Biden Privately Assured Netanyahu He’s Not Trying To Push Him Out
Sources have shed more light on the details of Monday’s Biden-Netanyahu phone call. Netanyahu has been fuming over what Likud officials have described as a Washington effort to push him out of power. At a moment, significant protests led by hostage victims’ families are growing larger by the week. According to sources, “President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their call on Monday that he is not trying to undermine him politically, two sources with knowledge of the call…”
Aside from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s scathing speech denouncing Netanyahu last week, there was also the ‘unauthorised’ visit of war cabinet minister Benny Gantz to Washington, D.C., two weeks ago. Netanyahu viewed it as a ploy to undermine him. There are also these developments, according to sources:
- Netanyahu’s suspicions increased when, in an interview with MSNBC earlier this month, Biden said Netanyahu is hurting Israel more than he is helping Israel.
- Last week, the U.S. intelligence community released its annual unclassified assessment, which said Netanyahu’s political future is in jeopardy, further ratcheting up Netanyahu’s concern.
A Likud Party statement said in response to Schumer’s speech: “Israel is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu.” Biden himself later called Schumer’s address “a good speech.” While the White House has been making a lot of noise about the soaring civilian death toll in Gaza, Biden has all but ensured that weapons and billions in foreign aid will always flow…
U.S. news media, Dems & anonymous Biden officials: Biden’s stuck in a war he didn’t want, he has no influence on the Israelis and the real problem is Netanyahu.
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) March 19, 2024
Joe Biden, last week: pic.twitter.com/2t3LmL5B78
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed more about his Monday phone call with President Joe Biden. He informed a closed meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that he made it clear to Biden that there’s no way to eradicate Hamas without a ground operation in Rafah.
Biden had reiterated to Netanyahu that the US sees a Rafah invasion as a “mistake” given the presence of over one million internally displaced Palestinian civilians in the city amid an already soaring death toll.
“The Americans asked that we not do an operation in Rafah,” Netanyahu told defence officials. “But there is no other choice. We need control over the Philadelphi Route,” he continued in reference to the Egypt-Gaza border area.
A White House spokesman stated on Monday that the US administration has yet to see a viable plan from the Israelis for ensuring the safety of refugees. “More than a million people have taken refuge in Rafah. Israel has not presented us or the world with a plan for how we’re where they can safely move those civilians – let alone feed and house them,” NSC spokesman Sullivan said at a briefing.
Netanyahu appeared to directly answer this criticism in his Tuesday remarks. He said that “from Israel’s standpoint, there is nothing preventing Gazans from leaving, but there aren’t countries in the world that are ready to receive them.” Earlier in the conflict, Israel reportedly leaned on neighbouring Arab countries to accept the spillover of refugees, which was a non-starter.
The UN has meanwhile issued a report warning that famine is imminent across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed Tuesday, saying the whole population is now experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity.”
“According to the most respected measure of these things, 100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified,” he said during an official visit to the Philippines.
Qatar has said it remains “cautiously optimistic” as Israeli negotiators arrive in Doha for more efforts to nail down a ceasefire and hostage/prisoner exchange deal. However, both sides have still condemned the ‘delusional’ conditions (to use Netanyahu’s words) of the other.
All 27 European Union countries, except for #Hungary @PM_ViktorOrban, have jointly called for a ceasefire in #Gaza and urged #Israel not to launch its planned assault on #Rafah. pic.twitter.com/OjzJpeZ2XQ
— Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 (@ejmalrai) March 19, 2024
But Netanyahu is still pledging to enter Rafah, and the major operation looks to be imminent, despite the mounting international pressure for such a plan to be halted.
