Language is part and parcel of exercising politics. The Israeli-Palestinian war which broke out on October 7, 2023 prompted diverse pronouncements from world leaders who addressed the international community, expressing their different political stances towards the war, supporting one of the conflicting parties and condemning the other. The speeches delivered by US President Joe Biden (in Israel) and the Irish politician Matt Carthy (at the Irish Parliament) are cases in point. Using the categories of stance proposed by Du Bois (2007) and the lexico-grammatical stance markers proposed by Biber (2006) and Biber et al. (2021), the present paper aims to analyze stancetaking in both speeches in an attempt to understand the stances adopted by the two speakers (and their countries). The analysis reveals contrasting stances towards the conflicting parties; while the US president supports Israel unconditionally and demonizes the Palestinian party Hamas, the Irish politician shows full support for the Palestinians and condemns Israel. Since stance is consequential, such stances have political implications in reality.