The president of the United States, Joe Biden, signed a law two weeks ago that approved both funds for the delivery of bombs to Israel and to help Palestinian civilians who were victims of those same bombs. After the initial closed support for Israel, the United States has then sought an impossible balance. Biden has increasingly distanced himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but phone calls and messages from various emissaries do not seem enough to prevent a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah, so the president has resorted to Ronald’s recipe Reagan: the weapons. More precisely, the supply of weapons.
When he was president, Republican Reagan halted the delivery of 75 F-16 fighters to Israel in 1981 after a surprise attack ordered by Prime Minister Menachem Begin on a nuclear power plant on the outskirts of Baghdad at a time when frequent tensions also arose. between the US and Israel over Lebanon. Now, Washington has decided to stop the shipment of a first shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel: 1,800 of about 900 kilos and another 1,700 of 225.
After allowing his senior officials to unofficially confirm the stoppage of shipments and for the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, to advance a first official position, Biden has reserved the threat of indefinitely cutting off the flow of ammunition. “Civilians have died in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other ways of attacking population centers,” Biden said in an interview with CNN. “I have made it clear that if they enter Rafah – they have not entered Rafah yet – if they enter Rafah, I will not supply the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem,” Biden said in the interview.
“I have made it clear to Bibi (Netanyahu) and the war cabinet that they will not have our support if, in fact, they attack those population centers,” he continued. “We do not distance ourselves from Israel’s security; “We distance ourselves from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”
The Israeli military forces took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday and cut off the passage of people and goods, while they continued bombing the area, but the White House accepts that it is “an operation of limited scale and duration” intended to cut off Hamas weapons smuggling and not a full-fledged ground invasion of the region or an entry into the urban area.
“We are reviewing some short-term security aid shipments in the context of the development of events in Rafah,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a Senate appearance on Tuesday. Rafah is the southernmost area of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians live, the vast majority of them displaced from other areas of the enclave. Biden has repeatedly insisted to Netanyahu that the United States is against a large-scale military offensive in the region.
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The president has clarified that the United States would continue to supply defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system. However, other shipments would end should a major ground invasion of Rafah begin. “We are going to continue to ensure that Israel is secure in terms of the Iron Dome and its ability to respond to the attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said after assuring that the invasion of Rafah “is simply a mistake.” “We are not going to supply the bombs and artillery shells,” he stated.
Washington is Israel’s great historical ally and its main weapons supplier. Reagan’s decision in 1981 led the Middle Eastern country to further diversify its supply sources and strengthen its own military industry, but the United States remains its main supplier.
A very measured step
The stoppage of arms deliveries is a qualitative step that Biden wanted to take very carefully. In fact, not by chance, the confirmation by senior officials that it had been decided not to deliver those bombs came late on Tuesday, the same day that the president gave a message of “ironclad” commitment to Israel. “My commitment to the security of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree,” he said on Capitol Hill at an event commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.
Until the interview with CNN, the president had not publicly referred to the halt in the delivery of weapons and the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, also declined to comment on it this Wednesday when addressing journalists on board the Air Force One, the presidential plane. On Tuesday, at the White House, when asked how that strong commitment to security and the halt of shipments could be compatible, he replied: “Both things could be true in the sense of having those tough, direct conversations with our counterparts. In Israel. The president talking to his counterpart—obviously, the prime minister—and making sure that citizens’ lives are protected, and getting that commitment. So both things could be true.”
The United States initially kept discretion about stopping the shipment, keeping the decision through diplomatic channels, but it was leaked from Israeli sources and, finally, Biden wanted to formulate the warning in public.
There is another factor that could cloud relations between the traditional allies in the short term and add pressure on Biden not to continue delivering offensive weapons to Israel. Following an order from the president in February, the State Department must rule through a formal verdict on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on aid deliveries have violated international and U.S. laws designed to preserve the civilians from the worst horrors of war. The deadline expired this Wednesday and when the White House was asked about the delay, his spokesperson simply said that at the State Department “they are working very hard.”
Biden imposed that test on the use of military aid to quell protests among Democratic senators and gain support for his aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Now, however, the deadline for publication comes at a delicate time.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led attacks killed about 1,200 people on October 7. Nearly 35,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have died since then, according to local health officials. Israel has used the most powerful bombs, such as those now held by the United States, very frequently. Furthermore, Israeli restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid have aggravated the situation of the civilian population. Israel, however, claims that it complies with U.S. and international laws, that it investigates allegations of abuses by its security forces, and that its campaign in Gaza is proportionate to the existential threat it claims Hamas poses.
A report that censures Israel for its use of weapons would put a Biden under pressure from internal pressure in more difficulties. Some Democratic senators and representatives oppose continuing to send weapons to Israel. Among them, independent senator Bernie Sanders applauded the stoppage of shipments as a “first step.” “Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. “We cannot continue to be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrible war against the Palestinian people,” he added in a statement.
The pressure in the Capitol is nothing compared to that on the street. Pro-Palestinian protesters chase Biden wherever she goes to campaign and campuses have been experiencing an outbreak of protests. This same Wednesday, the police evicted the camp at George Washington University, just a few blocks from the White House, arresting around thirty students. If the young and Arab vote turns its back on Biden, that will open wide the doors of the White House to the return of Donald Trump. The paradox is that Trump and the Republicans’ support for Israel is even stronger than Biden’s.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, referred to these factors in an interview with Channel 12. It is “a very disappointing, even frustrating decision” for Israel, he said. He suggested the move was due to political pressure placed on Biden by Congress, protests on American campuses and the upcoming election.