Barack Obama
President of the United States, 2009-2017.
Claims constancy — admits no change and says nothing about his own record: the 2011 veto, the 2014 resupply, and the largest military aid pledge in US history. In December 2016, weeks before leaving office, he did let a Security Council resolution against the settlements pass by abstaining.
- Dec 27 2008
- As president-elect, said nothing for ten days while Israel bombed Gaza in Operation Cast Lead, which began under President Bush and ended two days before his inauguration. His team cited “one president at a time”, though he had already condemned the Mumbai attacks a month earlier. His first comment, on January 6, called the civilian deaths a “deep concern” and promised more after January 20. Democracy Now!
- Feb 18 2011
- Cast his administration's first Security Council veto to kill a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and calling for them to stop. The vote was 14 to 1; more than 120 countries had sponsored the draft. Salon
- Jul 30 2014
- In the middle of the 2014 assault on Gaza, with more than 1,300 Palestinians already killed, the Pentagon confirmed it had let Israel restock 40mm grenades and 120mm mortar rounds from the US war-reserve stockpile held in Israel, approved three days after Israel asked. Al Jazeera
- Sep 14 2016
- Signed a memorandum of understanding pledging Israel $38 billion in military aid over ten years from 2019 — $3.8 billion a year, the largest single pledge of military assistance in US history. The pledge runs through 2028, across the whole of the war on Gaza from October 2023. Obama White House archive
- Oct 2026
- Speaking in Belfast, said of Israel's founding: “What is also undeniable is that they took the land of people and they were expelled”, and gave voice to the Palestinians' answer: “This is an injustice, and I want my land back.” Said Israel has “ceded moral ground”, a message he says he gave Netanyahu. He called for no action by the United States and said nothing about his own record. Jewish Insider
