The Biden administration has been pressuring Israel for some time to call for a cease-fire.
With reports that Israel is going to conduct an offensive in Rafah, Biden is now turning up the heat, vowing to withhold key military aid unless Israel stands down.
Talking Points…
- Biden vows to withhold aid
- Israel moves forward
- Analysis
Israel depends heavily on military aid provided by the United States to defend its borders. In fact, without our assistance, the Iron Dome would probably cease to exist. Biden has claimed that his support for Israel is ironclad, but that still only goes so far.
Israel has been threatening to go on an offensive in Rafah to chase down and eliminate Hamas, but Joe Biden is now threatening to withhold military aid if Israel follows through with its threat. Joe Biden stated:
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.
"I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven't gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem."
This week, Israel defied Biden's request and moved forward by hitting Rafah with a massive attack. Planes and tanks bombarded Rafah, which is the largest urban area in Gaza that has yet to be attacked by Israel. Israel believes this is where Hamas is now hiding there, which is why PM Netanyahu has insisted on carrying out this attack.
This was more or less the last "safe" place for Palestinians living in Gaza could go to stay out of the fire, but that is clearly no longer the case. This has only increased the pressure against Biden by the far left in the Democrat Party who are supporting Palestine over Israel, and Biden caved.
The Biden administration has now confirmed that a large shipment of military aid has been withheld from Israel over the Rafah attack. Roughly 3,500 bombs have not been released to Israel. The Biden administration confirmed this, stating:
"The U.S. position has been that Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere else to go.
"We have been engaging in a dialogue with Israel in our Strategic Consultative Group format on how they will meet the humanitarian needs of civilians in Rafah, and how to operate differently against Hamas there than they have elsewhere in Gaza."
This week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was on the Hill, where he was asked about the aid being withheld, and he confirmed that was the case. Austin stated:
"We did pause as we re-evaluated some of the security assistance that we're providing.
"As we have assessed the situation, we paused one shipment of high-payload munitions."
Needless to say, this is not sitting well with Republicans, with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) leading the attack against the Biden administration when Austin was testifying. Graham called the act "obscene," now worried that this strategy by the Biden administration will only allow Hamas to grow and attack again in the future.
Biden has backed himself into a corner on this. The far left in the party is the loudest, and Biden is caving to them for the election, but he is likely to lose more votes by helping Palestine than he would in helping Israel. I continue to ask the same question… why is all the pressure on Israel when Palestine leadership turned Gaza over to these terrorists and has refused to help Israel fight Hamas?
