Gaza, “do everything to stop the war”. Biden’s background on his wife –

“Stop the war in Gaza, stop it now.” This is the exhortation that Jill Biden addressed to her husband, according to what Joe Biden himself told during the Ramadan event which took place on Tuesday at the White House. The New York Times says, quoting one of the participants in the closed-door meeting, that one of the members of the Islamic community who accepted Biden’s invitation – and did not decline it as others did in protest over the war in Gaza — said his wife didn’t want him to go to the White House because of the Biden administration’s support for Israel. At this point, the president said he understood the reasoning, explaining that even his wife, in private, continues to ask him to do everything to stop the war in Gaza.

When asked by the Times about the president’s words, the White House clarified that the first lady did not ask that Israel end its military offensive against Hamas. “Like the President, the First Lady is devastated by the ongoing attack on aid workers and the loss of innocent lives in Gaza. Both want Israel to do more to protect civilians”, clarified Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director, following the background reported by the US president himself.