Politico

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre misheard a question about concern over the rise in antisemitism amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas during Monday’s press briefing, she told POLITICO in a statement.

“I did mishear the question,” Jean-Pierre said. “As I have footstomped many times from the podium and on the air, antisemitism is an abomination that this President has fought against his entire life; and I feel strongly about that work. That’s why, in the briefing room, I have blasted the repulsive increase in antisemitic rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and hate crimes in our nation, calling out that, tragically, this is a rising threat.”

During the briefing Monday, Jean-Pierre said the White House had not seen “any credible threats,” when asked about the administration’s level of concern about increasing antisemitism. She then went on to address “hate-fueled attacks,” against Muslim and Arab Americans.

The response received backlash online, including from one Democratic lawmaker who slammed the “weak answer” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“What a weak answer,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) posted Monday evening. “The simple answer is yes, you are concerned about the rise of antisemitism. Of course we are also worried about hatred against Muslim Americans. Must do better.”

The number of antisemitic incidents across the world has been on the rise since the war between Israel and Hamas began earlier this month, according to the Anti-Defamation League. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed U.S. attorneys across the country to keep in close contact with state and local officials as threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities rise.

President Joe Biden denounced both antisemitism and Islamophobia during an Oval Office speech last week, following the death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, the 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who authorities say was stabbed to death because he was Muslim.

“We can’t stand by and stand silent when this happens,” Biden said. “We must without equivocation denounce antisemitism. We must also without equivocation denounce Islamophobia. And to all you hurting, I want you to know I see you. You belong. And I want to say this to you: You’re all American.”

Jean-Pierre has previously condemned antisemitism during several White House press conferences. In an Oct. 12 briefing, she noted that the “entire Biden–Harris administration” is “committed to doing all we can to protect against antisemitism and other forms of hate.”

This past week, an unlikely pair of men sat down for breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican gathering site just a stone’s throw from Congress, to plot ways to help Israel.

On one side of the table was Rep. Paul Gosar, a firebrand Republican who has faced criticism for ties to white nationalists. On the other was Bobby Rechnitz, a Los Angeles real estate developer dubbed a “confidant” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Over coffee, the two discussed Israel’s former Prime Minister Golda Meir and the situation in Gaza. Rechnitz said he’d come to Washington to share real-time intelligence from Israel and to ensure lawmakers understood the challenges facing leadership there.

“I hope to slightly enlighten the congressman about some of the things that I’m hearing,” he said. Rechnitz said he’s connected lawmakers with members of the Knesset, Israel’s governing body. He also uses a large iPad to show them photos of bullet-riddled bodies of babies and people burnt alive.

The meeting Wednesday appeared to serve its purpose. Gosar said he and Rechnitz were working “symbiotically” on the issue. He has since pledged his support for funding for Israel, although not if it’s tied to aid for Ukraine.

Rechnitz is not a lobbyist. Nor was he sanctioned by the government of Israel to go to Washington. “It’s not an official government representation,” he conceded.

Instead, he is part of a ragtag group of donors, activists and allies who have moved swiftly these past two weeks to help Israel. They have leveraged their political clout, their relationships with lawmakers and their fundraising networks to do so.

Their overarching goal is to shape how elected officials in the U.S. react to the crisis. But their work also underscores how much of the political fight around the nascent war is being done on the fly; and how much is being waged in unconventional theaters: college campuses, corporate boardrooms, K Street offices and stuffy Capitol Hill restaurants.

Among those who have rushed to Israel’s defense is Ronald Lauder, the billionaire heir to the cosmetic empire Estée Lauder who is also president of the World Jewish Congress.

For months, GOP presidential candidates seeking donations have courted the cosmetics magnate in private meetings. But since the attack Oct. 7, Lauder has turned his attention away from the primary and on to the conflict. He recently threatened to halt his giving to the University of Pennsylvania over its handling of antisemitism and a Palestinian literature event. Privately, he’s been making calls to a bipartisan group of lawmakers and world leaders to build support for security efforts.

