What did Biden tell Bibi? If it's what Biden claims, Bibi is right to ignore him.

Yesterday, at a political event, Joe Biden warned that Israel is “starting to lose [international] support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place” in Gaza. Biden provided no support for his claim that Israel’s bombing is “indiscriminate.”

Biden may have been distinguishing between support from Europe — he mentioned the EU, specifically — and U.S. support. As to the latter, Biden said, “Israel’s security can rest on the United States.”

So maybe he wasn’t warning about a cessation of American assistance. It’s always dicey, though, to parse Biden’s remarks. Even he probably is often unsure what he’s saying.

This statement by Biden at the same event calls for debunking, not parsing:

It was pointed out to me — I’m being very blunt with you all — it was pointed out to me that — by Bibi — that “Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.”

I said, “Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn’t happen again — it didn’t happen again. Don’t make the same mistakes we made at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.

I don’t assume that Netanyahu actually brought up U.S. carpet bombing and use of the atom bomb with Biden, or that Biden said what he claims to have told the Israeli Prime Minister. The president is a notorious fabulist.

But let’s put that aside. Nearly everything else Biden said here is fallacious.

First, the institutions set up after World War II were not aimed at curbing what the victors did to win that war. They were set up to minimize the prospect of the kind of aggression, and weak initial response thereto, that had plunged the world into the war.

Second, Israel has not carpet bombed or nuked Gaza. Nor, as noted, did Biden offer evidence that Israel’s bombing is “indiscriminate.” Ed Morrissey observes:

The IDF has chosen to use ground troops and narrow targeting of Hamas-infiltrated infrastructure rather than use bunker-busters that would eliminate some of the risk to its own soldiers. Even the New York Times tacitly acknowledged the falsity of Biden’s claim in a rather useful deep-dive analysis of “proportionality” today.

In fact, John Kirby, spokesman for the Biden administration’s national security team, says that some of the steps the IDF has taken to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza might go further than what the US would have done if it were in Israel’s place. Kirby cited the IDF publication of a map alerting civilians which neighborhoods it is planning to attack, so the area can be evacuated ahead of time:

That’s basically telegraphing your punches. There are very few modern militaries in the world that would do that. I don’t know that we would do that.

Third, to build on Kirby’s point, the U.S. has not been all that concerned about killing civilians in wars we’ve fought since World War II. This was true both in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fourth, why does Biden believe we had no reason to be at war in Afghanistan after 9/11? Wasn’t the fact that al Qaeda, perpetrator of that attack, was based in Afghanistan reason enough to fight there? What’s next from Biden’s mouth — a claim that we had no reason to fight Japan after Pearl Harbor?

But there’s a more fundamental problem with what Biden claims to have told Netanyahu. It assumes that the way the U.S. fights wars now is superior to the way we fought World War II.

Ask yourself this question: How has the U.S. fared in major wars since WWII? The Korean War was a stalemate. The Vietnam War was a defeat. So, ultimately, was the war in Afghanistan. Fighting all-out, the way we did in World War II, seems like a better model than the one Biden says we’ve followed in the more enlightened eras since.

Israel isn’t interested in a stalemate with its sworn enemies or a defeat at their hands. Netanyahu has made this clear, pledging to continue the war against Hamas “until the end” and until “total victory” is achieved.

I think he means it. I hope he does.