President Joe Biden said he would not set any red lines for US weapons shipments to Israel, after approving 100 arms sales to Tel Aviv in the past five months. Israeli forces have committed a multitude of war crimes in Gaza, including some using US arms.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, Biden refused to place restrictions on what Tel Aviv would have to do before he stopped shipping weapons to Israel. In a somewhat convoluted statement, the president first said there would be red lines on Israel attacking Gaza, but went on to say there is no action that would lead the US to cut off weapons.
When asked if attacking Rafah was a red line, Biden replied, “It is a red line, but I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical.” He continued, “There is no red line where I cut off all weapons so they don’t have [missile defense] to protect them.”
Biden went on to say there would be consequences if “30,000 more Palestinians died,” but did not explain what crossing that line would mean.
The unclear policy reflects the tightrope the White House is now trying to walk, attempting to place blame on Netanyahu for the slaughter in Gaza without cutting Washington’s significant support for Tel Aviv. During the interview, Biden asserted Netanyahu was “hurting Israel.”
According to Axios, US officials say the White House is becoming increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s “ungratefulness” for American largess.
After his State of the Union Address, President Biden said he would have a “come to Jesus meeting” with the leader of the Jewish state. Biden elaborated further to Capehart on the “serious conversation” he plans to have with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He explained the message would include that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” but “must pay more attention to the loss of innocent lives in Gaza.” Since October 7, Israel has killed over 21,000 women and children in the Strip. Additionally, Israel has prevented aid from reaching Gaza, putting the Strip on the brink of famine. At least 20 Palestinians have died of deprivation in recent weeks.
However, the tactic of splitting Netanyahu from Tel Aviv’s treatment of the Palestinians is proving challenging as the onslaught in Gaza enjoys widespread support among the Israeli government. Numerous Israeli officials have been documented making genocidal statements over the past five months.
During the MSNBC interview released on Saturday, the president explained he had dispatched CIA Director William Burns in an attempt to reach a last-minute ceasefire before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins Sunday night.
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who visited the US last week and met with Vice President Kamala Harris, has warned that unless Hamas releases all Israeli hostages by Ramadan, Tel Aviv will launch its assault on Rafah.
The White House, the UN, and numerous humanitarian organizations have pleaded with Israel not to attack Rafah, as over 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in the city. Many of the limited number of aid trucks reaching Gaza enter through the Rafah crossing, and an attack on the city would likely prevent severely needed assistance from reaching the city.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
After they gave Biden his drug cocktail for the State of the Union election propaganda, maybe he should have recuperated longer. Instead of holding yet another interview where he promises mass murder won’t be punished.
They had him give a speech within less than 72 hours of the State of the Union drugfest – bold. In that speech he says, “send me to congress” and he would see to it that Roe vs Wade would be restored. Except congress can’t do that since it’s not the Supreme Court, and he’s not running for congress. In the Instagram version, his aides instead wrote “sent it do congress.” But socialists always lie – if they wouldn’t lie they wouldn’t be socialists.
Biden is the furthest thing from a socialist. He is a plutocratic and MIC capitalist prostitute.
BS Joe does not even know what a socialist is.
Exactly.
“the White House is becoming increasingly frustrated”.
That is a bald-faced lie. Biden and his neocons clearly want both the genocide of Palestinians and a wider war in the Middle East. Any words to the contrary are pure CYA to avoid blame for the results. And because no one is pointing this out, they will get away with it – at least until Israel is destroyed and the West is driven out of the Middle East.
It’s just enough bullshit for his supporters to swallow that he is “decent” and trying so hard.
I wonder if the atrocities may actually be the whole point of this exercise, that they’re Palestinians is just a matter of convenience. If they can convince the public that this is not that big a deal, if they can be conned that genocide and ethnic cleansing is an acceptable response to the Al Aqsa Flood, then the next horror will be easier for them to swallow. And the next, and the next.
I truly hope that I’m reading too much into this, and I truly fear that I may not be.
Joe only gets frustrated when they run out of French Vanilla ice cream.
I don’t care who wins in November. So long as Genocide Joe loses.
Hey hey ho ho!