“Mr[.] Lauder has been in regular contact with foreign leaders across Europe and the Middle East to build support for Israeli and American security efforts,” said a spokesperson for the Estée Lauder heir, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Lauder’s influence efforts have been supplemented by more formal attempts to get Congress on Israel’s side. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, along with an allied Democratic super PAC, were pushing for a funding package to lawmakers before one was introduced by the Biden administration.

AIPAC has spent more than $2.2 million this year on, among other things, currying support for security assistance to Israel, according to public lobbying disclosures. Its target legislation has included the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, a measure that would sanction those connected to Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.

A number of other major law firms are also registered with the Department of Justice to represent the Israeli government, including Sidley Austin, Arnold & Porter, and Holland & Knight.

Other lobbyists have been doing work on behalf of Israel on an impromptu, non-contracted basis. Jeff Miller, an adviser to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and one of the most influential K Street denizens in the capital, said he’d been pressing Washington policymakers on Israel’s behalf, even as the House GOP is in chaos over replacing his longtime friend as its leader.

Miller, who sits on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, used the forthcoming fight over an aid package to take a whack at Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who engineered McCarthy’s ouster.

“Matt Gaetz’s destructive behavior has rendered our legislative body useless during a time of world instability we haven’t seen in decades,” he said in a statement. “What he did wasn’t just horrible for the Republican Party, it was horrible for our country and the world. Every day that passes where the House cannot function is another day we failed our duty to support our ally, Israel.”

“Matt Gaetz — and Matt Gaetz alone — is responsible for this embarrassing failure,” he said.

The rush to rally lawmakers behind Israel may ultimately not require a major lift. Members of both parties have expressed their support for the country in the wake of the Hamas attacks. Republicans have applauded Biden for his support of Israel, including a trip there amid the war.

But passing aid may be another task entirely. Biden has asked Congress for a $106 billion package that would include money for the war in Ukraine, securing America’s southern border, and funds for Israeli weapons and humanitarian relief in Gaza. Conservative Republicans in the House have bristled at more aid for Ukraine. And there is also the matter of whether the House can even pass such legislation without a speaker in place.

Israel’s defenders are leaving nothing to chance. The super PAC Democratic Majority for Israel, an advocacy group launched in 2019 to try to reinforce the party’s pro-Israel ranks, has been holding briefings for members of Congress, including one on Thursday that featured former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) as guest speakers.

Blue and White Future — an Israeli nonprofit that helped the movement against a contentious judicial overhaul championed by Netanyahu — has begun revamping its own operations in the wake of Oct. 7. The group, which had previously helped coordinate crowdfunding and financing to protest the judicial reforms, is now paying for ads that drum up support for the Israeli cause. In one ad, children discuss violence against Jewish people, with the caption: “This is how TERRORISTS are made.”

Eleanor McManus, of the firm Trident DMG, said Blue and White Future is focused on “helping victims and families of hostages tell their stories in the media about the inhumane and cruel violence inflicted on innocent civilians by a ruthless terrorist aggressor.”

But outside of Washington, the sentiment around the Israel-Hamas war is more fraught. On college campuses, students have called on their school administrators to denounce Israel and held protests for Palestinian liberation. Elite law firms have rescinded job offers to law students who or whose student groups have denounced Israel.

Even inside the Beltway, some lawmakers are calling for a cease-fire or an end to the “apartheid” in the region. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American lawmaker in Congress, publicly told Biden that Palestinian and Muslim Americans “will remember where [he] stood” on the conflict. Muslim and Arab leaders have lambasted the Biden administration for failing to protect their communities in the wake of the war and the killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, in what authorities called a hate crime. One State Department official resigned from his post over the administration’s handling of the conflict.

Biden, in recent days, has moved to address these concerns. He talked up the need for humanitarian assistance, warned against the spread of Islamophobia and called the family members of the 6-year-old boy.

Rechnitz, the Los Angeles real estate developer who dined with Gosar, described his mission slightly differently. It was, he said, an effort not to moderate the rhetoric but to combat negative sentiments of Israel from taking root. He fashions himself as an informal ambassador for the country.

“My heart at all times is with Israel in terms of their perception in the world and how to better the situation and how to advocate on their behalf,” he said.

President Joe Biden used a rare Oval Office address Thursday night to forcefully advocate for aiding both Israel and Ukraine.

