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U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview on Saturday that he’ll never leave Israel’s side, despite saying earlier that a ground invasion in Rafah was a red line because of the human toll it would take in Gaza.
He told MSNBC that Rafah was a red line, but he’s “never going to leave Israel.”
“The defense of Israel is still critical,” he said, according to Reuters. “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.”
The president’s comments to NBC News were not surprising given that the Biden administration has refused to put any conditions on weapons shipments to Israel, snuck past two “emergency weapons” sales to Israel, quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate weapons sales, and wants another $17 billion so Israel can continue its target practice in Gaza.
Earlier this month, Biden told reporters at the White House that a ground invasion in Rafah—where over 1.3 million Gazans are huddled, with nowhere else to go—should not occur unless Israel comes up with a “credible plan for ensuring the safety and support” for Palestinians.
“You can’t have another 30,000 Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after (Hamas)” in Rafah, he told MSNBC.
Israeli officials have been clear that their top military objective was to clear Gaza’s north, but as the war evolved these same officials said they need their forces to clear Gaza’s south because Hamas fighters are hiding among the population in what has been called “the safe zone.”
Josep Borell, the EU’s Foreign policy head, called reports of an Israeli military offensive in Rafah “alarming.”
“It would also have catastrophic consequences, worsening the already dire humanitarian situation,” he said.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned that a ground invasion in Rafah would “exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare.”
Egypt has said it will suspend the Camp David Accords—a peace treaty with Israel from 1978—if Netanyahu makes good on his threat to carry out a ground operation in Gaza’s Rafah.
Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News that victory is “within reach.”
“We are going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion. We are going to do this while providing safe passage for the civilian population,” he said.
TRENDPOST: Biden comments should be no surprise to Trends Journal subscribers. We have gone into great detail about Biden’s unrelenting loyalty to Israel—no matter the political cost that he believes will not be too damaging. (See “BULLSHIT BIDEN CAUGHT BULLSHITING ABOUT CEASEFIRE PROSPECTS” 5 Mar 2024, “BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO FUND ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE IN GAZA DESPITE PRETENDING TO CARE ABOUT DEAD PALESTINIANS” 20 Feb 2024, “BULLSHIT BLINKEN: KEEP THE GENOCIDE GOING, A LOT OF WORK REMAINS” 13 Feb 2024, “WITH NETANYAHU FACING POSSIBILITY OF ELECTION, HE’LL KEEP RAMPING UP THE WAR” 6 Feb 2024, and “PROFESSOR CALLS U.S. APPROACH TO THE ISRAELI WAR ‘NOTHING OTHER THAN HYPOCRITICAL’” 23 Jan 2024.)
Israel claims it needs to conduct a ground operation in Rafah because Hamas fighters are hiding there.
The position in the U.S. and Israel is that there is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian, and if Gazans want to stop getting butchered, Hamas should turn over the hostages. And of course, it is delusional to believe that killing some 30,000 Palestinians—40 percent children, 30 percent women—and bombing the enclave into ruins has anything to do with defeating Hamas.