(AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he wouldn’t supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the greater than 1 million civilians sheltering there.
Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the U.S. was still committed to Israel’s defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to produce the weapons and artillery shells used.”
The U.S. has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated within the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants. Biden’s comments and his decision last week to pause a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel are probably the most striking manifestations of the growing daylight between his administration and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Biden said Wednesday that Israel’s actions around Rafah had “not yet” crossed his red lines, but has repeated that Israel must do much more to guard the lives of civilians in Gaza.
The shipment was imagined to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, in keeping with a senior U.S. administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to debate the sensitive matter. The main target of U.S. concern was the larger explosives and the way they could possibly be utilized in a dense urban area.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways during which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN. “I made it clear that in the event that they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — in the event that they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons which have been used historically to cope with Rafah, to cope with the cities, that cope with that problem.”
“We’re not walking away from Israel’s security,” Biden continued. “We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier Wednesday confirmed the weapons delay, telling the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the U.S. paused “one shipment of high payload munitions.”
“We’re going to proceed to do what’s obligatory to be certain that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “But that said, we’re currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments within the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”
It also comes because the Biden administration is because of deliver a first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on delivery of aid have violated international and U.S. laws designed to spare civilians from the worst horrors of war. A choice against Israel would further add to pressure on Biden to curb the flow of weapons and money to Israel’s military.
Biden signed off on the pause in an order conveyed last week to the Pentagon, in keeping with U.S. officials who weren’t authorized to comment on the matter. The White House National Security Council sought to maintain the choice out of the general public eye for several days until it had a greater understanding of the scope of Israel’s intensified military operations in Rafah and until Biden could deliver a long-planned speech on Tuesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to maneuver closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the choice to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had been made yet on whether to proceed with the shipment at a later date.
U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word of which got here as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as “ironclad, even once we disagree.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 TV news, said the choice to pause the shipment was “a really disappointing decision, even frustrating.” He suggested the move stemmed from political pressure on Biden from Congress, the U.S. campus protests and the upcoming election.
The choice also drew a pointy rebuke from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said they only learned in regards to the military aid holdup from press reports, despite assurances from the Biden administration that no such pauses were within the works. The Republicans called on Biden in a letter to swiftly end the blockage, saying it “risks emboldening Israel’s enemies,” and to transient lawmakers on the character of the policy reviews.
Biden has faced pressure from some on the left — and condemnation from the critics on the correct who say Biden has moderated his support for a vital Mideast ally.
“If we stop weapons obligatory to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we are going to pay a price,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his voice rising in anger during an exchange with Austin. “That is obscene. It’s absurd. Give Israel what they should fight the war they’ll’t afford to lose.”
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said in a press release the pause on big bombs should be a “first step.”
“Our leverage is obvious,” Sanders said. “Over time, the US has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We will not be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people.”
Austin, meanwhile, told lawmakers that “it’s about having the correct sorts of weapons for the duty at hand.”
“A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, that’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment,” he said, “but possibly not a lot a 2,000-pound bomb that would create plenty of collateral damage.” He said the U.S. desires to see Israel do “more precise” operations.
Israeli troops on Tuesday seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation that stopped wanting the full-on Israeli invasion of town that Biden has repeatedly warned against, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from town. Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as “targeted strikes” on the eastern a part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Privately, concern has mounted contained in the White House about what’s unfolding in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have stressed that they didn’t think the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a widescale operation in town.
The State Department is individually considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, however the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.
Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council said the U.S. move is essentially symbolic, but an indication of trouble and will change into more of an issue whether it is sustained.
“It’s not some type of American embargo on American munitions support, but I believe its some type of diplomatic message to Mr. Netanyahu that he must take into accounts American interests greater than he has over the previous couple of months,” he said. “At the very least for now it’ll not impact Israeli capability however it’s some type of a signal, a ‘watch out.’”
The U.S. dropped the two,000-pound bomb sparingly in its long war against the Islamic State militant group. Israel, in contrast, has used the bomb continuously within the seven-month Gaza war. Experts say using the weapon, partially, has helped drive the big Palestinian casualty count that the Hamas-run health ministry puts at greater than 34,000 dead, though it doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.
The U.S.-Israel relationship has been close through each Democratic and Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension since Israel’s founding during which U.S. leaders have threatened to carry up aid in an try and sway Israeli leadership.
President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the specter of sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 amid the Suez Crisis. Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel at a time of escalating violence within the Middle East. President George H.W. Bush held up $10 billion in loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlement activity within the occupied territories.