US threatens to halt weapons delivery if Israel invades Rafah

Official portrait of Joe Biden as president of the United States
US president Joe Biden By Adam Schultz –  Public Domain

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he would suspend certain deliveries of American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to launch a significant incursion into the city of Rafah. In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Biden expressed concern over civilian casualties in Gaza caused by the use of these weapons, including 2,000-pound bombs that were recently put on hold.

He emphasized that if Israeli forces enter Rafah, he will not provide the weapons historically used in such situations.

This decision marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing seven-month conflict between Israel and Hamas, with Biden acknowledging the US’s involvement in civilian deaths in Gaza. Despite facing pressure, including from within his own party, to restrict arms shipments due to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Biden had previously backed Israel’s actions against Hamas.

On the heels of Israel’s command for evacuation of Rafah and recent border strikes, however, the prospect of an invasion of  the city, where over a million Palestinian civilians reside, seems to have influenced the president’s stance on the matter.

This latest development reportedly could initiate an increasing divide between the US and Israeli governments, with Biden publicly linking the US shipment of weapons to Israel’s actions in the region. He revealed that he had warned Israel’s PM, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, of the possibility of becoming mired in the Gaza situation.

“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,”  Biden said.

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5 Comments

  1. We Know Better
    May 13, 2024

    The tail is really wagging the dog. So this is irrelevant.

  2. Is this really happening?
    May 10, 2024

    For the past 7 months the Israeli Defence Force, commonly referred to as the IDF, has been militarily assaulting the innocent unarmed civilians of Gaza, who are basically prisoners in their own land under Israel’s imposed system of apartheid. Homes, hospitals, schools, mosques and utility infrastructure lie in ruins. Journalists, doctors and aid workers have been targeted. Thousands are dead or injured and famine is now rife whilst aid is refused entry, yet the west merely pontificates whilst the situation rapidly deteriorates. This is the most blatant and horrific example of genocide imaginable. Netanyahu must be stopped! Only the USA has the power to bring this to an end, yet it has taken seven long months for it to merely attempt to slow it down just slightly. Is this really the so called civilized world in which we live?

    • Watch It
      May 13, 2024

      Did you say civilized world?
      The very word civilization entails (long) periods of peace.
      There hasn’t been a western civilization, just media lip service and chest beating. What Greeks had wasn’t civilization, nor Romans which was all war and slavery, Arabs failed at a civilization, some try Europe which still isn’t a civilization. What do we have now? Euro-American aka Western civilization? Now that’s a stretch.
      There hasn’t been a civilization since Alexander assisted Egypt to defeat the Persians as a mercenary, and cheated, never left though he was paid in full. And that’s a while back, 2300yrs. With all the mega weapons dangling around today it doesn’t look like a civilization will happen upon us any time soon.

  3. MEME
    May 9, 2024

    Both Biden and Netanyahu should have warrants issued for their arrest by both the ICC and the ICJ. Joe Biden is implicit in the genocide. Instead America is threatening the ICC and ICJ about what they will do to both courts if top Israeli government officials are charged with genocide. That’s the same Joe Biden who one year ago, was telling countries he has influence over, to arrest president Putin for moving children away from a war zone so that they won’t get killed. OMG! Reasons why i hate the policies of the ruling elites (scamps, scallywags and rascals) from America and the West so much! Their International Rules Based Order has the world in turmoil. The most perfect example of this, is the war in Ukraine which America started, when it overthrew the democratically elected leader Victor Yanokovich in 2014, because he wss viewed as pro Russia.
    Thats the same Biden, who said that he would blow out NORD STREAM if Russia invaded Ukraine. That was a ‘cassus belli’, another act of…

  4. putin
    May 9, 2024

    and thats going to stop Israel from fighting till the last hostage is released how?

    they will never relent till every last hostage is returned . if HAMAS wanted peace and a free palestine as soon as they saw Israels response from day 1 they would have released there hostages , but those cowards prefer hide and leave the civilians to take the rewards of the field or wrath HAMAS has sown
    and they have down the same thing in the past poked Israel and then run and hide behind civilians

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