On Tuesday, July 8, President Obama published an op-ed  in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, with the misleading headline: “Peace is the only path to true security for Israel and the Palestinians.”

Obama urged all sides to act “with reasonableness and restraint, not vengeance and retribution.

“As I’ve said time and again, neither I nor the United States will ever waver in our commitment to the security of Israel and the Israeli people, and our support for peace will always remain a bedrock foundation of that commitment,” he wrote. 

Then, he goes on to enumerate all the policies he implemented to ensure Israel’s security, including a yearly package of $3 billion in military aid.

However, funding war never leads to peace.

The president mentions the word “peace” 19 times in his article. But the word “settlements,” which is the biggest obstacle to the two-state solution — the proposed American path to peace — is not mentioned once.

Obama says “a viable, independent Palestinian state” is necessary to peace, but he fails to recognize that as he was writing his editorial, illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank were expanding and eating up the land that is supposed to become the state of Palestine.

As Israel intensified its aerial attack on the Gaza Strip, the White House reiterated American support for the Israeli military. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Israel has a “right to defend itself” from Hamas’ “vicious” attacks.

Recent history tells us that when the U.S. government mentions Israel’s right to defend itself, it is a green light to let slip the dogs of war on its neighbors. The White House has argued Israel’s right of self defense during every Israeli offensive against Lebanon and the Palestinian territories for the past two decades. 

These wars have killed thousands of civilians. 

On Wednesday morning alone, one Israeli air strike killed a Gazan mother and her three children. 

It is true that Hamas does fire rockets indiscriminately on Israel at times of war. However, Hamas’ rockets are a fraction of the fire power Israel used indiscriminately against Palestinians. 

Israel started bombing Gaza, accusing Hamas of killing three Israeli teenagers, without providing any proof. Israel rounded up hundreds of Palestinians, including children, as collective punishment. Israeli settlers burned a Palestinian boy to death. Israeli police beat an American boy to the verge of death.

Hamas’ rockets are a reaction to Israeli injustice. 

“The violence of the oppressed is a reaction to violence of the oppressor. Those who want to end all violence, must end oppression,” says Palestinian activist Omar Barghouthi.

Bottom line, the president’s calls for peace and “reasonableness” contradict his unconditional, unquestionable support for Israel.