|
Israeli
soldiers
walk
near a
tank,
amid the
ongoing
conflict
between
Israel
and the
Palestinian
Islamist
group
Hamas,
near the
Israel-Gaza
Border,
in
southern
Israel,
May 9,
2024.
REUTERS/Amir
Cohen |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
U.S.
President
Joe
Biden
speaks
about
student
protests
at U.S.
universities,
amid the
ongoing
conflict
between
Israel
and
Hamas,
during
brief
remarks
in the
Roosevelt
Room at
the
White
House in
Washington,
U.S.,
May 2,
2024.
REUTERS/Nathan
Howard/File
Photo |
| |
Biden’s
Pause on
Weapons
Tests
Ties to
Israel
Peter
Baker
news
analysis
Turning
Point or
Breaking
Point?
Biden’s
Pause on
Weapons
Tests
Ties to
Israel.
President
Biden
hopes
the
decision
to
withhold
the
delivery
of 3,500
bombs
will
prompt
Israel
to
change
course
in its
war in
Gaza.
A group
of tanks
and
other
military
vehicles
with
several
Israeli
flags
flying
among
them.
Since
World
War II,
the
United
States
has
given
more aid
to
Israel
than any
other
country
in the
world.Credit...Ammar
Awad/Reuters
The
message
was not
getting
through.
Not
through
the
phone
calls or
the
emissaries
or the
public
statements
or the
joint
committee
meetings.
And so,
frustrated
that he
was
being
ignored,
President
Biden
chose a
more
dramatic
way of
making
himself
clear to
Israeli
leaders.
He
stopped
sending
the
bombs.
Mr.
Biden’s
decision
to pause
the
delivery
of 3,500
bombs to
Israel
was
meant to
convey a
powerful
signal
that his
patience
has
limits.
While
insisting
that his
support
for the
Jewish
state
remains
“ironclad,”
Mr.
Biden
for the
first
time
since
the Gaza
war
erupted
last
fall
opted to
use his
power as
Israel’s
chief
arms
supplier
to
demonstrate
his
discontent.
The hold
on the
bombs
represents
a
significant
turning
point in
the
76-year-old
relationship
between
the
United
States
and
Israel,
historically
one of
the
closest
security
partnerships
in the
world.
But it
may not
necessarily
be a
breaking
point.
The
Biden
administration
is still
allowing
most
other
weapons
to be
sent to
Israel,
and in
fact
officials
emphasized
that no
final
decision
has even
been
made on
the
bombs
that are
currently
in
limbo.
Mr.
Biden
hopes
the
selective
pause
will
prompt
Prime
Minister
Benjamin
Netanyahu
of
Israel
to forgo
a
long-threatened
invasion
of
Rafah,
the
southern
Gaza
city
where
more
than one
million
Palestinians
have
taken
refuge.
The
president
has
objected
to such
an
operation
out of
fear
that
widespread
civilian
casualties
could be
caused
by
American
bombs.
He said
on
Wednesday
that he
would
also
block
the
delivery
of
artillery
shells
that
could be
fired
into the
urban
neighborhoods
of
Rafah.
“I’ve
made it
clear to
Bibi and
the war
cabinet,
they’re
not
going to
get our
support
if in
fact
they go
on these
population
centers,”
the
president
said in
an
interview
with
CNN’s
Erin
Burnett
on
Wednesday,
referring
to Mr.
Netanyahu
by his
nickname.
“We’re
not
walking
away
from
Israel’s
security;
we’re
walking
away
from
Israel’s
ability
to wage
war in
those
areas.”
He
acknowledged
in a way
that he
has
rarely
done
that
American
bombs
have
killed
innocent
Palestinians.
“Civilians
have
been
killed
in Gaza
as a
consequence
of those
bombs
and
other
ways in
which
they go
after
population
centers,”
Mr.
Biden
said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I
HI TECH NEWS
I
SPORTS
I
