Netanyahu criticizes Biden for withholding weapons and slowing Israel’s Rafah offensive
President Joe Biden has delayed the delivery of some heavy bombs since May because of concerns about Israel killing civilians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Tuesday that the United States was not sending weapons and said this was slowing down Israel’s offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where fighting has made an already dire humanitarian situation for Palestinians even worse.
President Joe Biden has delayed the delivery of some heavy bombs since May over concerns about Israel killing civilians in Gaza. Yet the administration has done everything possible to avoid giving any indication that Israeli forces have crossed a red line in the escalating offensive on Rafah, which could trigger more sweeping restrictions on weapons transfers.
Netanyahu spoke directly to the camera in English in a short video and sharply criticized Biden over “bottlenecks” in weapons transfers.
“It is unimaginable that the administration has not been supplying arms and ammunition to Israel over the past few months,” Netanyahu said, adding: “Give us the equipment and we will get the job done much faster.”
Netanyahu also claimed that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said during a recent visit to Israel that he was working around the clock to end the delays.
However, Blinken said on Tuesday that the only pause was related to the heavy bombings in May.
“As you know, we are continuing to review a shipment that President Biden made regarding 2,000-pound bombs because we have concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” Blinken said during a State Department news conference. “That remains under review. But everything else is proceeding as normal.”
Netanyahu did not say which weapons were being withheld, and the Israeli military declined to respond to a request for comment. Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Ofir Falk referred questions to the U.S. government for details.
Reacting to Netanyahu’s claim on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We generally don’t know what he’s talking about. We don’t.”
He said the United States was in “constructive discussions” with Israel about the blocked shipment of heavy bombs and that it was the only transfer that was being delayed.
The two top Democrats in Congress this week cleared the way for a $15 billion U.S. sale of F-15 jets to Israel, while a lawmaker demanded answers from the Biden administration over Israel’s current use of American weapons in the war in Gaza.
Israel’s war against Hamas is now in its ninth month, and international criticism is growing over US military and diplomatic support for Israel’s campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza, at a heavy cost to civilian lives.
The UN’s top court concluded there was an “imminent risk of genocide” in Gaza – a charge Israel has strongly denied. Israel has blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths, saying terrorists operate among the population.
Both Netanyahu and Biden are struggling to balance their domestic political problems against the explosive situation in the Mideast, and the embattled Israeli leader has grown increasingly resistant to Biden’s public charm attacks and personal pleas.
Experts say Netanyahu’s message – delivered only in English – was likely meant to boost US arms support, and did not signal a reduction in weapons on the ground.
“I am not worried,” said Itamar Yaar, a former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council who leads a group of former senior security officials. He thinks Netanyahu “wants to make it difficult for the Biden administration to delay arms supplies in the future.”
Aviv Bushinsky, a former adviser to Netanyahu, suggested the prime minister’s office was working on setting the agenda for Defense Minister Yoav Galant’s meetings in the U.S. next week, while allowing Netanyahu — rather than Galant — to take credit for releasing the shipment of bombs. He said the video also outlines a speech Netanyahu is expected to give to Congress in about a week.
“It’s a very aggressive style of diplomacy, but he’s in a win-win situation,” Bushinsky said. “Right now he has nothing to lose — it benefits him in all dimensions, internally, publicly.”
Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet on Monday, a move that solidifies his influence over the war and potentially undermines the prospects of a ceasefire in the near future. Critics have accused him of delaying an end to the war because it would mean delaying an investigation into the government’s failures on October 7 and raising the prospect of new elections when the prime minister’s popularity is low. Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governance capabilities – no matter how long it takes.
Months of ceasefire talks have failed to produce a consensus between Hamas and Israeli leaders. Both Israel and Hamas have been reluctant to fully support the US-backed plan that would return hostages, clear the way to end the war and begin rebuilding the devastated region.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has also halted the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians struggling with widespread hunger.
Israel launched the war on October 7 following a Hamas attack in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people – most of them civilians – and kidnapping about 250.
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