President Joe Biden said Wednesday that if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders an invasion of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, then he will not supply Israel with any more American-made weapons.
In an interview on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront a week after Biden paused weapons shipments, the president also acknowledged that those weapons have been used to kill civilians in the territory.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” he said.
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“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah—they haven’t gone in Rafah yet—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,” Biden explained.
Israel’s military operations thus far in Rafah—launching strikes close to the city’s border areas—haven’t yet crossed a “red line” warranting cutting off its weapons shipments, Biden said, though they have inflamed diplomatic efforts.
“They haven’t gone into the population centers. What they did is right on the border, and it’s causing problems with, right now, in terms of—with Egypt, which I’ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help,” Biden said.
“But I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if, in fact, they go on these population centers,” he explained. “We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”
Hamas said Monday it agreed to a ceasefire deal drawn up by Egypt and Qatar, though Israel has not accepted it. That same day, Israel ordered over 100,000 Gazans to evacuate Rafah.
Burnett also asked Biden whether he can “hear the message” of pro-Palestine protesters, many of whom have demonstrated on college campuses.
“Absolutely I hear the message,” Biden said. “Look, two things: First of all, there’s a legitimate right to free speech and protest—there’s a legitimate right to do that, and they have a right to do that. There’s not a legitimate right to use hate speech. There’s not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students. There’s not a legitimate right to block people's access to class. That’s against the law.”
Biden then referred to his speech Tuesday during the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance ceremony.
“I pointed out that, you know, it took seven decades to get to the place where after the Holocaust occurred, and there’s still antisemitism. Look what‘s happened in seven weeks, I mean…everybody’s sort of forgotten about what happened in Israel—those 1,200 young kids murdered,” he said. “I saw pictures [when] I went over there swiftly after [of] a mother and daughter being roped together and then kerosene flame burned to death. Nothing like that’s happened in the Jewish community since the Holocaust.”
Biden then recalled what he told Netanyahu following Hamas’ terror attack last October.
“When I went over immediately after that happened, I said to Bibi: ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden and we will help you get similar. But we went into Afghanistan…it made sense to get bin Laden. It made no sense to try and unify Afghanistan,’” he said.
“It made no sense in my view, to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon. ‘Don‘t make the same mistake,’” he advised. “‘Focus—and we will help you focus on—getting the bad guys, but we’ve got to think through what is happening after Gaza, after this is over—who’s going to occupy Gaza.’”
