A guest at this week's tense gathering of Muslim leaders at the White House is relaying a conversation overheard involving first lady Jill Biden's thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war, and the resulting death and devastation in the Gaza Strip. The New York Times reports that Salima Suswell, founder of the Black Muslim Leadership Council, was in attendance at Tuesday's meeting, and she says she heard another guest tell President Biden that his wife had pressed him not to go to the White House, due to the US' support of Israel in the deadly conflict.
According to Suswell, Biden noted that he got what the other person was saying, then added that his wife, Jill Biden, had made a plea to him on the situation in Gaza. "He said she said, 'Stop it, stop it now, Joe,'" Suswell recalls. The Times of Israel notes that tensions between the US and Israel were already ramped up last week after the US abstained from a UN Security Council vote on a resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages, though the ceasefire wasn't contingent on the hostage release; Israel had apparently expected the United States to veto the resolution outright.
White House officials responding to Suswell's report say the Bidens are actually in sync on the war, and that Jill Biden wasn't calling for Israel to cease its push against Hamas, per the New York Times. "Just like the president, the first lady is heartbroken over the attacks on aid workers and the ongoing loss of innocent lives in Gaza," said Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady's communications director, referring also to the Israeli strike that killed seven staffers from Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, per the Jerusalem Post. "They both want Israel to do more to protect civilians." (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
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