And he laid out a dark vision of what would happen should that aid, along with America’s larger commitment to defending democracy, not be delivered.

“History has taught us, when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going, and the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising,” Biden said.

Biden’s speech came a day after he returned from a whirlwind trip to Israel to stand in solidarity with its longtime ally. Ahead of what could be an escalation of violence in the Middle East, Biden laid out the stakes in clear terms, saying that while Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hamas “represent different threats,” they both want to “completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.”

The president spoke quickly at first, reading from a teleprompter, before slowing his rhetoric as his address drifted toward more somber points. He coughed at times, and pointed his finger down on the desk at others. More generally, he offered a tone of sobriety, describing a world with a number of serious fires in desperate need of being put out.

Biden linked the fresh fight in Israel to the invasion of Ukraine, trying to revive fading support for a war that has dragged on for more than a year and a half.

He used the primetime moment to make the broad case to the public as to why a pair of conflicts on the other side of the globe were so vital to American national security. And he did so by stressing the need to combat the rise of authoritarianism. Biden is poised to make a massive $100 billion spending request on Friday, which would include assistance for Ukraine and Israel.

He called it “an urgent budget request” that would provide “an unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security.”

“It’s a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations. Help us keep American troops out of harm’s way. Help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful, more prosperous for our children and grandchildren,” Biden said.

The president will have to navigate a series of ideological differences if he seeks all of the aid in a single congressional vote. While there is wide support for funding Israel, a small number of vocal Republicans have begun balking at sending more aid to Ukraine. All funding could end up being complicated by the political paralysis that has gripped Congress.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has been without a speaker now for weeks, making it impossible to pass any legislation, including the aid that Israel has said it urgently needs. Republicans on Thursday ditched a plan to temporarily empower Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as interim speaker amid ongoing divides in the caucus, once again placing the House at an impasse.

Biden on Thursday also mourned the lost Palestinian lives, two days after a rocket exploded at a hospital in Gaza, reportedly killing hundreds of civilians. He stated, definitively, that Israel was not responsible for the explosion. But he also noted that people in Gaza were in desperate need of food, water and medicine.

His recognition of the magnitude of tragedy also striking Palestinians — among the strongest since the beginning of the conflict — comes amid criticism from top Arab American and Muslim leaders about the White House’s posture during the crisis.

The president also named Wadea Al-Fayoume, the 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who authorities say was stabbed to death because he was Muslim.

“We can’t stand by and stand silent when this happens,” Biden said. “We must without equivocation denounce antisemitism. We must also without equivocation denounce Islamophobia. And to all you hurting, I want you to know I see you. You belong. And I want to say this to you: You’re all American.”

Underscoring the importance of the moment, the address was only the second time Biden has delivered formal remarks from the Oval Office since becoming president. In June, he spoke from behind the Resolute Desk about a bipartisan agreement to avoid defaulting on the nation’s debt.

Biden has earned kudos among Israel’s defenders for standing firmly with the country. But his trip to the country was marred by conflict in the region. A summit scheduled for Amman featuring Jordanian, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders was canceled after the explosion at a hospital in Gaza. And while Biden was still on the ground in Tel Aviv, protests across the region dramatically escalated, including demonstrations at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. U.S. officials have expressed deep private concert that the unrest in the region could explode once Israel begins its seemingly imminent ground operation into Gaza.

In many ways, Biden’s overarching message Thursday night was an illustration of the lofty themes he has hit throughout his presidency: reframing the century ahead as a battle between democracies and autocracies.

“American leadership is what holds the world together,” he said. “Our alliances are what keep us safe, and our values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with.”

The Biden administration is expected to send Congress a funding request for domestic priorities next week, according to three people familiar with the request, in addition to its anticipated national security emergency spending request.

The roughly $100 billion national security request is expected to cover aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as funding to address the nation’s southern border. The domestic policy request is slated to include funding for child care, broadband and disaster relief, and is likely to gain far less traction with Republicans on the Hill than its counterpart.

The people who confirmed the timing of the funding requests — which are expected to cover one year — stressed that they are subject to change. President Joe Biden is expected to make a formal appeal for swiftly approving aid to Ukraine and Israel in a prime-time speech Thursday night, arguing that supporting the two allied nations is critical to U.S. national security interests.

