When President Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” over the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, his forceful language raised a natural question: Would this attack, even if a tragic mistake, make him so? cause to impose conditions on the weapons? he sends to Israel?
So far, the White House has remained silent on whether Mr. Biden’s anger is leading to a break with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom every interaction has been tense. A conversation between the two is scheduled for Thursday, according to a senior Biden administration official. But publicly, at least, Mr. Biden has limited his reactions to increasingly outraged statements.
A bombing raid on the southern city of Rafah would cross a “red line,” Mr. Biden stressed, without spelling out the consequences. The attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy was further evidence that Israel “has not done enough to protect aid workers,” he said on Tuesday, without specifying how its behavior should change.
“I hope that this will be the moment that the president changes course,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland and one of Mr. Biden’s most enthusiastic supporters, who for months pushed for conditions on U.S. arms sales deliver. “Netanyahu ignored the president’s requests, and yet we are sending 2,000-pound bombs with no restrictions on their use.”
“We should not send bombs first and hope for assurances later,” he concluded.
The conditions for the use of American weapons are usually standard, some set by Congress and others by the president or secretary of state. Ukraine, for example, is not allowed to fire U.S.-made weapons at Russia, and while it has basically complied, there is still a debate in the government about whether to provide Kiev with more powerful missiles if ever an aid package is delivered is passed by Congress.
But Israel has always been the exception. Even as Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, gave an impassioned speech urging new elections in Israel – a clear attempt to oust Mr Netanyahu – he refused to call for gun restrictions. When pressed about it the next day, Mr. Schumer said he didn’t even want to discuss the issue.
There are other steps Mr. Biden could call for. For example, the United States could insist that aid convoys be escorted by Israeli forces or that nearby Israeli military units remain in constant communication with aid donors, an issue two U.S. senators raised with Mr. Netanyahu in February.
One participant said the prime minister told an adviser present at the meeting that in his opinion the problems related to the safe passage of food and medicine had already been resolved. But he assured Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both Democrats, that he would raise the issue with his military commanders.
Monday’s strike suggests that these issues were never fully resolved.
John F. Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, was pressed by reporters on Wednesday for Mr. Biden’s opinion on the issue and referred reporters to the president’s statement condemning the strike on aides.
“I think you could sense the frustration in that statement yesterday,” Mr. Kirby said.
On the day of the attack, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held a previously scheduled call with Israeli officials via secured video.
Mr. Kirby said the Americans had called on the Israelis to develop a comprehensive plan to evacuate the 1.5 million refugees in the Rafah region. He also said discussions were continuing on “what Rafah looks like now and what their intentions are for operations against the Hamas battalions that are still there.”
While Mr. Kirby did not say so, officials familiar with those discussions said the United States still feared the Israelis did not have a credible plan for a comprehensive evacuation – a process they believe could take months . But officials noted that Mr. Netanyahu has not yet launched the Rafah attacks, perhaps because Israeli forces are far from ready, or perhaps because of American pressure.
In the six months since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, there have been other moments when the United States has hit a wall in its dealings with Mr. Netanyahu, and when the declaration of common goals has failed to disguise the fact that the two countries are deeply divided disagree about how to fight the war.
But it is possible that the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, one of the most successful attempts to prevent famine in Gaza, was a turning point for Mr. Biden.
He personally knows the famous Spanish-American chef behind the company, José Andrés, whose restaurants in Washington are regularly visited by the city’s power players. Mr. Biden called the chef on Tuesday, shortly before Mr. Andres published an op-ed in The New York Times declaring: “Israel is better than the way this war is being fought.”
“It is better than depriving civilians of food and medicine,” he continued. “It is better than killing aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israeli forces.”
But Mr. Biden has consistently shied away from openly breaking with Mr. Netanyahu, a confrontation that he believes will only make dealing with the prime minister more difficult, aides say. The result is that Mr Biden is in a bind, criticized by the progressive wing of his party – and increasingly by moderates – for acting too cautiously and unwilling to give the impression that he is undermining Israel’s ability to defending yourself is limited.
Indeed, it left a sour taste in the mouths of some of Mr. Biden’s critics that the president expressed his anger over Israel’s military campaign most clearly over the killing of seven foreign humanitarian aid workers, rather than the deaths of the many thousands of Palestinian civilians before them.
“To me the language of outrage stands out because it is the most advanced in its language, but it is also striking that it has only come so far when it comes to Western aid workers,” said Yousef Munayyer, the head of Palestine -Israel Program at The Arab Center Washington DC “Of course it’s outrageous,” he added of the latest incident, “but we’ve seen these types of attacks repeatedly and the White House doesn’t seem outraged by it.”
Mr. Munayyer said the disparity was particularly striking given Mr. Biden’s reputation for personal compassion. “He presented himself as this empath-in-chief; That is his great quality,” Mr Munayyer said. “And yet, when it comes to Palestinian lives, he simply seems unable to show compassion to Palestinians.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Biden has sought to separate his pressure campaign against Israel from his power if he wants to use it to limit the country’s arms shipments. In fact, despite his strong words, some veteran diplomats doubted that this would be the moment that would change Mr. Biden’s approach.
“You might think ‘outrage’ would lead to a strong political reaction, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel. “Regardless of Israeli apologies, this attack will significantly increase the pressure on aid agencies, thereby worsening the humanitarian emergency.”
Katie Rogers contributed reporting.
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2024-04-04 04:02:48
www.nytimes.com
