Joe Biden has been under growing pressure from his left-wing allies in Congress and the executive branch to read Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the riot act over the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
On Thursday, Biden told the Israeli prime minister that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was unacceptable "and warned Israel to take steps to address the crisis or face consequences," according to CNN.
“President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” the White House said in the statement. “He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
Biden also said Israel needed to “announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.”
I don't expect Netanyahu to back off, although he may make some token changes to Israeli policy. But as far as implementing a "series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," Bibi is likely to tell Biden to go climb an olive tree.
Biden's statements to his counterpart in Israel have been getting angrier with each instance of an Israeli bomb going astray and causing civilian casualties. The latest example was a classic military error in planning and execution. The drone strike that struck a convoy of food aid workers was conducted by drone operators mishandling intelligence and violating the military's rules of engagement.
Israel admitted the error.
“It’s a tragedy,” the military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told reporters. “It’s a serious event that we are responsible for and it shouldn’t have happened and we will make sure that it won’t happen again.”
The IDF dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes.
Netanyahu told Biden that Israel was set on improving the tracking of non-profit workers inside Gaza and Biden affirmed that such steps were necessary, the official said. The prime minister also pledged during the call that Israel will soon announce new openings of humanitarian crossings, as well as procedural changes to limit civilian harm.
CNN reported Thursday afternoon that the Israeli security cabinet has approved the reopening of the Erez crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza strip, according to an Israeli official, in order to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave.
“If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there’ll be changes in our own policy,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. What might those changes be? It won't be a total arms cutoff, but it may involve a reduction in the number of 500 lb bombs the U.S. has already authorized to be sent to Israel or a similar reduction in the number of other weapons. But the hell Biden would get for cutting off all arms to a valued ally in the middle of a war would threaten any chance he has for re-election.
The call amounts to perhaps the most serious sign of Biden’s frustration with Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which was launched in the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas. In the time since, more than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry, and grisly reports of civilian deaths are made every day.
The war has become one of Biden’s chief domestic political problems ahead of November’s election as key parts of his voter coalition have been outraged by the president’s support for Israel’s war. Protests have popped up at nearly every public event the president has held outside the White House in recent months and he was confronted in an intimate meeting with Muslim leaders earlier this week with stark opposition to the US’ policy toward the war.
Netanyahu is committed to achieving his primary war aim of destroying Hamas. That means going into Rafah and digging Hamas out of its tunnels and caves. The 1.3 million Palestinian civilians living in Rafah will suffer, but whose fault is that? Hamas is deliberately using civilians to hide behind. The rest of the world ignores that and blames Israel for the massive casualties.
Because of that, Netanyahu will be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. He will do whatever it takes to root Hamas out of Rafah, public opinion be damned.
