Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu today and threatened to withdraw his support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza if Netanyahu doesn’t implement net measures to protect civilians.
Here’s the report from the AP:
President Joe Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Gaza war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complication in the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship.
“He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders call. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
Biden, a Democrat, also told Netanyahu that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” and urged Israel to reach deal “without delay,” according to the White House.
The leaders conversation comes as the World Central Kitchen, founded by restauranteur José Andrés to provide immediate food relief to disaster-stricken areas, called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed the group’s staff members, including an American citizen.
The White House has said the U.S. has no plans to conduct its own investigation even as they called on Israel to do more to prevent the killing and wounding innocent civilians and aid workers as it carries out its operations in Gaza.
Biden was also expected to reiterate his concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack. Vice President Kamala Harris also joined the call.
It sucks that seven aid workers were mistakenly killed in Gaza but it’s a war zone and Israel is dealing with an enemy that hides among civilians. I’m not saying that excuses any mistakes and what not, but Israel already takes civilian and aid casualties very seriously and they don’t need to be lectured by a man who thinks he talks to dead people and is responsible for countless fentanyl deaths because of his damned open border.
It’s despicable the pressure Biden is putting on Israel and he’s only doing to try and make his disaffected voting base happy enough to vote for him.