach to a conflict that has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza. On Thursday, Mr. Biden himself said Israel had gone over the top in its response to the October 7 Hamas attack.
Biden aide John Feiner, deputy national security adviser, offered some of the administration’s clearest expressions of regret for the “mistakes” it had made since the violence began, and vowed to do better.
During a meeting Thursday with Arab American political leaders in Dearborn, Mich., Mr. Finer said: “We know very well that we have made mistakes along the way in responding to this crisis since October 7,” according to a recording of the meeting obtained by the New York Times. A National Security Council official confirmed the recording was authentic.
Mr. Feiner added: “We have left a very damaging impression based on a completely inadequate public accounting of how much the president, the administration and the country value Palestinian lives. And that started, frankly, very early in the conflict.”
The war in Gaza has become part of a cascade of political problems for Mr. Biden, who has remained a public supporter of Israel and resisted Democratic Party demands to call for a ceasefire. His stance since Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, along with his comments questioning the death toll from Israeli airstrikes and calling the loss of life “a price for waging war,” has angered young, black voters and progressives more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
Mr. Biden himself has acknowledged the pro-Palestinian protesters who have become a frequent presence at his public events. Last month, an abortion rights campaign rally in Virginia was repeatedly interrupted by protesters urging Mr. Biden to call for a ceasefire.
After that rally, Mr. Biden met privately with about 40 invited attendees and urged them not to view the protesters as political enemies, saying they deserved sympathy and their cause was “really important,” according to three people who attended the meeting.
A spokeswoman for the Biden campaign declined to comment.
But the recording of the Dearborn meeting provides an unusual behind-the-scenes look at the administration’s efforts to support the crucial battleground state of Michigan, which has a large Arab-American population in Dearborn and other Detroit suburbs. Mr. Biden’s support in the state has eroded, polls show. His allies there have warned the White House in recent months that he is at risk of losing the state, which he held in 2020.
Mr. Feiner and several other senior Biden administration officials, including Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, traveled to Dearborn on Thursday for a series of meetings, including the one where Mr. Feiner’s comments were recorded.
Those meetings came a week after Biden’s campaign aides, including Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the manager of his 2024 bid, quietly traveled to the city and met with some officials, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American progressive who is in the forefront of the Democrats calls for a ceasefire.
However, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and several other local officials refused to meet with Ms. Chávez Rodríguez. Mr. Hammoud later issued a statement saying he wanted to speak to policymakers rather than campaign officials. White House officials then tried to arrange a visit.
During Thursday’s meetings, Mr. Feiner articulated the US administration’s efforts to end the war in Gaza. Building a formal diplomatic relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia, he said, is a critical step toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Doing so, he added, required politically difficult sacrifices from both countries and the United States.
“We’re going to have to do things about Saudi Arabia that will be very unpopular in this country and in our Congress,” Mr. Feiner said. “Will Israel be willing to do the difficult thing that will be asked of it, which are important steps for the Palestinians on the two-state issue? I don’t know if the answer to that is yes. I have no confidence in this current government of Israel.”
Mr. Feiner also said the Biden administration should have publicly condemned statements by some Israeli officials who, in his words, compared “the people of Gaza to animals.” He said the officials did not do so because they were trying to work with the Israeli government.
“Out of a desire to sort of focus on solving the problem and not engage in rhetorical confrontations with people who, in many cases, I think we all find somewhat abhorrent, we didn’t sufficiently show that we completely rejected and disagreed with those sentiments,” said Mr. Finer.
He did not specify which Israeli officials he was referring to, but in the early days of the conflict, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said: “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” A number of other Israeli officials have also faced criticism for the dehumanizing language.
Mr. Feiner’s most explicit note of remorse was for a statement released under Mr. Biden’s name on Jan. 14, marking 100 days since the conflict began. The statement focused on the plight of American and Israeli hostages being held in Gaza and made no mention of the Palestinians who had been killed.
“It was in no way about the loss of Palestinian life during the first 100 days of the conflict,” Mr. Feiner said. “There is no excuse for this. It shouldn’t have happened. I believe it will never happen again. But we know there was a lot of damage.”
Mr. Feiner, who declined to comment, is the second-in-command on the National Security Council under Jake Sullivan, who is Mr. Biden’s national security adviser.
Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said: “The president and Mr. Feiner have been reflecting on the concerns we’ve had for some time, and will continue to have as the Israeli operation moves forward, about the loss of Palestinian life in this. conflict and the need to reduce civilian harm’.
Michigan residents who attended Thursday’s meetings with Biden administration officials described them as intense and said they were disappointed that the delegation from Washington had not committed to policy changes.
For example, administration officials declined to say whether they had advised or would advise the president to call for a cease-fire, which attendees demanded.
“You’re not going to get that answer,” said Steve Benjamin, director of the White House office of public engagement.
But the officials pledged to issue a letter outlining the administration’s support for the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which the United States temporarily cut funding after Israel accused some of its staff of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack. . Biden officials did not address questions from Michigan leaders about the president’s electoral prospects in the state.
“We emphasized that beyond communication, there needs to be a change in policies,” said Abraham Aiyash, the Democratic state representative who is the majority leader in the Michigan House of Representatives. “We were clear that there would be no follow-up meetings in any capacity unless there was a policy change based on the tangible steps we outlined to them today.”
Abbas Alawieh, a former congressional aide who attended the meeting, said it was “outrageous” that it took more than 100 days after the war began for the government to work with Dearborn and that Mr. Biden had not visited the own.
Mr. Biden met with Arab and Muslim American leaders in October, amid rising tensions inside and outside the White House, and apologized for the Gaza death toll and other messages from the administration. However, he largely defended his support for Israel’s war, pointing to foreign policy issues.
In November, administration officials also met by video conference with Palestinian American leaders, who expressed concern about surveys showing declining support for Mr. Biden in their communities. Officials told them that poll numbers did not dictate the president’s foreign policy decisions.
“People feel not just a vague sense of betrayal, but a deep sense of betrayal by President Biden,” Mr. Alawieh said.
Assad I. Turfe, the Wayne County deputy executive who also heard from Biden aides on Thursday, said Mr. Biden should be judged by how soon the conflict in Gaza is resolved.
“The Biden administration must act quickly and decisively to end this violence while respecting the principles of justice and human rights,” Mr Turfe said.
Thursday’s meetings in Dearborn came two days after a group of Arab-American and Muslim leaders in Michigan, led by Ms. Tlaib’s sister, launched a campaign to persuade Democrats angry about Mr. Biden’s stance on Israel to vote “Non-aligned” against the president. , in the Feb. 27 state Democratic primary. While such a move would likely have little practical effect, it could embarrass the president if enough voters chose to participate.
Former Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan called the campaign “a constructive thing for the president” and said he was encouraging his fellow Democrats to vote No – though he declined to say how he planned to vote in the primary.
“In Gaza, we will have to continue to press him,” Mr. Levin said in an interview.
Osama A. Siblani, the editor-in-chief of The Arab American News, a Dearborn newspaper, had meetings with both Ms. Chavez Rodriguez and Mr. Feiner’s delegation. He said Arab-American voters in Michigan felt betrayed after backing Mr Biden in large numbers in 2020, arguing they had “received nothing” since then “but words”.
“I’ve been involved in this community every day every day for 40 years,” Mr Sibleni said. “I can tell you right now, I can’t get my community to vote for Biden if I kiss their feet. They won’t.”
