If you want to criticize your daughter or son for an endeavor that you think is excessive or exaggerated, you lovingly and half-approvingly say, "Honey, this paper is not going to work" or "You have over-the-top attempts at humor," or critique whatever he or she is attempting to do. In other instances, you hide your thoughts behind disapproving looks, like during an over-the-top birthday party your aunt throws for her kids, complete with ponies, clowns and a chocolate fountain.

For U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza could be really "over the top." He made that impromptu remark to reporters at the White House last week in a session designed to prove to the press that the president was not "a forgetful elderly person who failed to properly protect highly sensitive classified information" but capable enough to take all the questions fielded by the media without any prior coaching.

Using this opportunity, the White House reporters shot multiple questions at him about Israel, Gaza and the possibility of a hostage deal. He said, "I am of the view that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top."

Was Biden referring to the Israeli military operation or to Hamas' response to the hostage deal proposal, which the president had also called "over the top" two days earlier? Later, a White House "official" (of course we don’t know who he is!) confirmed that the president was this time talking about the operations of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza. But (always a "but" there!) "the official" said the comment did not reflect a change of course in the president's thinking.

Of course not! A good two-thirds of the two-hour Sylvester Stallone movie titled "Over the Top" was about arm wrestling, but critiques had said it was not about arm wrestling; it was about a father reconnecting with his son, and teaching him what it means to fail, and how to do it with dignity."

Biden's silence amid Gaza's agony

Just like that, the elderly president "with a poor memory," was not issuing "the harshest warning" to criticize the Israeli military operation in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Israel has massacred more than 28,000 people and wounded 67,459, displacing 2.3 million of the population in response to the people Hamas militia reportedly killed in illegal settlements (that is occupied Palestinian territory) whose number has never been confirmed by neither the U.N. nor independent authorities; all the U.S. president says is "this conduct is over the top"! The heck it is!

Special counsel Robert Hur, after investigating whether Biden committed a crime by holding classified documents in his basement at his private home, decided not to prosecute because all he was going to say to the jury was, "Here is an elderly man with a poor memory," who even has no idea that he took secret documents from the office to home.

This forgetful old man gave Israel 45 days to submit a report on international law violations or lose military aid! The administration officials who have reported this also said that "one innocent life killed is too many," and they will decide whether Israel violates international law, after receiving its response in 45 days!

What did Netanyahu do after receiving this "ultimatum"? He was shaken to his core and ordered the IDF and the Israeli defense establishment to present him with plans to dislodge 2.3 million Palestinian civilians from Rafah so that they could raze the town to the ground in case any Hamas militants were hiding there.

Biden and his lawyers objected to the description of "an elderly man with poor memory." I do not know about his memory, but his other mental capabilities like reasoning are iffy at best. Insinuating to Netanyahu that "I am more Zionist than you are!" then sending military aid that exceeded $3.8 billion (half a billion for Israel's missile defense) and later responding with a rap on the knuckles saying "Tsk-tsk! You are over the top, man!" is definitely not sane behavior, especially when you are faced with a genocidal figure.