Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a fierce criticism of the Biden administration in a prerecorded video shared on social media Tuesday.
The prime minister said he told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the latter’s trip to Israel last week that “it’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.”
“Israel, America’s closest ally, fighting for its life, [is] fighting against Iran and our other common enemies,” Netanyahu said. “Secretary Blinken assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that’s the case. It should be the case.”
President Joe Biden and his administration opted to pause one military aid shipment to Israel, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed in early May. The shipment, which included 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, was paused due to “the context of unfolding events in Rafah,” he told lawmakers.
Administration officials said they paused this specific aid shipment because those bombs would likely lead to high casualty counts if used in densely populated areas, such as Rafah at the time the decision was made. Israeli leaders, Netanyahu included, have maintained for months that they had to operate in Rafah to accomplish their war efforts, including the lasting defeat of Hamas, even as the U.S. repeatedly urged them not to carry out a full-scale invasion of the city due to the possibility of high civilian casualties.
About 1 million Palestinians have fled from Rafah as Israel’s operations in the southernmost city of Gaza continue.
“It’s very important to remember our security relationship with Israel goes well beyond Gaza,” Blinken said Tuesday when asked about Netanyahu’s comments. “Israel’s facing a multiplicity of challenges including in the north from Hezbollah, from Iran, from the Houthis in the Red Sea, from various groups that are aligned against Israel and in many cases, beholden to Iran. So the president has been very clear from Day One that he will do everything he can to make sure Israel has what it needs to effectively defend itself against these threats.”
Despite a decadeslong relationship, the war has created and then further exacerbated a rift between the two elder statesmen.
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Biden recently said there’s “every reason” to conclude that Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political interests. Prior to that, the U.S. commander in chief threatened to withhold offensive aid to Israel if it conducted a full-scale invasion of Rafah.
Two key House Democrats on Monday agreed to support a major arms sale to Israel worth more than $18 billion, according to the Washington Post.