(Updated with details, links)
by Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) – While Joe Biden for months urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip, a U.S. representative said, the U.S. president’s decision to suspend some military aid to Israel stems from a telephone exchange that the two leaders had in early April.
When he spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu on April 4, in the wake of the deaths of employees of the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, Joe Biden gave the Israeli leader an ultimatum : protect civilians and aid workers in the Palestinian enclave, or risk a policy change from Washington.
The American president was already facing increased pressure from international allies and elected officials from his Democratic Party to impose conditions on the billions of dollars in aid provided by the United States to Israel, given the heavy human toll from the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
While Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu had many “delicate” telephone conversations, the April 4 conversation was a turning point, the US representative noted. Until then, in fact, the tenant of the White House had never threatened to limit security aid, despite increasingly tense discussions with the Israeli leader.
Washington gave substance to this ultimatum last week, suspending a delivery of thousands of heavy bombs in parallel with Israel’s gradual establishment of a military operation in the town of Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. .
The United States has regularly expressed fears over a large-scale military operation in Rafah – considered the last relative refuge in the Gaza Strip – without measures in place to protect civilians.
“PRESSURE”
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza because of these bombs and other means used against population centers,” Joe Biden told CNN television Wednesday evening, in what was his first public comments on the suspension of deliveries weapons to Israel.
Earlier on Wednesday, during a Senate hearing, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that an arms delivery was “on pause”, without a final decision having been made. taken, and said further deliveries could be suspended.
Joe Biden’s decision is not as strict as that taken by former US President Ronald Reagan, who in 1982 banned sales of cluster bombs to Israel.
But this is, however, a shift in relations with Israel, of which the United States has long been the main ally.
Washington is the main supplier of arms – including fighter planes – to the Jewish state and has a tradition of protecting it at the United Nations. Billions of dollars in security aid were provided by the United States to Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7.
“This is not a halt to all offensive arms sales to Israel, but it increases the pressure to show that the United States really does not want an operation in Rafah,” commented Bruce Riedel, member of the CIA for three decades and now a Middle East expert at the Washington-based think tank Brookings Institution.
“MESSAGE”
Israel this week took control of the Gazan part of the Rafah crossing point, which connects the Palestinian enclave to Egypt and through which a large part of humanitarian aid has passed since the start of the war.
The Israeli army carried out strikes on Thursday against areas located on the eastern outskirts of Rafah, where it also massed tanks. At the same time, negotiations organized in Cairo on a ceasefire ended without the conclusion of an agreement.
The White House reiterated Thursday that carrying out an assault on Rafah would be a mistake.
A second American representative indicated that Washington initially wanted to refrain from communicating about the pause in arms deliveries, but changed its mind after “leaks” from the Israeli side.
Some supporters of Joe Biden see this decision as possible benefits for the Democratic president, candidate for re-election to the White House next November.
There have been “months and months of discussions” about what message the Biden administration should send to the Israeli government and how seriously that message would be taken, said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J-Street , a liberal Jewish pro-peace group.
“That this message has become public is part of the message, the message addressed to the world, (…) that you do not have carte blanche with American aid,” he added.
DEAF EARS
The Republican Party, almost all of whose elected officials support Benjamin Netanyahu, has intensified its criticism of Joe Biden, accusing the Democratic president of harming Israel’s security. Former President Donald Trump, who faces Joe Biden in the November vote, said any Jewish person voting for Biden “should be ashamed.”
Joe Biden considers his own ability to negotiate with foreign leaders, including those – like Benjamin Netanyahu – with whom he frequently disagrees, as a hallmark of his presidential term. His administration highlights Biden’s desire to remain close to Netanyahu to have greater influence over the Israeli leader, from the nationalist right.
However, the image of a foreign policy expert displayed by Joe Biden has been tarnished by the attitude of Benjamin Netanyahu, who turns a deaf ear to the American president’s warnings about Rafah.
After Joe Biden on Monday urged Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack the southern Gaza Strip city, the Israeli prime minister rejected a ceasefire deal accepted by Hamas and ordered airstrikes in Rafah. A U.S. official told Reuters at the time that the Israelis appeared not to be negotiating in good faith.
After comments made Wednesday evening by Joe Biden on CNN, Benjamin Netanyahu declared Thursday that Israel would fight alone, with its “nails”, if necessary.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE USE OF AMERICAN WEAPONS
For weeks, privately and publicly, the most senior representatives of the Biden administration, including the president himself, have demanded that Israel establish a plan to protect civilians in the event of an assault in Rafah, where Nearly half of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are refugees.
A request to this effect was made on February 11 during a telephone conversation between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House recalls.
At the same time, representatives of the American administration began to question the legality of previous phases of the military offensive carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip since last October.
Several representatives told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they did not have “credible or reliable” guarantees that Israel used the weapons supplied by the United States in compliance with international humanitarian law.
US officials said last week that their Israeli counterparts had given them an overview of their plans for Rafah, but without presenting measures to protect Palestinian civilians, as demanded by Washington.
“For the moment, the conditions are not favorable for carrying out any operation,” Lloyd Austin told journalists last week. “It is necessary above all to take care of the civilian population present in the area.”
The head of the Pentagon regularly conveys messages about humanitarian aid during the weekly telephone conversations he holds, privately, with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.
The day after one of their telephone exchanges, the Israeli Defense Ministry issued a statement on Monday emphasizing that military action was required “including in the Rafah area.” (Steve Holland, Phil Stewart, Nandita Bose, Jeff Mason and Humeyra Pamuk; French version Jean Terzian)
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