‘Protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers in Gaza or Washington could rein in support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants.’ This was the U.S. President, Joe Biden stance towards Israel which therefore, effectively gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an ultimatum on Thursday:
The White House did not reveal the steps for Netanyahu to take, nor what it would do if he failed to take them, but, analysts said the implicit threat was to slow U.S. arms transfers to Israel or to temper U.S. support at the U.N.
The message, after months of U.S. calls for Israel to change its military tactics that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, followed an Israeli attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers and triggered global outrage.
Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. diplomat now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said: “The president, in effect, is saying meet these humanitarian needs or I will have no choice but to condition (military) assistance.”
Describing their call, the White House said Biden called for Israel “to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.
“He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” the White House added in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was more blunt.
“Look, I’ll just say this: if we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday evening, just hours after the call, the Israeli government announced several steps to increase aid flows to Gaza, including opening the Ashdod port and the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and increasing aid deliveries from Jordan. It was not clear if the steps would be enough to satisfy U.S. demands.
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