It\u2019s a shame upon shame that it took the deaths of six foreigners in Gaza, humanitarian workers for the U.S.-based World Central Kitchen, to finally, maybe, shake President Biden to reconsider his acquiescence \u2014 his complicity \u2014 in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s apocalyptic war there.<\/p>\n
By the time the convoy from chef Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s\u2019 organization was annihilated by an Israeli drone strike last week \u2014 killing three Brits, a Pole, an Australian and a Canadian American, along with a Palestinian driver \u2014 nearly 33,000 Gazans were dead after six months of Israel\u2019s pummeling, two-thirds of them women and children. More than a million more Gazans, half the strip\u2019s population, have been displaced. Most of those refugees have targets on their backs, crowded as they are around Rafah, Gaza\u2019s southernmost city, which Netanyahu says is next in his sights despite Biden\u2019s talk of \u201cred lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are two more casualties of Netanyahu\u2019s war. The first is the global goodwill toward Israel in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists from Gaza savagely murdered 1,200 Israelis and took more than 240 hostages, many of whom remain in Hamas\u2019 hands. And the second: the international standing of the United States, given Biden\u2019s seemingly unquestioning support to date of Israel\u2019s right-wing government.<\/p>\n
That support is no longer unquestioned, at least. Not since Biden\u2019s reportedly tense call with Netanyahu on Thursday in which we\u2019re told the president demanded that Israel take \u201cspecific, concrete and measurable steps\u201d to alleviate civilian suffering and deaths in Gaza. U.S. policy hinges on Israel\u2019s response, Biden told the prime minister. Also, Israel must agree soon to another hostage exchange with Hamas. For the first time, Biden called for \u201can immediate cease-fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, so far Biden\u2019s words remain just that, words \u2014 which the self-regarding Netanyahu will likely dismiss to survive atop his extremist coalition.<\/p>\n
For months \u201cBibi\u201d has snubbed Biden\u2019s admonitions to show restraint, to negotiate a hostage swap, to avoid a major assault on Rafah and to stop inhibiting the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which now faces famine and the collapse of medical care. But Netanyahu has paid no price for thumbing his nose at the nation that\u2019s been Israel\u2019s main defender, financial backer and arms supplier for a half-century. Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n
On the same day as the World Central Kitchen bloodbath, Biden\u2019s State Department reportedly authorized the transfer to Israel of thousands more bombs that Congress had approved long before the war against Hamas. The administration is now pressing Congress to approve the sale of F-15 fighter jets. The weaponry wouldn\u2019t arrive in Israel for years, but that prospect means Netanyahu can wage war now knowing more materiel is in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
When the U.S. sells Israel weapons, it does so without conditions; it is the only U.S. ally to get such a deal, and Biden could modify that immediately.<\/p>\n
Only a day before Biden\u2019s phone call with Netanyahu, national security spokesperson John F. Kirby told reporters the administration was planning no change in its support of Israel. But afterward, Kirby and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken publicly echoed Biden\u2019s new message. As Blinken put it, \u201cIf we don\u2019t see the changes that we need to see, there\u2019ll be changes in our own policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re left to wait and see. Martin Indyk, a former Middle East envoy and U.S. ambassador to Israel, predicted we won\u2019t wait long. If Netanyahu doesn\u2019t soon make some \u201cdramatic moves,\u201d he said, \u201cBiden will be required by his own rhetoric to take sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note that Indyk said \u201cdramatic moves.\u201d That doesn\u2019t describe Israel\u2019s initial steps. On Friday, Netanyahu\u2019s war Cabinet agreed to temporarily open a single new crossing for aid into northern Gaza and to use an Israeli port, Ashdod, to receive assistance. And the Israeli Defense Forces dismissed two officers for the attack on the aid convoy.<\/p>\n
Biden, who fully two months ago said Israel\u2019s military response to Oct. 7 was \u201cover the top,\u201d should not accept Band-Aid measures as compliance. As Ben Rhodes, Obama\u2019s deputy national security advisor, wrote, \u201cBibi obviously doesn\u2019t care what the U.S. says, it\u2019s about what the U.S. does.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a half-century at the center of U.S. foreign policy debates, Biden is steeped in this nation\u2019s tradition of bipartisan, unwavering support for Israel, even though he\u2019s experienced firsthand Netanyahu\u2019s proclivity for driving a wedge between our two political parties and humiliating American presidents, especially Democrats.<\/p>\n
President Clinton famously groused after being lectured by Netanyahu, \u201cWho the f\u2014 does he think he is? Who\u2019s the f\u2014 superpower here?\u201d In 2015, Netanyahu brazenly addressed Congress at House Republicans\u2019 invitation to oppose Obama\u2019s multinational nuclear agreement with Iran. And five years earlier, Biden was Netanyahu\u2019s victim, when Israel authorized new settlements in the West Bank, in violation of U.S. and international policy, just as the then-vice president arrived in Israel for an official visit.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an open secret that Netanyahu would like his fellow right-wing narcissist Donald Trump to return to power; he justifiably assumes Trump would give him carte blanche in Gaza. To that end, Netanyahu welcomes the erosion of Biden\u2019s support among Arab Americans and young voters because of the president\u2019s backing for Israel.<\/p>\n
Biden knows this, yet his support for Israel overrides his domestic political calculations. He also knows, however, that Netanyahu\u2019s policies are not in Israel\u2019s best interests, or the United States\u2019. He can take actions without waiting for Netanyahu\u2019s responses. Such as shelving for now the pending arms transfer and jet sales, or at a minimum, putting strict conditions on their use, as some senators have begun seeking. And getting Netanyahu\u2019s assurance that Rafah won\u2019t be razed and refugees there displaced yet again.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Blinken said \u201cthe real test is results\u201d in increased aid to Gaza. That\u2019s essential but insufficient. If that\u2019s all Thursday\u2019s call accomplishes, it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n
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(Jackie Calmes is an opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times in Washington, D.C.)<\/p>\n
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