Senior Israeli politicians have expressed anger and dismay at President Joe Biden’s warning that he would halt shipments of U.S. weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah—the city in southern Gaza where over a million Palestinians are sheltering from the conflict.
In a CNN interview Wednesday, Biden acknowledged that American-made bombs had been used to kill civilians in Gaza and said he’d “made it clear” to Israel that “if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.”
His comments were his strongest caution yet against launching a full-scale invasion of the city—a step Netanyahu claims is crucial in securing victory over Hamas, while Israel’s international allies fear it would lead to more civilian casualties and deepen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
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Netanyahu has not directly responded to Biden’s warning, but on Thursday he shared a clip on X from a speech he delivered earlier this week. “I say to the leaders of the world: no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself,” he says in the footage. He later adds: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also appeared to obliquely respond to Biden’s comments in an X post. “Israel will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction,” Katz wrote. “There is no war more just than this.”
Others were more explicit.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hard-right leader of a pro-settler party, vowed that Israel will achieve “complete victory in this war despite President Biden’s push back and arms embargo.” “We simply have no choice as this war is an existential one and anything other than complete victory will put the existence of the Jewish state in danger,” he added in an X thread.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli national security minister, tweeted simply: “Hamas ❤️Biden.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, also weighed in, telling Kan public radio that Biden’s warning was a “difficult and very disappointing remark,” according to The Times of Israel.
“Of course any pressure on Israel is interpreted by our enemies as something that gives them hope,” he said. “There are many Jewish Americans who voted for the president and for the Democratic Party, and now they are hesitant.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, however, seemed to rebuke some of the right-wingers chastising Biden, whom he described as a “great friend of the state of Israel.”
Speaking at an event commemorating the Allies’ World War II victory over Nazi Germany, Herzog added: “Even when there are disagreements and moments of disappointment between friends and allies, the disputes should be resolved in a certain way, and it is beholden upon all of us to avoid baseless, irresponsible and insulting statements and tweets that harm the national security and the interests of the state of Israel.”
