By Janet Ekstract NEW YORK -On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via video received backlash from the Biden administration on his remarks about the U.S. “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.” In response at a press conference, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was quick to criticize Netanyahu, saying: “Those comments were deeply disappointing and certainly vexing to us, given the amount of support that we have and will continue to provide.” Netanyahu was very critical because the U.S. has yet to send one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that is under review due to concerns about their being used in densely populated areas of Rafah in southern Gaza. The Biden administration took umbrage with the Israeli prime minister for his remarks which was addressed when National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on June 20.
While the U.S. is Israel’s primary military support, a number of other allies do supply Israel with weapons and a primary concern has been the alarming civilian death toll in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7 after Hamas attacked Israel on its southern border with Gaza. Netanyahu made his comments in a video he posted on X, earlier in the week, saying that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks.” Meanwhile, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein told the Israeli leader in a meeting on June 18, that his remarks, accusing the U.S. of “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel” were “unproductive” and “more importantly, completely untrue,” a senior U.S. official told CNN. Also, present at that meeting, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew made it clear to Netanyahu that his comments were incorrect, reminding him of arms shipments Israel has received from the U.S. According to Lew, “with the exception of ongoing discussion regarding large diameter munitions, other items are either delivered or in the process of being delivered, or in the normal review process.”
Meanwhile, some Biden administration officials would like Biden to go so far as to stop arming Israel due to the decision taken by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) but as a prominent Jewish Harvard professor pointed out several weeks ago on Meet The Press, the reason the administration is in a delicate dance on all these issues is because of the prominent large Jewish lobby in America. A White House official told CNN “In the meantime, meetings with Israeli officials are being held throughout the week at expert and senior levels on a range of topics. As we said in the briefing yesterday, we have no idea what the Prime Minister is talking about, but that’s not a reason for rescheduling a meeting.” Public outcry at the plethora of deaths of primarily innocent Palestinian women, children and the elderly has sparked worldwide mass protests. Netanyahu has been under intense pressure for months to agree to a ceasefire and a hostage deal while Biden has been under pressure not to continue supplying Israel with weapons without a ceasefire deal.
