Biden and Netanyahu’s fraught relationship hits new low

“It’s definitely an earthquake.”

That’s how American diplomat Richard Haass described the stunning declaration by U.S. President Joe Biden that his administration would stop supplying certain weapons to Israel if it went ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

“This was building up for a while, and Rafah was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Haass, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and policy advisor during the George W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“There’s real skepticism in the administration that Rafah will bring about a deal for the hostages, like the Israelis have been saying.”

The last several weeks have seen a fraught back and forth between Israel and Hamas and the Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators trying to come up with a deal that will allow a cease-fire between the warring parties and a release of the hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long pushed for an invasion of Rafah — Gaza’s southernmost city where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering — saying that it’s essential to defeating Hamas and winning the war.

Numerous governments and humanitarian aid organizations including the United Nations and the WHO have warned of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of an invasion in the overcrowded enclave that’s already been ravaged by military strikes, disease and famine.

“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 – that deal with that problem,” Biden said in an interview with CNN broadcast Thursday.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” he said, when asked if the 2,000-pound bombs that the U.S. sends to Israel have killed civilians.

The Pentagon confirmed Wednesday that the administration paused the delivery to Israel of a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.

Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” support for Israel, but Austin told lawmakers that “it’s about having the right kinds of weapons for the task at hand” and that the U.S. wants to see Israel carry out “more precise” operations.

“A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, that’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment,” he said, “but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage.”

Netanyahu remains undeterred, saying that Israel will “stand alone” and fight “with our fingernails” if U.S. weapons shipments stopped. Many other Israeli lawmakers attacked Biden and the U.S. for the announcement, despite the U.S. being Israel’s single biggest supporter and source of military funding and weapons on the world stage.

Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, posted on X simply writing: “Hamas [heart emoji] Biden.”

Biden’s warning marked the first time the president, a staunch supporter of Israel and a self-proclaimed Zionist, has paused or threatened to fully halt any arms shipments to the Jewish state. It’s also important to note that the paused shipments in question may still be delivered at a later date, and that it reportedly does not apply to the $26.4 billion security assistance package for Israel already approved by Congress in April.