It can’t get worse than it already is, the damage has been done. Nothing even a little better can be seen at the horizon.
Biden has no control over foreign policy. Regardless of who the next president is, the writing is on the wall. With blood.
Maybe for the next 4, 8, or 20 years. But purging Zionist first politicians from one political party means there’s hope once all the Israel loving boomers are dead or addled with dementia https://news.gallup.com/poll/611375/americans-views-israel-palestinian-authority-down.aspx
Which of course means you want Trump to win. It is a binary race.
If the genocide keeps up, Joe won’t make it till November.
He’ll step down.
That is not going to happen.
Hope springs eternal,
Hope may blind.
Which of course means nothing of the sort.
Trump will have zero impact and nothing will change. Maybe get even worse.
That’s fine with me. If we can’t purge Zionist first politicians from America, we can at least purge them from the Democratic party
Agreed. The man is a menace to his country and to the World. I have no illusions about what may come in his absence, but in no way does this fact diminish my hope that he loses. It doesn’t matter a whit if the Republicans decide to run Minnie Mouse.
The man makes no sense, he is BS genocide Joe.
The red line is not really a red line. So why does he mention it?
Well, there are red lines, just none that he won’t cross.
There are 30,000 red lines and he’s crossed them all.
I don’t disagree and not blaming you, but the 30,000 number is an insult to our intelligence.
I just read a Nader article about that.
Hitler was hurting Germany badly in 1938. Mussolini was worried.
ISIS was recuriting from rest of the world and sometimes from collges and school after being influenced by fiery speeches of imams for expanding fights to new araes ,establishing pure doctrine based civilization in new land. Any of them subscrbing to the view would become the citizen .
Some imams would show uneasiness with the increasing casulties of civilizations. But red lines on the sand would keep on disappearing from the next wave of volcanic sludge lashing on the crowd full beach and the next.
During the MSNBC interview released on Saturday, the president explained he had dispatched CIA Director William Burns in an attempt to reach a last-minute ceasefire before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins Sunday night.
As a rule, you probably shouldn’t announce you won’t cut someone off no matter what they do and then send someone to ask them to do something that they don’t want to do. I wonder what answer Burns will get.
Demented Biden is not in charge of policy anyway. The Zionists in Tel Aviv decide and tell him what he has to say. They will prepare the needed notes for him.
Biden’s unconditional support is a euphemism for Biden’s UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER to the Zionist Rulers in Tel Aviv.
FJB
So they can sanction officials in the Venezuelan government for conducting honest elections and for not letting criminals run for the legislature, but they can’t sanction Israelis who are committing war crimes and posting the videos on their own Telegram accounts? They can have Assange imprisoned for years in a foreign prison without a trial for exposing war crimes, but they can’t imprison Netanyahoo for directly ordering war crimes.
It’s a funny old world, isn’t it?
Agreed. When faced with our own limitless stupidity, it’s hard to justify why we find it funny? It’s like The Three Stooges level funny. It’s hard to explain.
Hypocrisy is a disease in US politics with no cure…!
It is like in the Godfather…. They have paid Joe for years and now they are just collecting on that debt.
I hope the general election ballot has “uncommitted”
One day of Self-Defense on October 7th and One Hundred Fifty Four days of Self-Offense since then and counting…!
Israel is self defensing the shit out of them
Biden is WRONG, there are Red Lines, one are the laws of the USA, that prohibit sending arms to those committing Genocide. Also, the International Laws that prohibit sending arms to those committing Genocide. So Biden should be IMPEACHED today, for violating our Laws and being complicit in Genocide of Palestinians. This applies to Blinken, Sullivan, Kirby and Members of Congress, the Mass Murderers that they are, should all be charged and arrested with War Crimes.
Isn’t it time to question Israel’s ‘right to exist’?…. 😉
Yes, it’s a legitimate question, given both the circumstances surrounding the “birth” of that “nation” and the current circumstances surrounding the Israeli attempt to snuff out the Arabic population of Gaza and the West Bank.
Self-defence is another misused , abused, misapplied word.
It’s certainly misapplied in this case. Israel is a belligerent occupier and has no right of self-defense against the people it occupies and oppresses.