Tel Aviv, Israel – Hearing firsthand from Israeli survivors of the massive Hamas assault, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken experienced a rare scene for a diplomat: a cheering crowd.
During his 12-hour visit to Tel Aviv, Blinken declared, “The United States has Israel’s back”, a sentiment ordinary Israelis demonstrated was mutual, showing gratitude to their country’s main ally.
Blinken’s motorcade made a last-minute stop at the underground parking lot that has been turned into a makeshift donation hub after Israel’s deadliest day in decades.
As Blinken brought baby supplies to add to the unruly collection of donated boxes, a crowd of hundreds, many with smartphone cameras, chanted, “USA! USA!” and sang the Israeli national anthem.
“God bless America!” one visibly emotional man shouted, as Blinken — a veteran foreign policy aide not known for seeking the limelight — worked the crowd and shook hands, much like his boss President Joe Biden would do on a campaign stop.
“Thank you very much for your support!” shouted another woman in a thick Hebrew accent.
Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, in a surprise onslaught on October 7, attacking homes, kibbutzim and an electronic music festival, and taking about 150 hostages into Gaza.
Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes on the blockaded strip, claiming more than 1,400 lives and cutting off food, water and electricity supplies to the enclave.
Fighting back tears, Lior Gelbaum told Blinken how she and her boyfriend survived Hamas’s raid on a desert rave less than five kilometres (three miles) from the Gaza Strip.
“I’m 24 and I never imagined something like this would happen at a dance, at a music festival,” said Gelbaum, a US-Israeli dual citizen.
“We celebrated love, and we danced, and it was amazing. And then the rockets started and then gunshots everywhere,” she said.
Wrapping her arms around Blinken, she asked for help in rescuing friends snatched into Gaza by Hamas, which has threatened to kill the hostages.
“We escaped by a miracle, but there are friends we love,” she said, her voice trailing off.
Around 270 people were killed at the rave alone as Hamas fighters stormed in on motorcycles, vans and paramotors, shocking Israelis inured to living so close to the impoverished Gaza Strip.
‘Your moral support means everything’
Israel, often isolated on the international stage, has for decades relied on US support.
Biden has been critical in the past of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — himself an often unpopular figure in liberal Tel Aviv — for hard-right policies, including defiantly pursuing settlements in the occupied West Bank.
But Biden has closed ranks and resolutely backed Israel’s right to respond to what he branded “sheer evil,” a stance that Israelis told Blinken they appreciated.
“You don’t know how much it means to us to have you here,” Miri Polachek, who is volunteering to send medical supplies to soldiers, told Blinken.
“Your moral support means everything.”
Blinken, a secular Jew, spoke in unusually personal terms during his visit, recalling how his grandfather escaped Russian pogroms and his stepfather survived Nazi concentration camps.
He said Netanyahu showed graphic photographs from the Hamas attacks, including of a bullet-riddled baby, beheaded soldiers and young people burned alive in their cars.
“This is a moment where everyone needs to make clear that there is revulsion, disgust and a determination not to allow this to go forward,” Blinken said.
Blinken heads onward on a tour of Arab countries where he is unlikely to see such public pro-US sentiment.
But he said he also spoke to Israeli officials about the need to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza and to accept the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people.