Biden spokesman accused Israel of ‘war crimes’ but kept his mouth shut

Matthew Miller, the spokesman for the US State Department under President Joe Biden, says that “without a doubt” Israel has committed “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A former senior US State Department official in the Biden administration accused Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip during its ongoing war against the Hamas terror organization.

In an interview published by Sky News, the UK TV channel, on Monday, Miller rejected claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but quickly added that he believes the Jewish state has, “without a doubt,”  committed war crimes in the Gaza war.

“I don’t think it is a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes.”

Miller said that he held this view during his term as State Department spokesman, but withheld it since it was not in line with the administration’s official positions.

“When you’re at the podium you are not expressing  your personal opinion, you’re expressing the conclusions of the United States government; the United States government had not concluded that they committed war crimes – still have not concluded that.”

The former Biden and Obama administration official said he was unsure if Israel had actively encouraged its soldiers to commit war crimes in Gaza, or whether those crimes, which he alleges took place, were incidental.

“That, I think, is an open question,” Miller said. “What I think is almost certainly not an open question is that there have been individual incidents that have been war crimes, where Israeli soldiers… have committed war crimes.”

Miller went on to criticize Israel’s military judicial system for failing to hold soldiers accountable for the war crimes he claims took place.

“We have not yet seen them hold sufficient numbers of the military accountable, and I think it is an open question whether they are going to.”

Turning to the Biden administration’s relationship with Israel following October 7, 2023, Miller said there were disagreements both “small and big” between senior US officials over how to handle ties with Israel during the Gaza war.

“There were disagreements all along the way about how to handle policy. Some of those were big disagreements, some of those were little disagreements.”

“The administration did debate, at times, whether and when to cut off weapons to Israel. You saw us in the spring of 2024 stop the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel because we did not believe they would use those in a way that was appropriate in Gaza.”

Miller hinted that he believes the Biden administration should have done more to “pressure the Israeli government to agree” to a ceasefire earlier in the war.”

The comments come just days after two Obama administration officials – Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor – accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza war.

“That’s a genocide,” Rhodes said on the Pod Save America podcast.