President Joe Biden vowed to not provide offensive weapons to Israel, which would be the last significant Hamas enclave in Gaza, over concern for the safety of the more than 1 million residents it.
In an interview with CNN, Biden claimed that the US would still be ready to support Israel’s defense and that it would provide Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive weapons, but that” we wo n’t provide the weapons and artillery shells used” if Israel attacked Rafah.
Israel has previously received significant military support from the US. In the wake of Hamas ‘ Oct. 7 assault, which claimed the lives of about 1,200 people in Israel and about 250 people who were taken hostage by insurgents, that has only gotten worse. The most egregious expressions of the growing skepticism between his leadership and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration are Biden’s comments and his decision last week to stop a shipment of big bombs to Israel. According to Biden, Israel must do much more to safeguard the life of Gaza’s residents.
The package was supposed to comprise of 1, 800 2, 000- ounce ( 900- gram ) weapons and 1, 700 500- pound ( 225- gram ) weapons, according to a senior US administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate issue. The larger bombs and how they could be used in a deep metropolitan area were the subject of US problem.
According to Biden,” Citizens have been killed in Gaza as a result of those bombs and other methods of pursuing people facilities.” I made it clear that if someone enters Rafah, they will not be supplying the weapons that have previously been used to deal with the places and that issue.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the weapons delay by telling the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the US had stopped “one sale of large cargo armaments.”
” We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to support itself”, Austin said. ” With that being said, we are currently reviewing some upcoming security aid supplies in light of what is happening in Rafah.”
The Biden administration is also scheduled to release a first-of-its-kind proper ruling this year regarding whether Israeli attacks on Gaza and limits on aid distribution have violated foreign and US laws meant to protect civilians from the worst horrors of war. A military decision against Israel would put pressure on Biden to halt the flow of weapons and money to the country’s military.
US officials who were not authorized to comment on the matter claimed that Biden authorized the pause in an order sent last week to the Pentagon. Bis after Biden’s long-awaited speech on Tuesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and until it had a better understanding of the scope of Israel’s intensified military operations in Rafah, the White House National Security Council decided to keep the decision out of the public’s view for a few days.
In April, Biden’s administration began reviewing upcoming military aid requests as Netanyahu’s government appeared to be moving closer to an Rafah invasion despite White House opposition for months. The official stated that no decision to halt the shipment has yet been made regarding whether to continue with it at a later time. The decision was made last week.
The halted transfer had been delayed by US officials for days, as Biden on Tuesday described US support for Israel as “ironclad, even when we disagree,” according to Biden.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 TV news, said the decision to pause the shipment was” a very disappointing decision, even frustrating”. He suggested that Biden’s actions were brought on by political pressure from Congress, the upcoming election, and the US campus protests.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell both harshly criticized the decision, who claimed they only learned about the military aid holdup from press reports despite assurances from the Biden administration that no such pauses were planned. In a letter, the Republicans requested Biden’s resignation, calling on him to explain the policy changes ‘ nature and how they might “raise the risk of emboldening Israel’s enemies.”
Some on the left have pressed Biden, while critics on the right claim that he has tempered his support for a key Mideast ally.
” If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price”, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S. C., his voice rising in anger during an exchange with Austin. ” This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel the resources they need to fight the conflict.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said in a statement the pause on big bombs must be a” first step”.
” Our leverage is clear”, Sanders said. The United States has given Israel tens of billions of dollars in military aid over the years. We are no longer able to play a role in Israelite’s horrific war against the Palestinians.
Austin, meanwhile, told lawmakers that “it’s about having the right kinds of weapons for the task at hand”.
” A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, that’s very useful in a dense, built- up environment”, he said,” but maybe not so much a 2, 000- pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage”. He said the US wants to see Israel do “more precise” operations.
In a limited operation that stopped short of the full-on Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu, Israeli troops took control of Gaza’s crucial Rafah border crossing.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100, 000 Palestinians from the city. The Rafah crossing, a crucial route for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egy border, has also been targeted by Israeli forces. It is a crucial site for what it refers to as “targeted strikes” on the eastern region of Rafah.
Public administration officials have stated that they did not believe the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a large-scale operation in the city despite the public’s concern about what is happening inside the White House.
The State Department is also considering whether to permit Israel to receive Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which attach precision guidance systems to bombs, despite the State Department’s review of the pending shipments.
Former Israeli National Security Council deputy head Itamar Yaar said the US decision is largely symbolic but a sign of trouble and could grow worse if it is sustained.
He claimed that Mr. Netanyahu needs to consider American interests more than he has in the last few months because there is no such thing as an American embargo on American munitions support. ” At least for now it will not impact Israeli capability but it’s some kind of a signal, a ‘ be careful.'”
In its long battle against the Islamic State militant group, the US sparingly dropped the 2, 000-pound bomb. Israel, by contrast, has used the bomb frequently in the seven- month Gaza war. Although the Hamas-run health ministry does n’t distinguish between militants and civilians, experts claim that the use of the weapon has in part contributed to the staggering number of Palestinian casualties.
Democratic and Republican administrations have both maintained close relations between the US and Israel. However, US leaders have threatened to halt aid in an effort to sway Israeli leadership in other instances since Israel’s founding.
In the midst of the Suez Crisis, President Dwight Eisenhower pressed Israel to end its occupation of the Sinai in 1957 under the guise of the sanctions. In a time when Middle Eastern violence is raging, Ronald Reagan delayed the arrival of F16 fighter jets in Israel. To obstruct Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories, President George H. W. Bush secured$ 10 billion in loan guarantees.
