Biden’s announcement is an unintentional admission that his efforts to privately sway Netanyahu have had limited effects.
President Joe Biden’s weapons announcement is him breaking glass — and his relationship with Netanyahu — ahead of an emergency. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICOAfter watching Israel flatten much of Gaza, President Joe Biden decided to draw the line at the city of Rafah. Now, he has to decide what to do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crosses it.to “deliver a message” to Netanyahu that no operation should move forward without a civilian protection plan in place, a U.S. official said.
“If that happens, we would need to make choices,” said a second U.S. official, one of three granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive hingepoint in the war. “It hasn’t happened, and it may well not happen. That’s what we’re working on.” Biden’s weapons announcement is him breaking glass — and his relationship with Netanyahu — ahead of an emergency. It’s an unintentional admission that his effort to cajole the prime minister by withholding public criticism has had limited effects, enough to encourage efforts to improve the humanitarian crisis but not enough to end it.
It’s still unclear what the administration precisely defines as a “major” operation. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby took a stab at it Thursday on a call with reporters, saying it’d be recognizable by the movements of many forces and damage to civilian infrastructure “as opposed to more precise, more targeted, more limited kinds of operations, quite frankly like we are seeing right now down at the Rafah crossing.
Israel still doesn’t have a civilian protection plan for Rafah in place, the senior administration official warned, echoing similar comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “It doesn’t address our concerns about what would be needed to deal with a potential massive flow of refugees.” Israel has ordered a lot of tents for people who may flee Rafah, but not enough, the official added.
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