President Joe Biden‘s refusal to provide Israel with specific arms if the Jewish State enters Rafah was defended by State Secretary Antony Blinken.
The Biden presidency has been at odds with Israel’s plan to launch an Israeli military offensive against Rafah, which is the ultimate Hamas enclave in Gaza. Blinken discussed Biden’s “red range” for withholding some weaponry while speaking on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
First of all, we have been holding up and are engaged in discussions with Israel regarding the use of heavy or large payload bombs because we are concerned about the effects these weapons can have when they are used in dense urban areas, like in Rafah. We’re discussing that with Israel best nowadays”, Blinken said.
There will be “certain systems” that the United States wo n’t support Israel with if Israel continues to conduct a “major military operation” in Rafah, he added. Blinken provided specifics on why the U.S. would dismiss assisting, but did not specify which systems.
” It’s something that we do not want to be part of given the harm that it would do to residents, and, suddenly, not to achieve durable, lasting, productive result for Israel and for its stability. That’s what the senator said, we’ve said that in discussions with our Jewish companions,” Blinken said”. Unfortunately, that leaked away, but the President responded right away when questioned about it.
The secretary of state did emphasize that while Biden opposes a Rafah activity, the management supports Israel’s strategy of completely removing Hamas from strength.
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” We share Israel’s purpose of making sure that Hamas may manage Gaza nowadays, that it be demilitarized, that Israel find its leaders, we continue to support that, but there’s a better way of achieving that. Therefore going headlong into into Rafah,” Blinken said.
Israel and Hamas ‘ conflict started really over seven months ago when Hamas terrorists carried out numerous attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.