President Biden over the weekend drew a “red line” for Israel, warning against an attack on the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
In a Saturday interview with MSNBC, the president offered his harshest criticism to date of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Israeli leader is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he has conducted the war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. Mr. Biden said Israel must take greater care to protect civilians in Gaza.
He also made clear that an Israeli attack on Rafah would be unacceptable.
“It is a red line,” Mr. Biden said when asked about a potential Israeli military assault on the city, where more than 1 million Palestinians have sought shelter in southern Gaza amid the Israel–Hamas war.
“But I’m never going to leave Israel,” the president quickly added. “The defense of Israel is still critical. There’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
“But there’s red lines that if he crosses them — you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after” Hamas, Mr. Biden said. “There’s other ways to deal with, to get to, to deal with the trauma caused by Hamas.”
Hamas, a militant group financially backed by Iran, launched an Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and resulted in the taking of about 250 hostages. About 100 of those hostages are still in Hamas‘ hands.
Mr. Biden said CIA Director William Burns is in the Middle East right now trying to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas that would free those hostages in exchange for a six-week cease-fire.
The United Nations has warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lack access to food, water, medicine and shelter. Israel maintains that Hamas is to blame for that suffering, as the group routinely uses civilians, along with hospitals and schools, as shields for its militant operations.
Gaza officials say that more than 30,000 Palestinians have died since Israel launched its military operation in October.
Last week, Mr. Biden announced that the U.S. military would construct a temporary pier along the Gaza coast to help funnel humanitarian aid into Gaza. The Associated Press reported Sunday that a U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building that pier is en route to the Mediterranean Sea. The U.S. also has been conducting humanitarian airdrops over Gaza.
As the U.S. tries to get more aid into Gaza, the administration is no longer hiding its clear frustration with Mr. Netanyahu and his government. Mr. Biden was captured on a hot mic after his State of the Union address on Thursday saying he needs to have a “come to Jesus meeting” with Mr. Netanyahu.
The president elaborated on those comments during his weekend interview with MSNBC.
“What’s happening is he has a right to defendIsrael, a right to continue to pursue Hamas but he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken,” Mr. Biden said. “He’s hurting, in my view, he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world — it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Mr. Biden‘s use of the term “red line” may evoke memories of 2012, when then-President Barack Obama infamously declared that the use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime constituted a “red line” that would spark a direct U.S. military response. Mr. Biden was vice president at the time.
A year later after Mr. Obama’s warning, Mr. Assad used chemical weapons against his enemies, but the U.S. did not strike. The Obama administration later cut a deal in which Syria would turn over all of its chemical weapons to Russia, though by virtually all accounts, Mr. Assad retained some chemical weapons capability.