Joe Biden is tired of Israel not heeding his calls.
Photo: ARTIE WALKER JR. / AP / TT
Now the US can look to cut off arms supplies to Israel to get them to calm down the attacks in Gaza.
Photo: FATIMA SHBAIR / AP/ TT
THE ARTICLE IN BRIEF
US President Joe Biden plans to cut arms deliveries to Israel as a way to pressure it to reduce attacks in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid.
Frustration abounds in the White House over Israel’s tactics in Gaza, where bombings and ground operations have left about 25,000 dead, according to Hamas, with a significant proportion of civilian casualties.
Biden has repeatedly asked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to scale back the attacks and open humanitarian corridors, but those calls have been largely ignored.
The White House is now considering using arms shipments as leverage, specifically by slowing or pausing shipments of offensive weapons, sources told NBC News.
It has also been discussed to offer larger arms deliveries in return for meeting the US’s wishes.
The summary is made using OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool and quality checked by an editor.
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Frustration in the White House is great over Israeli tactics in Gaza. According to Hamas figures, the Israeli bombings and ground operation have claimed around 25,000 casualties. How many of them are civilians is unknown, but it is about a significant percentage.
President Biden and his administration have called, both publicly and privately, for greater consideration for civilians, including scaling back the attacks and opening humanitarian corridors for aid to flow in.
The calls have not been heeded and now Biden is said to have grown tired. Instead, he is thinking of adopting a new method to force a change. The idea is to use arms deliveries as a means of pressure, where one must slow down – or completely pause – the deliveries. According to NBC News, the White House has asked the Pentagon to investigate exactly which types of weapons Israel has requested and which could be used for that purpose.
Applies to offensive weapons only
The TV channel’s sources state that Israel has repeatedly asked for more weapons, including powerful bombs, ammunition and air defenses, where only offensive weapons would be relevant in the measure. The sources say that it is unlikely that they will choose to stop the supply of anti-aircraft or other weapons that are primarily for the defense of the Israeli civilian population.
They have also thought about promising larger deliveries in exchange for meeting the American wishes.
Biden has long tried to persuade Israel to be more considerate of the civilian population in Gaza – and criticism of the president and his administration for not doing more to pressure Israel has grown recently.
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