Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is striking a defiant tone against President Biden after the U.S.
withheld shipments of bombs ahead of a looming offensive.
And Russia. Speaking to American talk show host Dr.
Phil Netanyahu called Washington's delay in arms shipments a mistake.
I've said in the Holocaust memorial service that we had the other day, I
said in the Holocaust, we stood alone, but we were defenseless.
And today, if Israel has to stand alone, we'll
stand alone. Well, for more on this, let's bring in
senior editor Bill Ferris. I think it's pretty clear at this point
that Israeli leaders, Netanyahu himself, the prime minister, are very frustrated
with the U.S. decision to withhold those shipments
ahead of a potential offensive into Raffa.
What do we read from those comments out of the prime minister overnight?
Well, it's the latest sign of the real friction in this relationship.
The U.S. would like to see Israel and Hamas get
closer to some sort of an even a temporary cease fire.
It's very rare to see this kind of public divide between Washington and
Israel. So even historically, that's very
unusual. It should be.
You know, there's also a degree of politics going on here, of course,
public politics. The U.S.
is withholding some of these weapons, but has made clear that it will continue
to supply defensive material for things like the Iron Dome network.
And it is not at this point holding off on other shipments of weapons.
And that includes the $4 billion package that was recently approved by Congress
and the White House. But this divide is is it's very tense.
It's widening. The US is trying to put all the leverage
it can on Israel to not go forward with a massive ground invasion of Rafah.
Yeah, absolutely. The U.S.
are trying to restrain Israel and at the same time it is posing a bit of friction
in the relationship. I thought it was also interesting in
that conversation with Dr. Phil that the Prime Minister Netanyahu
did make some comments. The fact of how important their
relationship is with the US and not just with the US, but also with President
Biden himself. Let's listen in to what he said.
I've known Joe Biden for many years, 40 years and more.
You know, we often had agreements, but we've had our disagreements.
We've been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now.
But we will do what we have to do to protect our country.
So, Bill, here he was drawing in his personal relationship with the
president, Joe Biden. And in essence, what we're seeing is not
a break in the relationship, but more, as you pointed out, the US trying to
exercise some caution, trying to restrain the Israeli response and the
potential offensive that could happen in Rafah.
Right. There's very much a public diplomacy
aspect to all of this. And there's also the behind the scenes
talks. I think, you know, the US has made its
frustrations with Israel very clear. They've wanted to draw this line on
Rafa, but they have not opposed some of the early moves that we've seen Israel
making in Rafa. They've they've said that the kind of
more strategic strikes that have taken place so far are within the scope of
what the US thinks is acceptable. So it's a very fine line and things
could easily spiral out of control. But the US focus remains on preventing a
greater humanitarian disaster in Rafa and southern Gaza and trying to get
these two sides to at least agree to this cease fire plan that has been in
the works for months now, in which it seems both sides are very close to
agreeing to, except for some key sticking points.
Yeah. Yeah.
And obviously that is the main question looming in the background.
Another story that came out this morning, this is per Axios reporting.
Blinken, the secretary of State, is planning on submitting Israel conduct
report to Congress as soon as Friday. So that's they.
Axios has cited three unnamed U.S. officials on Blinken's report.
The report won't say Israel broke weapon use terms per Axios reporting.
Of course, this is not our own reporting, but I think it is interesting
in the context of the friction between the U.S.
and Israel right now that this report is actually being submitted to Congress,
isn't it? It is.
It's a very highly charged report. It'll be interesting to see what the
reaction to that is. Axios, as you mentioned, said that they
will not say that Israel has been violating humanitarian law in its in its
use of these American weapons. But it is also part of this very
delicate dance between Democrats and Republicans in Congress and in US
politics and also between the White House and Israel.
So it's another sign of one of these one of these things that could could be a
source of further tension in this relationship.
