Fury in Israel at US arms delay as minister claims ‘Hamas loves Biden’
Furious Israeli officials have accused Joe Biden of being on the side of Hamas in a widespread backlash after the president said the US would not supply arms for an invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s finance minister from the far-right Jewish Power party, posted “Hamas loves Biden” using a heart emoji.
“The US forbids Israel from defeating Hamas,” said MP Galit Distel-Atbaryan of the governing Likud party. “They chose a side. And it’s not our side.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Mr Biden’s decision gave “hope” to Israel’s enemies and suggested Jewish people in the US could refuse to vote for him in the November election.
The president told CNN on Wednesday night that the US would not supply weapons for a major offensive in the city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million people are sheltering, the majority in makeshift camps after being displaced from other areas.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons,” Mr Biden said in his strongest statement yet against Israel’s plans for an assault on the city, which advanced this week through air and artillery strikes and the capture of the border crossing with Egypt.
US officials said a delivery of a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel has been “paused” because of the risk to civilians in Gaza, having sent more than 100 shipments of military aid to Israel during the war. Washington will continue to supply military aid for defensive purposes such as Israel’s Iron Dome system.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to respond by posting a video of himself making a speech that concludes: “If Israel is forced to stand alone – Israel will stand alone.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, of the centrist Yesh Atid party, said the situation represented a “massive failure” by Mr Netanyahu and urged him to “fire Ben-Gvir today”.
Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East analyst at think-tank Chatham House, told i the US policy shift was “a long time coming”.
“Biden and the rest of the foreign policy-makers in Washington have been warning Israel that if it continues to behave in a certain way, there will be consequences,” he said. “We saw that with sanctions imposed on settlers, and now banning some types of weapons.”
“The US has shown tolerance beyond the call of duty and is still saying there is ‘ironclad’ commitment to Israel’s security, but Rafah is a step too far because you have 1.5 million people, 600,000 children, many of them, sick, injured, and malnourished.”
Current and former Israeli officials suggested the policy shift could impair Israel’s war against Hamas, as well as conflicts with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran across the region, and new suppliers would be required.
Professor Kobi Michael, a military analyst at Israeli think-tanks the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, suggested the impact could be felt outside Gaza.
“I assume that it will not affect the plans regarding the Gaza Strip, since this early morning we are back in the northern parts of Gaza and we are continuing attacking Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Rafah,” he said. “The situation will be much more complicated with regard to Hezbollah.”
UN officials confirmed Israeli attacks on Rafah were ongoing on Thursday and said that Israel’s control of the border crossing was worsening the humanitarian crisis.
“The continued closure of Rafah crossing, where a daily average of 48 trucks and 166,000 litres of diesel entered Gaza between 1 and 5 May, essentially chokes off the entry of life-saving aid into Gaza and the fuel necessary for sustaining humanitarian operations and all life-critical sectors in Gaza,” said the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Mr Biden’s statement was criticised by representatives of both major US parties. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson accused the president of a “senior moment” that he said undercut previous assurances that aid to Israel would not be interrupted.
Ritchie Torres, a Democrat Congressman, said: “America cannot claim that its commitment to Israel is ‘iron-clad’ and then proceed to withhold aid from Israel.”
Michael Mulroy, a former senior Defence Department official and foreign policy analyst, suggested the move may be linked to an imminent US government report on whether Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, which could force a wider suspension of military aid to comply with US law.
“I think it may be related to the coming Rafah offensive tied to the State Department report on Israel’s actions in Gaza expected to be delivered to Congress this week,” he said. “I imagine the White House already knows what is in the report.
“I don’t want to predict the conclusions but pausing shipments of some type of munitions may be a preview.”
