President Joe Biden is trying to thread the needle on Israel’s war against Hamas, but his threat to stop sending certain weapons to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government left some in Washington wondering whether he’s lost that thread. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said in an interview with CNN Wednesday. “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — 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 — that deal with that problem.”
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to receive it weekdays. In point of fact, Israel is conducting limited military operations in Rafah, the Gaza city where more than 1 million Palestinians have clustered since the war began in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state. Biden said Israel has not yet crossed a “red line” by going into population centers. But at the same time the Biden administration is delaying an official certification that U.S. weapons aren’t being used to undercut humanitarian efforts to protect civilians, the president is drawing a new rhetorical line in the sand. Some in his own party see that as counterproductive to Biden’s policy and political aims. He would like the war to conclude as soon as possible, with the release of Israeli and American hostages held by Hamas, and he would like for pro-Palestinian activists to stop hammering him at home as he seeks re-election. “The problem is this message that they’re sending can’t accomplish both of those things,” said one Democratic lawmaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid criticism of Biden’s position. “Because now, if you want Hamas to release the hostages and they see the U.S. pulling back, it relieves the pressure on Hamas.” This lawmaker said that figures to lengthen the war, rather than bringing a conclusion, which in turn threatens to extend Biden’s domestic political quandary. “If the hostages are not going to be released, then the war is going to continue, with or without U.S. missiles,” the lawmaker said. Republicans were quick to condemn Biden’s position. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who recently worked with the Biden White House to enact an aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, told Politico that he hopes Biden’s remarks were a “senior moment.” And in an interview with North Carolina’s Spectrum News 1, former President Donald Trump said he “wouldn’t do what Biden did.” “He just abandoned Israel,” Trump said. But progressives welcomed what they saw as a turn in the right direction. “Biden has taken the position that 37 Democrats did in voting no on offensive weapons to Gaza that could be used for an invasion in Rafah,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a co-chair of Biden’s campaign. “That now is the mainstream Democratic position, and the recent vote on the offensive weapons to Israel will be seen akin to the Iraq War one.” Last month, Democrats voted 173-37 for a stand-alone measure that provided aid to Israel, including for offensive weapons, before it was wrapped into the larger package of foreign military assistance that Biden signed into law. If Biden is mainstreaming the progressive view, he’s doing so at the potential cost of standing with roughly 20% of his party’s House contingent and against the vast majority of Republican officials inside and outside Congress. The question for Biden as he tries to manage Israel’s war from afar is whether he’ll net more support at home by moving closer to the pro-Palestinian progressives who have given him fits since the start of the war. |