The national security package will include about $60 billion for Ukraine and around $10 billion for Israel, the sources said, a Ukraine number that aligns roughly with a yearlong timetable. An earlier White House funding request for Ukraine, which Congress has not yet acted upon during its current gridlock, had only covered three months.

Progressives have called for a funding pitch from the White House that included both foreign and domestic spending — arguing that while constituents care about aiding Ukraine and Israel, they also need support at home. However, Republicans are likely to balk at the request’s expansive child care spending and other domestic priorities.

“We have a national security obligation and we also have a domestic security obligation, and both of them are imperative,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). The top House Appropriations Committee Democrat added that she “would advocate for” child care policy’s inclusion.

A group of progressive senators, including Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), have pushed the Biden administration to add the child care funding, which would fill the void left when pandemic-era federal aid for child care expired on Sept. 30. They’ve based their request on the approximately $16 billion that was provided annually during the pandemic.

“Child care funding is incredibly important for kids, families and providers, and I’m glad to hear reports that the White House will be including it in its supplemental request,” Smith said. “This is an issue that can’t be left on the cutting room floor.”

Some Democrats want the president to ask for extra cash to bolster other at-home priorities, like funding for science programs like AI and quantum computing efforts authorized under the CHIPS bill Biden signed into law last year.

“Those investments are critical to jobs at home and our security around the world,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said. “So I think that would be a good fit.”

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing pressure to help free a Californian imprisoned in China when he travels there next week.

David Lin, a 67-year-old pastor from Orange County, has been behind bars since 2006, when he was arrested and given a life sentence for whatthe U.S. government says are bogus charges of contract fraud. His daughter, Alice Lin, said she hopes Newsom will press Chinese officials to release Lin.

Newsom should “raise my father’s case by name as well as the names of other wrongfully detained Americans,” she said in an exclusive interview. “We do not want my dad to be forgotten.”

So far, the Democratic governor has signaled a near-laser focus on climate change for his weeklong trip, which includes stops in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing as well as a reception with U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns, who met with Lin and two other American detainees earlier this year.

Newsom’s reluctance to raise human rights and the case of a constituent unjustly jailed in a Beijing prison may help smooth his meetings with Chinese officials. But it will likely spark criticism from China hawks on Capitol Hill who are pushing the Biden administration to take a harder line with Beijing for such abuses. It also threatens to overshadow a trip Newsom hopes will bolster California’s reputation as a leader in the global clean energy economy and build his foreign policy experience for a potential White House bid in 2028.

Newsom should “advocate for the American citizens, lawful permanent residents and political prisoners unjustly detained by China,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. “They cannot be forgotten — and every American official who visits China must demand they be freed.”

Newsom officials declined to respond to a query about Lin and referred POLITICO to the State Department. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to queries about whether they had briefed Newsom’s team on the administration’s China priorities or whether they considered human rights and unjustly jailed U.S. citizens to be strictly federal issues. However, the governor’s team has been in direct communication with the White House and the Biden administration has signed off on the trip.

A Newsom aide signaled this week that issues like Lin’s case weren’t part of the governor’s priorities.

“The trip is predominantly focused on climate,” spokesperson Erin Mellon told reporters Tuesday in response to a question on whether human rights were on Newsom’s trip agenda. “We are obviously a state, so I think we look to our federal partners on federal issues.”

Beijing has no problem with that narrow agenda. The Chinese government hopes Newsom’s trip “will produce good results and bolster California’s exchanges and cooperation with China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday.

Religious freedom organizations including ChinaAid say Chinese authorities targeted Lin because of his efforts to build a place of worship foran unofficial “house church” forbidden under Chinese law. He is scheduled to be released in 2029 following several reductions of his sentence.

Lin’s family said they worry Newsom’s disinterest may condemn Lin — who’ll be 68 next month — to die behind bars due to failing health. His release date “is too far off — I honestly don’t know if he will be able to make it until then,” Alice Lin said.

Alice Lin isn’t the only Californian urging Newsom to speak up for her dad. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), whose district includes Lin’s Orange County home, “supports Governor Newsom doing what he can to bring David home to his family,” a Porter spokesperson, Peter Opitz, said in a statement.

