Biden sides with Hamas
Blocking arms sales to Israel is a ‘red line’ that Washington should not cross
U.S. President Joe Biden took his beef with his Israeli counterpart into dangerous territory this week, threatening to withhold arms sales as the Jewish state faces attacks on multiple fronts.
Last week, Biden quietly approved a pause on the shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs to Israel, and delayed the sale of 6,500 kits used to turn unguided bombs into precision-guided weapons, along with more than $1 billion worth of tank munitions, mortar rounds and other weapons.
Reports of this drastic policy change began leaking early in the week, but the White House decided to wait until after the president made his Holocaust Remembrance Day speech on Tuesday before officially plunging the dagger into Israel’s back.
On Wednesday, Biden made his most direct statement to date, telling CNN, “I made it clear that 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.”
The looming invasion of Rafah has caused tensions between Washington and Jerusalem for months. The U.S. worries a full-scale attack will worsen the humanitarian situation, while Israel rightly contends that going into the southern city is the only way to complete its objectives.
Rafah is believed to be home to the bulk of Hamas’s remaining forces, its senior Gazan leadership, along with many of the hostages who were kidnapped on October 7, when 3,000 terrorists breached the border with Israel, brutally murdering, raping and desecrating the bodies of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking over 250 hostages, many of whom have now lost their lives or faced months of sexual and physical violence.
