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Biden: US Won't Supply Israel Weapons 05/09 06:10
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not supply offensive
weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah -- the last
major Hamas stronghold in Gaza -- over concern for the well-being of the more
than 1 million civilians sheltering there.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not
supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on
Rafah -- the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza -- over concern for the
well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there.
Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the U.S. was still committed to
Israel's defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other
defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, "we're not going to supply
the weapons and artillery shells used."
The U.S. has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to
Israel. That has only accelerated in the aftermath of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that
killed some 1,200 in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by
militants. Biden's comments and his decision last week to pause a shipment of
heavy bombs to Israel are the most striking manifestations of the growing
daylight between his administration and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's government. Biden said Wednesday that Israel's actions around Rafah
had "not yet" crossed his red lines, but has repeated that Israel needs to do
far more to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza.
The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram)
bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to a senior U.S.
administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the
sensitive matter. The focus of U.S. concern was the larger explosives and how
they could be used in a dense urban area.
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and
other ways in which they go after population centers," Biden told CNN. "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."
"We're not walking away from Israel's security," Biden continued. "We're
walking away from Israel's ability to wage war in those areas."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier Wednesday confirmed the weapons
delay, telling the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the U.S.
paused "one shipment of high payload munitions."
"We're going to continue to do what's necessary to ensure that Israel has
the means to defend itself," Austin said. "But that said, we are currently
reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of
unfolding events in Rafah."
It also comes as the Biden administration is due to deliver a
first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza
and restrictions on delivery of aid have violated international and U.S. laws
designed to spare civilians from the worst horrors of war. A decision against
Israel would further add to pressure on Biden to curb the flow of weapons and
money to Israel's military.
Biden signed off on the pause in an order conveyed last week to the
Pentagon, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment on the
matter. The White House National Security Council sought to keep the decision
out of the public eye for several days until it had a better understanding of
the scope of Israel's intensified military operations in Rafah and until Biden
could deliver a long-planned speech on Tuesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance
Day.
Biden's administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military
assistance as Netanyahu's government appeared to move closer toward an invasion
of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said
the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had
been made yet on whether to proceed with the shipment at a later date.
U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word
of which came as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as
"ironclad, even when we disagree."
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in an interview with
Israeli Channel 12 TV news, said the decision to pause the shipment was "a very
disappointing decision, even frustrating." He suggested the move stemmed from
political pressure on Biden from Congress, the U.S. campus protests and the
upcoming election.
The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from House Speaker Mike Johnson and
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said they only learned about the
military aid holdup from press reports, despite assurances from the Biden
administration that no such pauses were in the works. The Republicans called on
Biden in a letter to swiftly end the blockage, saying it "risks emboldening
Israel's enemies," and to brief lawmakers on the nature of the policy reviews.
Biden has faced pressure from some on the left -- and condemnation from the
critics on the right who say Biden has moderated his support for an essential
Mideast ally.
"If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel
at a time of great peril, we will pay a price," said Sen. Lindsey Graham,
R-S.C., his voice rising in anger during an exchange with Austin. "This is
obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can't
afford to lose."
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said in a
statement the pause on big bombs must be a "first step."
"Our leverage is clear," Sanders said. "Over the years, the United States
has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no
longer be complicit in Netanyahu's horrific war against the Palestinian people."
Austin, meanwhile, told lawmakers that "it's about having the right kinds of
weapons for the task at hand."
"A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, that's very useful in a
dense, built-up environment," he said, "but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound
bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage." He said the U.S. wants to
see Israel do "more precise" operations.
Israeli troops on Tuesday seized control of Gaza's vital Rafah border
crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation that stopped
short of the full-on Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly
warned against, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city.
Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as "targeted strikes" on
the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit
for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Privately, concern has mounted inside the White House about what's unfolding
in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have stressed that they did not
think the operations had defied Biden's warnings against a widescale operation
in the city.
The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the
continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision
guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn't pertain to
imminent shipments.
Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of Israel's National Security Council and
CEO of Commanders for Israel's Security, a group of former senior Israeli
security officials, said the U.S. move is largely symbolic, but a sign of
trouble and could become more of a problem if it is sustained.
"It's not some kind of American embargo on American munitions support, but I
think its some kind of diplomatic message to Mr. Netanyahu that he needs to
take into consideration American interests more than he has over the last few
months," he said, adding it's "a kind of a signal, a 'be careful.'"
The U.S. dropped the 2,000-pound bomb sparingly in its long war against the
Islamic State militant group. Israel, by contrast, has used the bomb frequently
in the seven-month Gaza war. Experts say the use of the weapon, in part, has
helped drive the enormous Palestinian casualty count that the Hamas-run health
ministry puts at more than 34,000 dead, though it doesn't distinguish between
militants and civilians.
The U.S.-Israel relationship has been close through both Democratic and
Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension
since Israel's founding in which U.S. leaders have threatened to hold up aid in
an attempt to sway Israeli leadership.
President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions
into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 amid the Suez Crisis. Ronald Reagan
delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel at a time of escalating
violence in the Middle East. President George H.W. Bush held up $10 billion in
loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the
occupied territories.
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