Linis one of three Americans imprisoned in China whom the State Department’s office of the special presidential envoy on hostage affairs (SPEHA) has designated as “wrongful detainees.” The designation authorizes Roger Carstens, the special envoy, to seek their release. SPEHA didn’t respond to a request for comment on the status of the Biden administration’s efforts to free Lin or the other two detainees, Kai Li and Mark Swidan.

A failure by Newsom to raise Lin’s case will likely surprise his hosts, one human-rights advocate said. “Chinese officials I work with expect him to raise cases of arbitrarily detained Americans — to do otherwise would be shameful and disqualifying,” said John Kamm, founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, which advocates for the release of victims of unjust jailing in China.

Newsom also plans to tour several renewable energy facilities, including an electric bus depot, an offshore wind factory and a Tesla vehicle manufacturing plant. Tesla’s China-based operations have been linked to components sourced in the Xinjiang region, where Chinese officials are known to use forced labor from Muslim Uyghurs.

Media coverage of that Tesla tour — and Newsom’s preference for a narrative of win-win China-California climate ties — will sustain criticism from human rights advocates and attacks from political opponents long after he returns to Sacramento.

“That’s the danger of domestic politicians trying to pad their résumés and stepping into trouble before they actually get to the campaign,” said Samuel Chu, president of the nonprofit advocacy group The Campaign for Hong Kong.

With the increasing likelihood that House Republicans will empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry to run the House temporarily amid its speakership crisis, another question looms: Would the move put an acting speaker into the line of presidential succession?

When all leadership positions are present and accounted for, the speaker of the House is usually second in line to take up the mantle after the vice president.

But legal experts say that even empowering McHenry to move legislation isn’t the same as being the real thing.

“By calling this person speaker pro tem, that by definition, means there isn’t an actual speaker,” said Michigan State law professor Brian Kalt. “So whatever powers they give him, parliamentary powers to run things in the House, as long as he’s not the speaker, he’s not in line of succession.”

Kalt said that the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 states that the speaker must be the speaker, leaving no wiggle room for a speaker pro tem to be in line.

Eric Schickler, co-director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, concurred.

“Speaker pro tem, even if authorized to act as if he were the speaker or with some of those powers, it’s still not the same,” Schickler said.

House Republicans have been in a whirlwind leadership crisis since voting for Kevin McCarthy to be removed from his speaker post earlier this month. Rep. Jim Jordan’s second failure to win the votes to secure the gavel for himself on Wednesday has sparked bipartisan talks about empowering McHenry to bring legislation to the floor — particularly spending bills, given a Nov. 17 funding deadline. POLITICO reported earlier Thursday that Jordan will back that proposal as he pauses voting on his own speaker bid.

And since a President McHenry wouldn’t become a contingency plan, the line would skip to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is the president pro tempore of the Senate and typically third in succession to the presidency.

This means that House Republicans would be skipped over if President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris were unfit to serve, which could cause a dispute between Republicans and Democrats.

Schickler said that in the unlikely event that the president and vice president can’t serve, a court battle could ensue over who would become the leader of the country.

“One of the issues with succession law is that by putting the speaker next in line, the speaker could be from a different party,” Kalt said. “It could cause a lot of problems.”

Joe Biden is preparing to nominate Kurt Campbell as the next deputy secretary of State, three people familiar with the decision said, elevating the architect of the president’s China and Indo-Pacific strategy to the nation’s second-highest diplomatic post.

Campbell’s frontrunner status has been known for weeks, after Biden asked the State Department’s top choice for the role, principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, to remain in his current position. Wendy Sherman, the administration’s first deputy secretary, retired in the summer.

Two of the people familiar with the decision said Campbell is nearing the end of his vetting process, and he’ll be formally nominated by the president once the review is completed successfully, as expected. But given a severe bottleneck in the Senate for confirmations, it’s unclear when he’ll get a hearing or even a vote.

Spokespeople for the National Security Council and State Department didn’t respond to requests for comment. Campbell didn’t immediately offer comment about his forthcoming nomination.

