Amid growing dissent with Netanyahu, Biden has one last leverage
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A report in the Washington Post sheds light on the latest indications of US disagreement with the Israeli government and reveals the one last leverage it can use against it.
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US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the Israeli war on Gaza in "Tel Aviv", occupied Palestine, on Oct. 18, 2023. (AP)
US President Joe Biden has repeatedly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Israeli war against Gaza, The Washington Post reported, highlighting the latest indication revealing Biden's secured leverage against "Israel".
Some of the latest indications provided by the Post vary from positions on ceasefire to political meetings.
Disagreements over ceasefire and humanitarian aid
“He must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken,” Biden announced in an MSNBC interview on March 10, referencing Netanyahu.
He further emphasized that any attack on Rafah, which is serving as the last refuge for many Palestinians in Gaza, is a “red line.”
“In my view, he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” Biden stressed.
According to The Washington Post, this serves as the latest indication of how the Biden administration is in disagreement with Netanyahu’s occupation government over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In his State of the Union address on March 7, Biden revealed that the United States was working toward a six-week ceasefire regardless of Netanyahu’s disapproval of a ceasefire.
Biden also announced that he would instruct the US military to build a temporary pier in Gaza to allegedly facilitate maritime deliveries of aid.
According to the Post, both of these actions were evident criticisms of Netanyahu’s government policy and actions and an indication that Biden was aware of the contempt felt within the Democratic Party about the Israeli war on Gaza where over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed over five months and experts have repeatedly stressed on early signs of famine.
Meetings and restrictions
The newspaper further highlighted what it also considers as the latest signs. The first one was last week's event when top Biden administration officials met with Benny Gantz in Washington. The second one is Biden’s administration implementing restrictions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank in February.
However, the Post believes that there is one vital area where the United States has not yet used its leverage on Netanyahu and that is military aid, stressing that all through the war on Gaza, the US has continuously secured its position as "Israel's" vital military supplier.
It explained that Biden may have indirectly answered the question of a possibly shifting position on military aid in his interview for MSNBC when he contradicted his own “red line” on Rafah by stating, “I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical,” adding, “So there’s no red line [in which] I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
Public rage may be Biden's own 'red line'
However, the Post believes that the huge public rage over the massive death toll in Gaza is difficult for Biden to neglect and may indicate a permanent shift for Democrats.
Referring to Today’s WorldView report last month, the Post mentioned that the polling data imply that the Democrats have become more separated on the Palestinian cause since October 7.
It added that multiple US lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to condition aid to "Israel" on humanitarian grounds, "if not cut it off completely."
One command, huge losses
A professor of history at Kuwait University, Bader al-Saif, informed The Washington Post last week that the United States should not have to plead with "Israel" to allow more aid to Gaza. Instead, “it should be a command,” he stressed, as the United States was “financing the war” with its arms deliveries to "Israel".
Ben Samuels, Washington's correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote in an analysis on March 11 that he believes that “it is nearly impossible to quantify the implications of Biden suspending offensive weapons sales. For one, Israel would rapidly find itself in the same position Ukraine has found itself in over recent months: in desperate need of ammunition and, accordingly, forced to recalibrate its strategy in real-time."
