Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest reaction to President Biden earlier in the week threatening that the US could withhold offensive weapons from Israel if its military escalates a ground offensive against Rafah has been to vow that his country is ready to "stand alone" and "fight with fingernails" in Gaza.
"If we must, we shall fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than our fingernails, and with that strength of spirit, with God’s help, together we shall be victorious," he said. Netanyahu is vowing to move forward with the ground offensive against the southern Gaza city where some 1.3 Palestinian refugees are located. Washington has long warned that there are not adequate enough civilian evacuation plans in place. The Rafah offensive is now official, per Axios:
Amid growing U.S. concerns about the humanitarian situation in Rafah, the Israeli security cabinet approved last night the "expansion of the area of operation" of the Israel Defense Forces in the southern Gaza city, according to three sources with knowledge of the details.
The prime minister in his latest remarks described that the country largely stood alone in the 1948 war that established Israel when it was "victorious" despite that it was fought by a "few against the many…and did not have weapon."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant echoed something similar: "We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals," he said. He asserted that "enemies as well as ... best of friends" must know that Israel "cannot be subdued".
Already the US has paused a shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs to Israel, but officials say there is still ample defense aid still in the pipeline. Perhaps Biden's 'threats' are just political posturing in order to keep more Democratic voters from jumping ship over his Gaza policy ahead of November?
A fresh Times of Israel headline issued Friday reads: Despite Biden’s pause, billions of dollars in US arms for Israel still in pipeline...
Billions of dollars worth of US weaponry remains in the pipeline for Israel, despite the delay of one shipment of bombs and a review of others by US President Joe Biden’s administration, which says it’s concerned the Israel Defense Forces could use them in densely populated Rafah, as is has in other parts of Gaza.
So the current paused shipment is likely merely symbolic, or a show of 'doing something' without actually doing it in any meaningful way, and in the end Israel's military will have whatever it needs to continue its offensive on Rafah.
"A wide range of other military equipment is due to go to Israel, including joint direct attack munitions (JDAMS), which convert dumb bombs into precision weapons; and tank rounds, mortars and armored tactical vehicles, Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters," Times of Israel continues.
"Risch said those munitions were not moving through the approval process as quickly as they should be, noting some had been in the works since December, while assistance for Israel more typically sails through the review process within weeks."
Again, it's more likely that this talk of halting defense aid is a ruse to get the political pressure turned down on the Biden White House, amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests across US college campuses and Progressive outrage.
Senator Bernie Sanders in a recent CNN interview aptly stated that "This may be Biden's Vietnam" which both could cost him the election and be a black stain on his legacy.
"I understand that a lot of people in this country are less than enthusiastic about Biden for a number of reasons and I get that. And I strongly disagree with him, especially on what’s going on in Gaza," he commented on the president's waning popularity even among Dems.
Meanwhile Israel's Security Cabinet has just approved a strategy of the IDF's "measured expansion" of the Rafah operation. This seems to simply mean that Israel will push the offensive up to the extent where Washington can still comfortably stomach it on a public and international level.