Campbell, the National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, has had a hand in virtually everything the Biden administration has done on Asia policy. The nuclear submarine deal with the U.K. and Australia known as AUKUS was his brainchild, and he quietly worked to make it a reality, keeping the development away from many colleagues who were surprised by the deal’s formal announcement.

France, whose own submarine deal with Australia was sidelined by AUKUS, was also caught off guard, and Paris’ anger led to a diplomatic kerfuffle that Campbell’s Europe-focused colleagues had to quash.

That work, and other initiatives, stem from Campbell’s efforts during the Obama administration to “pivot to Asia.” This included sending more U.S. troops to the region, strengthening ties with regional allies, growing partnerships with less friendly countries wary of China and taking a harder line on Beijing. Multiple U.S. officials say that the administration’s current approach toward China and the region writ large was devised by Campbell.

U.S. policy toward China should “seek to achieve not a definitive end state akin to the Cold War’s ultimate conclusion but a steady state of clear-eyed coexistence on terms favorable to U.S. interests and values,” he wrote in a 2019 Foreign Affairs article with Jake Sullivan, now the national security adviser, titled “Competition Without Catastrophe.”

“Coexistence means accepting competition as a condition to be managed rather than a problem to be solved.”

One of the people familiar with Campbell’s potential move said he may use the job to further centralize U.S. competition with China in the State Department’s work.

The Biden administration took office with the goal of taking Beijing on in multiple arenas while avoiding war, but it has faced other pressing challenges demanding senior-level attention, namely Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now the Israel-Hamas war.

An outstanding question of Campbell’s move is what happens to Victoria Nuland, the acting deputy secretary who was also in line for the post. Nuland did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The presidential motorcade was just minutes from Air Force One when the call came.

Jordan was canceling a summit between President Joe Biden and the leaders of the kingdom, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority after an explosion at a Gaza hospital reportedly killed hundreds. Hamas blamed Israel as Israel said another Palestinian group was to blame. Suddenly, Biden was left with an Israel-only itinerary for his trip, creating the potential for images that could further inflame the smoldering Middle East.

The option of abandoning the trip entirely at that point wasn’t considered, according to two aides not authorized to publicly discuss private deliberations. There were fears that doing so, so close to departure — Air Force One was ready to go — would upset the Israelis, the aides said.

But there had been worries among some Biden advisers about going on the trip in the first place. They believed that Biden, in a series of speeches last week, had already proven his commitment to Israel and was only providing a gift to Netanyahu by going.

Biden was adamant that he should go, even if the Jordan stop was off. In the words of National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on the plane ride to Israel: “There is still a pretty robust agenda of things to get done in Tel Aviv.”

Biden and his team did their best to make the most of what was left of the one-day trip.

His presence — and days of diplomacy leading up to it — led Israeli officials to say they’d allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza. Biden would later confirm that Egypt allowed 20 trucks with aid into the enclave. He earned kudos among Israel’s defenders for standing firmly with the country, underscored by a warm hug with Netanyahu that is bound to be the enduring image of the one-day visit.

But Biden didn’t get a similar photo op with other regional leaders. And no statements about Israel’s right to self defense or protecting innocent civilians in Gaza could turn the tides of violence sweeping the region.

While Biden was still on the ground in Tel Aviv, protests across the region, prompted by the hospital explosion, dramatically escalated, including demonstrations at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.

So the president left Israel looking more like a victim of world events than a shaper of them.

Biden had decided to rush to Israel for two main reasons: to back the staunch ally in its moment of need and to stop the conflict from escalating.

The president more than met the first objective.

“Americans are grieving with you. They really are. And Americans are worried. Americans are worried because we know this is not an easy field to navigate what you have to do,” Biden said alongside the Israeli prime minister in Tel Aviv.

Biden hugged survivors of the terror attacks and grieved with those mourning. The Treasury Department announced sanctions on two senior Hamas officials and their associates to block their crypto exchanges and other financing. And citing current U.S. assessments, Biden said Israel wasn’t responsible for the hospital explosion, asserting instead that “the other team” was to blame.

But that comment, and the visit as a whole, made it hard to meet the trip’s second goal of de-escalation.

