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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday showed U.S. President Joe Biden who’s boss and said his troops will be entering Rafah, despite Biden’s talk of a “red line.”
“We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again,” Netanyahu told Politico.
Netanyahu’s interview came a day after Biden was asked about Rafah and Netanyahu’s prosecution of the genocide and Gaza. The U.S. president has expressed concern about the city because 1.3 million Gazans are packed there and the ground invasion could very well be disastrous.
“It is a red line,” Biden said. But he assuaged Israel and said he will never leave its side under any circumstances.
“So there’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them,” he said.
Biden said in the interview that Netanyahu’s war strategy was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” which Netanyahu also rejected—saying he didn’t understand what the president meant.
“If he meant by that, that I’m pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he’s wrong on both counts,” he said. “These are policies supported by the majority of Israelis. To say that these are my private policies is false.”
A survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) found 63 percent of the Jewish public in Israel do not support an independent and demilitarized Palestinian state, the Atlantic Council reported. The think tank cited another poll that found 81 percent of Israelis believe “military pressure should be applied to Hamas so that it agrees to acceptable conditions for the release of the abductees.”
The report said, “This is something that Netanyahu and his military chiefs repeat every day.”
Two U.S. officials told CNN on Sunday that they do not expect Israel to attack Rafah with the holy month of Ramadan set to begin Monday.
TRENDPOST: Netanyahu said he will not relent in Gaza until he achieves “total victory.” (See “ISRAELIS AGREE WITH NETANYAHU: KILLING MUST GO ON IN GAZA UNTIL ‘TOTAL VICTORY’” 13 Feb 2024, “EGYPT SAYS IT WILL SUSPEND PEACE TREATY WITH ISRAEL IF NETANYAHU MAKES GOOD ON THREAT FOR GROUND OPERATION IN RAFAH” 13 Feb 2024, and “NETANYAHU: ISRAEL WAR WILL NOT STOP UNTIL WE ACHIEVE ‘TOTAL VICTORY’” 13 Feb 2024.)
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday that Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government can’t continue to control Israel “if we’re going to ever leave—bring peace to that region.”
“Year after year, we have provided billions of dollars in military aid to the government of Israel. Right now, you have a right-wing, extremist government under Netanyahu. There are plans to provide him with another $10 billion in unfettered military aid,” he told CBS News.“What you can say to Netanyahu: ‘Stop the slaughter, allow the massive amounts of humanitarian aid that we need to come in to feed the children. Please, please, please. Oh, but by the way, if you don’t do it, here’s another $10 billion to continue the war,’” he continued, according to The Hill.
TRENDPOST: Bernie Sanders speaks out of both sides of his mouth, refusing, as with others, to condemn Israel’s genocide of Palestinians:
● “ASHKENAZI NETANYAHU: NO CEASEFIRE, THOSE WHO PROTEST AGAINST WAR ARE TODAY’S NAZI SUPPORTERS” (14 Nov 2023)
● “BERNIE SANDERS CALLED A DISGRACE TO THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT FOR REFUSING TO CONDEMN GAZA GENOCIDE” (5 Dec 2023)
● “ISRAEL POLITICIAN CALLS FOR GENOCIDE: BURY PALESTINIANS ALIVE” (12 Dec 2023)
● “ISRAELI SLAUGHTER AND STARVATION OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN ESCALATES” (5 Mar 2024)