Guess who’s not getting mentioned in Biden’s Lebanon messaging

President JOE BIDEN and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS were quick to issue statements on Israel’s killing of top Hezbollah leader HASSAN NASRALLAH this week. One thing that wasn’t in those statements: An acknowledgment of the mounting civilian casualties in the escalating Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

The human rights community has leapt on the omission. In their view, Biden at least acknowledged the civilian casualties from Israel’s controversial campaign in Gaza and now in Lebanon, he’s not even doing that.

“It’s remarkable given the anger he clearly knows is happening around the world already because of civilian casualties in Gaza and the West Bank,” said SARAH YAGER of the Human Rights Watch advocacy group. Four other human rights advocates who spoke to NatSecDaily expressed similar sentiments.

Administration officials sharply push back on the criticism, saying their monthslong drive for a cease-fire in Gaza and recent push for diplomacy in Lebanon is all centered on ending the fighting to protect civilians. They said Biden’s statement on Saturday (Harris issued her own separately) focused on Nasrallah and his legacy of terrorism.

“We certainly assume there have been civilian casualties. I don’t think we can quantify it right now but we are in touch with our Israeli counterparts,” National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY said when asked about the civilian cost of the strikes that killed Nasrallah on CNN on Sunday. “While nobody is mourning Nasrallah’s death, we certainly do mourn any loss of civilian life.”

The National Security Council declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Harris.

The mounting criticisms point to a widening rift between the Biden administration and human rights groups over Biden’s approach to the Middle East crisis. Some human rights experts charge that Biden has a double standard on human rights and laws of war when it comes to Israel. That in turn, they argue, will further erode U.S. standing and support in the Middle East and undermine its messaging on human rights elsewhere in the world.

The latest developments have also fueled debates within the administration over how the United States should support Israel in Lebanon going forward: Some U.S. officials are thrilled that Israel’s operations have devastated the Hezbollah terrorist group while others say this short-term victory could lead to further fighting that escalates the humanitarian crisis.

More than one million people have been uprooted in southern Lebanon as they fled to avoid Israeli airstrikes, according to the latest available U.N. data. Since mid-September, Israeli strikes have killed around 1,030 and wounded 6,532 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry—which notably doesn’t distinguish between civilian deaths and combatants.

GROUND INCURSION: Israel, meanwhile, has begun launching small and targeted ground raids into Lebanon with special forces in moves that could presage a wider operation with Israeli boots on the ground in southern Lebanon.

The raids are aimed at the Radwan forces, an elite fighting force of the Hezbollah militant group, Israeli officials told the Wall Street Journal. These raids come as Israel seeks to take advantage of Hezbollah’s disarray following weeks of targeted strikes and the killing of Nasrallah. But back in Washington, at least some U.S. officials fear that Israel’s best-laid plans for a succinct operation in southern Lebanon could morph into a deadlier and more drawn-out campaign

HIGH ANXIETY: The U.S. is effectively doubling the number of fighter planes it has in the Middle East, adding to a stream of deployments of American ships, aircraft and ground troops sent to the region in recent days, our own PAUL McLEARY writes in.

The increased U.S. air presence in the region comes amid rising concerns over the safety of U.S. ground troops and ships spread across the Middle East. Worries are growing that Iranian-backed militant groups could launch attacks in response to Israel’s killing of Nasrallah in Lebanon on Friday.

The deployed jets, which include new F-15E, F-16, A-10 and F-22 fighter squadrons from the U.S., were previously scheduled to arrive and replace similar squadrons there currently, but the existing units will stay in place. Pentagon spokesperson SABRINA SINGH told reporters Monday that the move, which essentially doubles the number of fighter planes, will bolster existing forces in the region.

The jets are there “for the protection of U.S. forces,” Singh said, referring to them as “air defense capabilities,” to protect U.S troops from missile and drone attacks.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN ordered the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its attached destroyers to remain in the region, just a month after rerouting them to the Middle East while they were on a planned deployment to the Pacific. The order comes as the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group is already en route to the region, potentially creating a two-carrier presence in the Middle East for the second time since the summer.

ADDRESSING ANOTHER OTHER QUAD: The U.S. and its allies are attempting to thwart growing collaborations between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, arguing there is still a window of time to poke holes in their budding partnerships as fears of full-blown war in the Middle East grow.

As The New York Times’ EDWARD WONG writes, “the partnerships now are marriages of convenience or pragmatism” and responding to the United States, not born out of ideology, and the West still believes they can use the divisions to keep the ties from solidifying further.

HAITI MISSION EXTENDED: The United Nations extended the mandate of a Kenya-led multinational security support mission to Haiti for another year, The Miami Herald’s JACQUELINE CHARLES and MICHAEL WILNER report.

But the unanimous extension represents a pyrrhic victory for the U.S., Kenya and its supporters. The Security Council only approved the extension after the U.S. quietly dropped its push to turn the mission against armed gangs in the Caribbean country’s capital of Port-au-Prince into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

China and Russia were opposed to the move, arguing the force needs more time to establish itself before receiving a major expansion in powers and mandate from the United Nations.

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