Arab-American leaders have publicly chastised the Biden administration rhetoric as insensitive to Palestinians — and made similar arguments privately to State Department officials. Within days of Hamas’ brutal attack, Israel instituted a siege of Gaza that left its 2.3 million residents short on food, water and electricity.

White House aides have recoiled at the criticism that they have been callous to the plight of the Palestinians. Among other things, they touted the $100 million in humanitarian aid he pledged for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

NSC spokesperson Kirby told reporters on the flight to Israel that Biden would have “tough questions” for his Israeli counterparts. But the president kept the tough love private, never wavering in public remarks to boost Israel’s cause. He did urge, though, for the Israelis to be cautious in their forthcoming operation in Gaza.

“Justice must be done. But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” Biden said. “After 9/11 we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

U.S. officials have grown fearful that the hospital tragedy and diplomatic fallout would heighten regional tensions. They expect emotions to run higher after Israel sends troops into Gaza to take out Hamas leadership, an operation that could begin in the coming days. A further escalation could come if Israeli forces occupy the enclave for the first time since 2005; Biden recently said that would prove a “big mistake,” a stance echoed by fellow Democrats.

“If they just go into Gaza and leave it a smoldering mess they’re going to end up recruiting more terrorists than they killed and they will be right back to square one. None of us want to see that,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a former Marine, said on CNN.

The Biden administration has already discussed what military actions it would take if Hezbollah, a heavily armed Iranian proxy in Lebanon, decides to enter the fray. For deterrence purposes, the U.S. has two carrier strike groups in the Eastern Mediterranean alongside other warships and fighter jets. The United Kingdom, too, has maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft in the region.

Hezbollah denounced the hospital explosion, calling for “a day of unprecedented anger.” At the demonstrations in Beirut, protestors waving Palestinian flags were pushed back with tear gas. Analysts suggest that Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned groups are preparing to take advantage of the chaos and strike Israel while it’s focused on Hamas.

The picture is not much better at home. Thousands of American Jews protested outside and inside the Capitol on Wednesday, demanding that the administration and lawmakers push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Despite the turmoil, Biden showed few signs of changing course. He was steadfast in backing Israel, no matter what.

“Israel, you’re not alone. The United States stands with you,” Biden said during a news conference. “We’re going to stand with you. We’ll walk beside you in those dark days.”

On Thursday evening, Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office about why the U.S. should support Israel, and Ukraine, in their fights. It’s possible he will unveil a $100 billion funding request for the allies, which would require a roiling Congress to approve.

Matt Berg contributed to this report.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel said Wednesday that it will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The first crack in a punishing 10-day siege on the territory came one day after a deadly blast at a Gaza City hospital killed hundreds and put immense strain on Gaza doctors treating the many wounded as medical supplies ran out.

The announcement to allow water, food and other supplies came as rage over Tuesday night’s blast at al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East, and as U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel in hopes of preventing a wider conflict in the region.

There were conflicting claims of who was responsible for the explosion. Hamas officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying nearly 500 were killed. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.

The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.

Israel shut off all supplies to Gaza soon after Hamas militants rampaged across communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The al-Ahli carnage threw the siege’s impact into sharp relief.

Hundreds of wounded were rushed to another hospital, nearly out of supplies and fuel for its generators, and doctors performed surgery on the floors, often without anesthesia.

Biden said Egypt’s president agreed to open the crossing and, to begin with, to let in 20 trucks with humanitarian aid. If Hamas confiscates aid, “it will end,” he said. White House officials said the aid would flow as early as Friday, once the roads are patched.

At Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, lines of trucks with aid have waited for days to enter. But the facility has only a limited capacity. Egypt must still repair the road across the border that was cratered by Israeli airstrikes.

Supplies will eventually go in under supervision of the U.N., Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Al-Arabiya TV. He did not specify the number of trucks. Asked if foreigners and dual nationals seeking to leave would be let through, he said: “As long as the crossing is operating normally and the (crossing) facility has been repaired.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was approved after a request from Biden. It said Israel “will not thwart” deliveries of food, water or medicine from Egypt, as long as they are limited to civilians in the south of the Gaza Strip and don’t go to Hamas militants. The statement made no mention of badly needed fuel.

Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel resumed Wednesday after a 12-hour lull, and Israeli strikes on Gaza continued, including on cities in the south that Israel had described as “safe zones” for civilians.

In his brief visit, Biden tried to strike a balance between showing U.S. support for Israel, while containing growing alarm among Arab allies. Upon his arrival, Biden embraced Netanyahu — and expressed concern for the suffering of Gaza’s civilians.

Biden said the hospital blast appeared not to be Israel’s fault, and he cautioned Israelis not to allow outrage over the deadly Hamas attack to consume them.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned that the war was “pushing the region to the brink.” After the hospital blast, Jordan canceled a meeting between Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the Palestinian and Egyptian presidents.

The Israeli military held a briefing Wednesday morning laying out its case for why it was not responsible for the explosion at the al-Ahli Hospital.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said it was not firing in the area when the blast occurred. He said Israeli radar confirmed a rocket barrage was fired by the Palestinian militant Islamic Jihad from a nearby cemetery at the time of the blast, around 6:59 p.m. Independent video showed one rocket in the barrage falling out of the sky, he said.

The misfired rocket hit the parking lot outside the hospital, he said. Were it an airstrike, there would have been a large crater there; instead, the fiery blast came from the misfired rocket’s warhead and its unspent propellant, he said.

Hamas called Tuesday’s hospital blast “a horrific massacre,” saying it was caused by an Israeli strike. Islamic Jihad accused Israel of trying “to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed.”

The group pointed to Israel’s order days before that al-Ahli be evacuated and a previous strike at the hospital as proof that the hospital was an Israeli target. It also said the scale of the explosion, the angle of the bomb’s fall and the extent of the destruction all pointed to Israel.

The Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, said the hospital, run by the Episcopal Church, received at least three Israeli military orders to evacuate in the days before the blast. Israeli shelling hit it Sunday, wounding four staffers, he said. Israel ordered all 22 hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate last week.

Naoum declined to cast blame on either party for the blast. “We just want to let people see what is happening on the ground and hope that people will come to the conclusion that we’ve had enough of this war,” he said.

Hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge in al-Ahli and other hospitals in Gaza City, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south. Video after the blast showed the hospital grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children.

On Wednesday morning, the blast scene was littered with charred cars and the ground was blackened. One man who had been sheltering there with his family, Mohammed al-Hayek, said he was sitting with other men in a hospital stairwell Tuesday night, wary of sitting in the yard.

He stepped away to get them coffee when the blast hit.

“When I returned, they were torn to pieces,” he said.

The death toll was in dispute. The Health Ministry initially said at least 500 had died, but revised that number to 471 on Wednesday. Al-Ahli officials said the toll was in the hundreds. Abu Selmia said he thought the toll was closer to 250.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,478 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and more than 12,000 wounded, mostly women, children and the elderly. Another 1,300 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion, in which the fighters took some 200 hostages into Gaza. Militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since toward cities across Israel.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population. Most have crowded into the territory’s southern half. Many families say they have cut down to one meal a day and have been left to drink contaminated water amid worsening shortages.

“It’s not just that people are going hungry. People are at the risk of starvation,” Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, said.

With troops massed along the border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza, though military officials say no decision has been made.

With Israeli airstrikes relentlessly pounding the Gaza Strip, displaced Palestinians increasingly feel that no place is safe. Palestinians in northern Gaza and Gaza City have taken refuge in the homes of their relatives further south following an Israeli military evacuation order.

The Musa family fled to the typically sleepy central town of Deir al-Balah and sheltered in a cousin’s three-story home near the local hospital. But on Wednesday at 7:30p.m., a series of explosions, believed to be airstrikes, rocked the building, turning the family home into a mountain of rubble that they said has buried some 20 women and children.

The dead body of Hiam Musa, the sister-in-law of Associated Press photojournalist Adel Hana, was recovered from under the building Wednesday evening, the family said. The family doesn’t know who else is under the rubble, alive or dead.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Hana said. “We went to Deir al-Balah because it’s quiet, we thought we would be safe.”

The Israeli military said it was investigating. The Israeli military says it is targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers and accuses the militants of hiding among civilians.