US President Joe Biden warned Israel that it was losing support for the Israel-Hamas war and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change the membership of his coalition which is largely opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
In a further sign of growing US concern at the high fatality rate from Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza, Biden said at a fundraising event for his 2024 reelection run: “They [Israel] are starting to lose that support” for the Israel-Hamas war.
In addition, Biden said, “I think he [Netanyahu] has to change” the government because it “is making it very difficult for him to move.”
Enjoying US support, destroying Hamas
Biden, who flew to Israel in October at the start of the war, as well as his administration, have been staunch supporters of Israel’s drive to destroy Hamas, providing military and financial assistance.
But, in a geopolitical atmosphere of low Democratic support for the Gaza war, speculation is high that Biden will ask Israel to constrain its activity as attention in Washington focuses on the 2024 run for the White House.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to discuss the issue when he visits Israel this week and meets with Netanyahu and the war cabinet.
“The subject of how they are seeing the timetable of this war will certainly be on the agenda for my meetings,” Sullivan said during a public interview at a Wall Street Journal event Tuesday morning.“I also believe that high-intensity military operations of the kind we have seen over the past several weeks does not have to be that you go from that to nothing,” Sullivan said.He described a scenario in which Israel could shift into a different stage of the conflict, whereby the fighting would be more contained.Israel could still “go after Hamas leadership” and “targets,” or continue “to have tools in your toolbox to try and secure the release of hostages. It just means that you move to a different phase from the kind of high-intensity operations that we see today,” Sullivan stated.IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the army worked closely with their US security counterparts as he downplayed reports of tension between the US and Israel regarding the timeline. Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder also spoke of the US military’s backing of the IDF’s Gaza campaign.Ryder cautioned, however, that protecting Palestinian civilians was a “strategic imperative.”At the White House on Monday night, Biden also appeared to place a cautionary note on US military support for the IDF.“We continue to provide military assistance [to the IDF] until they get rid of Hamas – but you have to be careful, I have to be careful,” Biden said. “The whole world, public opinion, can shift overnight. You can’t let that happen,” he added.Opponents of the Israel-Hamas war have portrayed it as a campaign against a defenseless Palestinian people, rather than a battle against a terrorist group that on October 7 killed over 1,200 people and seized some 240 hostages.Biden has viewed destroying Hamas as a step to counter an existential threat against Israel. At the Hanukkah party, he repeated his long-standing belief that without Israel, “there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe.”Earlier Monday, a small group of Jewish protesters chanted outside the White House: “Biden, Biden pick a side, ceasefire, not genocide.”Hamas has asserted that close to 18,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of war-related violence in Gaza, with Israel explaining that 7,000 of those fatalities were combatants. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced due to the war, and humanitarian aid has not been able to keep up with the population’s needs.The US has helped provide humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinians in Gaza, Biden said on Monday night.He told the largely Jewish audience he was working “relentlessly for the safe return” of the remaining hostages after helping to secure the release of 110 of those taken. “We’re not going to stop until we get all of them home,” he said.“I have personally spent countless hours with the Qataris and the Egyptians to secure the freedom of the hostages and to get aid flowing,” he said.Israel’s Government Press Office announced late Tuesday night that 19 of the 135 people still held in captivity in Gaza have been declared dead in absentia, including one Tanzanian national. Tanzania has said that two of its citizens, both farming students, had been among the hostages; one was confirmed dead last month.Biden noted that there is a whole range of things happening that are very difficult. “We will continue to lead the world in humanitarian assistance [to Gaza]. We need to protect civilian life,” he stressed.
“Let me be clear. Hamas using rape, sexual violence, terrorism, and torture of Israeli women and girls is appalling and unforgivable… I saw some of the photographs.
“It is beyond comprehension,” he said, emphasizing that: “We all have to condemn such brutality without equivocation, without exception.”
Biden also addressed his political differences with Netanyahu, recalling how 51 years ago, he had written on a photo of the two of them, “Bibi I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you say.”
The situation has not changed, he said, explaining, “It’s the same today. I love you, but…“
He clarified: “I have made no bones about it, I have had my differences with some Israeli officials.”The US and Israel have been increasingly and more publicly at odds over plans for the enclave once the war is over, with the US pushing for the creation of a Palestinian state and most Israeli government members opposing this. Israel has also insisted that it must retain military control of Gaza after the war.
“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism, and finance terrorism”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Ultimately, Israel “can’t say no” to a Palestinian state, Biden said at Tuesday’s funding event. Moving forward, “we have an opportunity to begin to unite the region... and they still want to do it. But we have to make sure that Bibi understands that he’s got to make some moves to strengthen... You cannot say no Palestinian state... That’s going to be the hard part.”At the Wall Street Journal event, Sullivan said, “We have been clear that we believe that a reoccupation of Gaza is a bad idea. It should not happen and the Israeli government understands that as well.”He added: “There has to be an interim security arrangement” as efforts continue for a longer-term political solution for Gaza and the West Bank. Sullivan added that those two regions have to be connected under a revamped and revitalized Palestinian Authority.It’s hard to envision a revamped Palestinian Authority that could have the confidence of the Palestinian people, he said. Yet, “what can be hard to envision today can become reality tomorrow,” he explained.Netanyahu pushed back at US plans to place a reformed PA in Gaza once Israel’s military campaign to oust Gaza is finished.
“Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan,” he said on Tuesday.Netanyahu thanked the Biden administration. “I greatly appreciate the American support for destroying Hamas and returning our hostages.“Following an intensive dialogue with President Biden and his team, we received full backing for the ground incursion and for blocking the international pressure to stop the war,” Netanyahu said.“Yes, there is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas.’ But I hope that we will reach an agreement here as well,” he explained.“I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” Netanyahu said as he pointed to the 1993 Accord that one year later allowed for the creation of the governing body called the Palestinian Authority.The PA governs Areas A and B of the West Bank, and until 2007, it also operated in Gaza, but Hamas drove it out of the enclave in a bloody coup. This followed Israel’s own withdrawal from Gaza, who demolished 21 settlements of its own there, and pulled its army out back in 2005.Netanyahu has explained that Hamas cannot govern Gaza after the war, but neither can the PA, particularly in light of its policy of providing monthly financial stipends to terrorists and their families.“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism, and finance terrorism,” Netanyahu said.