President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem over the conduct of the war.
The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one million Gazans have taken refuge, the officials said. The administration is reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions.
The decision to delay the delivery of the 3,500 bombs was the first time that Mr. Biden has used his power to curtail arms as an instrument to influence Israel’s approach to the war since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack. A number of Mr. Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress have for weeks urged him to limit or halt arms shipments to Israel, something he had refused to do until now because of his strong support for the war against Hamas.
Better late than never. If you can vote in the US, remember that perfect is the enemy of good. Trump would’ve sent these weapons, maybe pressured Congress for more funding. Maybe to you that’s a small change but to someone in Gaza, it’s the difference between having a child or not
About time
well past fucking time. And I’m not sure he’s not going to un-pause the shipments the moment he gets the good headlines.
That’s my concern. Don’t like this being referred to as a pause, because that could very well be just delaying them a week and wanting the symbolic snub to be enough. We’ll see what it turns into, but this is just an inkling of hope until the rejection becomes both more explicit and more public. He drew a red line, they’re crossing it.
I wonder what’s different here. Israel has danced over the US’s red lines before with such alacrity that they may as well have been an invitation. “I wasn’t gonna, but you drew a red line there. Oh I can’t resist.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem over the conduct of the war.
The decision to delay the delivery of the 3,500 bombs was the first time that Mr. Biden has used his power to curtail arms as an instrument to influence Israel’s approach to the war since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack.
A number of Mr. Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress have for weeks urged him to limit or halt arms shipments to Israel, something he had refused to do until now because of his strong support for the war against Hamas.
The fact that they finally did so was a clear indication of how much frustration is growing among administration officials that their Israeli counterparts are not heeding U.S. warnings against a major operation in Rafah that could lead to extensive civilian casualties.
Israel called the entry of tanks into Rafah and seizure of the city’s border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday a limited operation to eliminate Hamas fighters and infrastructure tied to the rocket attack.
Mr. Biden made no mention of his decision to withhold the bombs during a speech earlier Tuesday at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the Capitol, but repeated his support for Israel.
The original article contains 631 words, the summary contains 235 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
