Furious White House officials reportedly canceled a meeting with Israeli officials to discuss Iran after Benjamin Netanyahu accused the United States of withholding weapons and slowing his country’s advance in Gaza.
Netanyahu made his claims in a short video, intensifying already high tension between his hardline administration and President Joe Biden.
Although Biden has delayed the delivery of some heavy bombs amid concerns about civilian casualties, officials have been careful not to accuse Israel of crossing any red lines during its assault on Rafah.
Netanyahu recorded the video Tuesday in which he describes how he told Biden’s secretary of state that Israel would finish the job faster if it had the right tools.
“It is inconceivable that in recent months the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel…Israel, America’s closest ally fighting for its life, fighting Iran and our other common enemies,” he said.
Biden’s advisers were infuriated by the message, according to the news website. axios.
Two sources said US envoy Amos Hochstein met with the Israeli prime minister to convey his anger.
The White House then canceled Thursday’s meeting with Israel officials to underscore this point.
“This decision makes clear that there are consequences for carrying out such maneuvers,” a US official said.
A senior Israeli official said the message was clear. ‘The Americans are furious. Bibi’s video caused a lot of damage,” the official said, using a nickname for the Israeli leader.
However, a White House official rejected the report, telling DailyMail.com that the next meeting of Israel’s Strategic Consultative Group had not yet been scheduled, so “nothing has been cancelled.”
“Meanwhile, meetings are being held throughout the week with Israeli officials at expert and high-level levels on a variety of topics,” the official said.
“As we said at the briefing yesterday, we have no idea what the Prime Minister is talking about, but that is no reason to reschedule a meeting.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the White House said it was taken aback by Netanyahu’s statement.
The Biden administration faces deepening opposition among its own supporters over its support of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. In this image, Palestinian men walk along a narrow street next to destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 11.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recorded a short video Tuesday describing how he told Biden’s secretary of state that Israel would finish the job faster if it had the right tools.
“We really don’t know what he’s talking about,” said Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“There’s one shipment that’s stopped, everything else is moving.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also asked about the issue on Tuesday and said the only pause was related to those heavy bombs in May.
“We, as you know, continue to review a shipment that President Biden has talked about regarding 2,000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” he said during a State Department news conference. . .
‘That remains under review. But everything else progresses as it normally would.’
The fighting has not stopped after eight months of war, caused by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
A ball of fire and black smoke rises moments after an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential building in the town of Bureij, central Gaza Strip, June 3, 2024.
Relatives and supporters of Israelis taken hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza in the October 7 attacks, demonstrate calling for their release in the central city of Tel Aviv on June 8, 2024.
Biden is under pressure from his own supporters to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The United States has provided crucial military and diplomatic support since the war began.
Two top Democrats in Congress have cleared the way for a $15 billion F-15 sale to Israel to move forward, after a delay while they sought answers from the Biden administration about Israel’s current use of weapons. Americans in the war in Gaza.
Last week, a United Nations investigation concluded that Israel committed crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza, including “extermination,” while claiming that Israeli and Palestinian armed groups had committed war crimes.
The report of the independent Commission of Inquiry – the United Nations’ first in-depth investigation into the events of the war that broke out on October 7 – found that Israeli troops have carried out “a widespread or systematic attack directed against the population civilian in Gaza”.