KUALA LUMPUR – United States President Joe Biden threatened to condition support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians, seeking for the first time to leverage US aid to influence Israeli military behaviour.
According to Reuters, Biden’s warning was relayed in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, following a deadly Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers, which prompted new calls from Biden’s fellow Democrats to impose conditions on US aid to Israel.
Israel said the attack was a mistake.
Biden, a lifelong supporter of Israel, has resisted pressure to withhold aid or halt the shipment of weapons to the country.
His warning marked the first time he has threatened to potentially condition aid, a development that could change the dynamic of the nearly six-month-old war.
Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers”, the White House said of the leaders’ phone call. It said the call lasted about 30 minutes.
The president “made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps”, the White House said in a statement.
Washington is Israel’s top weapons supplier, and the Biden administration has mostly provided a diplomatic shield for it at the United Nations.
At a briefing after the call, White House spokesman John Kirby declined to elaborate on any specific changes the US would make in its policy towards Israel and Gaza.
He said Washington hoped to see an announcement of Israeli steps in the “coming hours and days”.
By suggesting that a shift in US policy towards Gaza was possible if Israel did not address the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave, Biden channelled not only his own frustration but also the mounting pressure from his left-leaning political base in the Democratic Party to halt the killings and alleviate hunger among innocent civilians.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s spokesperson, Tal Heinrich, told Fox News, “I think it’s something that Washington will have to explain.”
On Monday, Israel launched an attack that killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen group, founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.
Andres told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that the Israeli attack had targeted his aid workers “systematically, car by car”. – April 5, 2024