On October 18, President Joe Biden’s social-media team posted an Instagram photo of Biden exchanging handshakes with American special-forces operators stationed in Israel, without concealing their faces or other identifying clues, while en route back to America from the Middle East.
Biden “met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attack,” read the now-removed Instagram post on the White House account.
The original photo posted on the White House’s Instagram page depicted the faces of four men, all wearing American flag patches and who were identifiable as members of the elite Combat Applications Group (CAG), also referred to as Delta Force and Task Force Green.
Despite the White House removing the post after an hour, intelligence analyst Sam Shoemate claimed that “hundreds of thousands” of people had already seen it.
According to a screenshot Shoemate posted on X that censored the special operators’ faces but not their tattoos, Shoemate blasted the Biden administration’s post that has been viewed over three million times, saying that it was “a massive failure” on Biden’s part to publish the special forces operators’ faces.
Likewise, former U.S. Army Green Beret Joe Kent, a Republican running for Congress in the state of Washington, castigated Biden on X: “The Biden Administration operates at the confluence of hubris, malice and incompetence. Nothing says thank you for doing our nation’s most dangerous missions like showing every terrorist in the world the identities of our warriors.”
Speculation was rife that CAG had been mobilized to Cyprus or another regional country in the Middle East as various Americans were listed among the 200 or so hostages that terrorist group Hamas took in its recent October 7 attacks against Israelis. On that fateful day, Hamas attackers took many hostages, whom they purportedly hoped to exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
Subsequently, a CAG operator was detected in Tel Aviv before Biden’s visit, in which the U.S. leader proclaimed his unflinching support for Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Hamas.
Biden last Wednesday also declared the Hamas assault on Israel was worse than the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and pledged that America would “forever” stand with its Israeli counterparts.
Moreover, the U.S. leader posited that at least 31 Americans were among “more than 1,300 innocent Israelis” killed by Hamas on October 7, from the music festival near the Gaza border to the nearby villages and kibbutzim.
“Children slaughtered. Babies slaughtered. Entire families massacred. Rape, beheadings, bodies burned alive,” Biden stated, likening Hamas to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and their cruelties to “pure unadulterated evil” that could not be justified.
“Since this terrorist attack took place, we have seen it described as Israel’s 9/11. But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like fifteen 9/11s,” Biden asserted. “The scale may be different, but I’m sure those horrors have tapped into some kind of primal feeling in Israel, just like it did and felt in the US.”
Notably, the U.S. leader called on Israelis to avoid getting “consumed” by “all-consuming rage,” pointing out that the Americans were also furious after 9/11, “and while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
Significantly, Biden highlighted that Hamas “does not represent the Palestinian people,” who are “suffering greatly as well.” The people of Gaza “need food, water, medicine, shelter,” and the United States has requested that Israel permit humanitarian deliveries from Egypt to the Palestinian territory — as long as they are carefully checked and do not land up in Hamas’ hands.
Moreover, the United States has pledged $100 million in new humanitarian aid to both Gaza and the West Bank for over a million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians, Biden declared.
The U.S. leader stated that peace would only arrive with a “two-state solution,” and the recent attacks have only bolstered his “commitment and determination” to see that through.
“You are not alone. As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone,” Biden proclaimed, concluding, “Israel will be a safe, secure, Jewish, and Democratic state today, tomorrow, and forever.”
Furthermore, Biden told Netanyahu that he believed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was not culpable for the recent deadly strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told the Israeli leader.
The U.S. leader added that he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by the incident, which has claimed more than 500 lives, according to Palestinian officials. Israeli officials put the death toll much lower.
In response to Hamas’ brutal attacks, the Israeli government has pledged to eradicate the militant group, intensely bombarding Gaza since.
Last week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog also blamed Palestinian civilians for the October 7 attacks, claiming that “an entire nation out there … is responsible.”
“They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza,” he declared.
On their end, Hamas declared on October 20 that it had released two American captives, according to a spokesman for the group. Explaining its move, Hamas stated that it liberated the hostages to prove Biden’s “fascist” administration wrong.
“In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens for humanitarian reasons,” Abu Obaida revealed in a statement, alluding to Hamas’ military wing.
Obaida said that the two Americans freed were a mother and her daughter. As of the night of October 20, neither American nor Israeli authorities had verified the release, whereas Red Cross told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that it had received the two women. Israeli media then identified the women as Judith and Natalie Raanan.
The Hamas spokesman elaborated that this decision was intended “to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless.”
While it remains uncertain as to which of Biden’s statements that Obaida was alluding to, observers have opined that he may have been referring to the American leader’s remarks on October 18 that Hamas’ combatants “have committed atrocities that make ISIS look more rational.”
Hamas disclosed that it is presently holding around 200 hostages in Gaza, while another 50 are being kept in captivity by other militant groups in the territory, with 20 already killed by Israeli airstrikes. Previously, senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal indicated that Israeli captives could be exchanged for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, while foreign hostages would be freed “when circumstances allow.”
