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      In defying Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu is exposing the limits of US power | Jonathan Freedland

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      The pictures out of Gaza get more harrowing with each passing day. After months of witnessing civilians grieving for loved ones killed by bombs, now we see children desperate to eat – victims of what the aid agencies and experts are united in calling an imminent “man-made” famine. What matters most about these images is their depiction of a continuing horror inflicted on the people of Gaza. But they also reveal something that could have lasting implications for Israelis and Palestinians, for Americans and for the entire world. What they show, indeed what they advertise, is the weakness of the president of the United States.Joe Biden and his most senior lieutenants have been urging Israel to increase the flow of food aid into Gaza for months, in ever more insistent terms. This week the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, cited the finding of a UN-backed agency that the threat of hunger now confronted “100% of the population of Gaza”,adding that this was the first time that body had issued such a warning. Earlier this month, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, told Israel it needed to do whatever it took to get humanitarian aid into Gaza: “No excuses.” The Biden administration is all but banging the table and demanding Israel act.A week ago, it seemed to have had an effect. The Israel Defense Forces announced what was billed as a “dramatic pivot”, promising that it would “flood” Gaza with food supplies. But there’s precious little sign of it. An additional crossing has been opened, the so-called 96th gate, allowing a few more trucks to go in, but nothing on the scale that is required to avert disaster – or mitigate the disaster already unfolding. For all the talk of a pivot, there is still “a series of impediments, blockages, restrictions … on lorries carrying the most basic humanitarian aid”, David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee said this week. He noted the way that Israel’s ban on “dual use” items, those things that could be used as weapons if they fell into the hands of Hamas, means that even the inclusion of a simple pair of scissors for a clinic can result in an entire truckful of aid being turned back.To repeat, the victims of this are the 2.2 million people of Gaza, who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. But it represents a severe problem, or several, for Biden too. The most obvious is that he is in a re-election year, seeking to reassemble the coalition that brought him victory in 2020. Back then, a crucial constituency was the young, with voters under 30 favouring Biden over Donald Trump by 25 points. Now it’s a dead heat. To be sure, there are several factors to explain that shift, but one of them is younger Americans’ outrage at the plight of Gaza.The threat to re-election is illustrated most sharply in the battleground state of Michigan, home to 200,000 Arab-Americans who are similarly appalled, with many unequivocal that they will not vote for Biden, even if that risks the return of Trump – with all that implies for the US and the world. That number is more than enough to tip the state from Democrat to Republican in November. “If the election were held tomorrow, I think Biden would lose Michigan,” veteran Republican strategist Mike Murphy told me on the Unholy podcast this week. For Biden, “this is a pain point”.US support for Israel in this context would be a headache for any Democratic president, but Israel’s willingness to defy its most important ally presses especially on Biden. For one thing, the upside of his great age is supposed to be his experience in foreign affairs and especially his personal relationships with fellow world leaders. He likes to say he has known every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir and that he’s dealt with Netanyahu for decades. Critics reply: a fat lot of good it’s done you.And that is the heart of the matter. For most of Israel’s history, it’s been taken as read that a clear objection from a US president is enough to make an Israeli prime minister change course. A shake of the head from Dwight Eisenhower brought an end to the Suez war of 1956. A phone call from Ronald Reagan ended the Israeli bombardment of west Beirut in 1982. In 1991, George HW Bush pushed a reluctant Likud prime minister to attend the Madrid peace conference, by withholding $10bn in loan guarantees.Biden has repeatedly made his displeasure known, and yet Netanyahu does not budge. It’s making the US look weak and for Biden especially, that’s deadly. “The subtext of the whole Republican campaign is that the world’s out of control and Biden’s not in command,” David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, told me on Unholy . “That’s basically their argument, and they use age as a surrogate for weakness.” Every time Netanyahu seems to be “punking” Biden, says Axelrod, it makes things worse.Plenty of Israeli analysts suggest that appearances are deceptive. In their view, Netanyahu is making a great show of thumbing his nose at Biden, because he is in an undeclared election campaign and defiance of Washington plays well with his base, but in reality he is much more compliant. In this reading, Team Netanyahu’s talk of a ground operation in Rafah – where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed together, most having fled Israeli bombardment – is just talk. Yes, the Israeli PM likes to threaten a Rafah invasion, to put pressure on Hamas and to have a bargaining chip with the Americans, but he is hardly acting like a man committed to doing it. Amos Harel, much-respected defence analyst for the Haaretz newspaper, notes that there are only three and a half IDF brigades currently in Gaza, compared with 28 at the height of hostilities. “Netanyahu is in a campaign, and for the time being at least, ‘Rafah’ is just a slogan,” he told me.Let’s hope that’s right, and a Rafah operation is more rhetorical than real. That does not address Israel’s foot-dragging on aid, which Netanyahu is clearly in no hurry to end, in part because his ultranationalist coalition partners believe sending food to Gaza is tantamount to aiding the Hamas enemy.That leaves Biden with two options. His preferred outcome is a breakthrough in the talks in Qatar, which would see both a release of some of the hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October and a pause in fighting, allowing aid to flow in. But Netanyahu fears such a pause, which would hasten the day of reckoning for his role in leaving Israel’s southern communities so badly exposed six months ago to Hamas – whether that reckoning is at the hands of the electorate or a commission of inquiry. He prefers to play for time, ideally until November, when Netanyahu hopes to say goodbye to Biden and welcome back Trump.The alternative for Biden is tougher. Last month, he issued a new protocol, demanding those countries that receive US arms affirm in writing that they abide by international law, including on humanitarian aid. If the US doesn’t certify that declaration, all arms sales stop immediately. In Israel’s case, the deadline for certification is Sunday.Joe Biden does not want to be the man who stopped arming Israel, not least because that would leave the country vulnerable to the mighty arsenal of Hezbollah just across the northern border with Lebanon. His administration is split on the move and he may well deem it too much. But he does need to see food flood into Gaza, right away. He has tried asking Netanyahu nicely. Now he needs to get tough.
      Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist More

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      Republican House speaker says he’ll invite Netanyahu to address Congress

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      Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Thursday that he plans to invite Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to speak before Congress.The comments come a week after Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called for elections in Israel which could oust Netanyahu, claiming the prime minister has “has lost his way”.Republican support for Netanyahu has remained staunch, despite the death toll in Gaza rising to more than 30,000 in the face of Israel’s continued military action.“I would love to have him come in and address a joint session of Congress,” Johnson said on Thursday morning, in an interview with CNBC. “We’ll certainly extend that invitation.”Johnson said it would be “a great honor of mine” to invite the Israeli leader. He added: “We’re just trying to work out schedules on all this”.Netanyahu addressed Republican senators virtually at a closed door event on Wednesday. Earlier in the week Israel’s prime minister said he was “determined” to carry out a ground invasion of Rafah, the city in the south of Gaza, despite opposition from Joe Biden. An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter in Rafah after fleeing violence elsewhere in the country.Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, was criticized by Republicans and by Israel’s ruling Likud party after he said Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel” in a speech in the Senate.The Senate leader pointed out that Netanyahu had included far-right figures in his government, and said the prime minister “has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”On Thursday, Schumer said he would welcome Netanyahu to speak before Congress.“Israel has no stronger ally than the United States and our relationship transcends any one president or any one prime minister,” Schumer said in a statement.“I will always welcome the opportunity for the prime minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way.”Johnson’s invitation comes after Reuters reported on Wednesday that a bill being worked on by the House, Senate and the Biden administration would continue a ban on funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), the main UN agency for Palestinians, until March 2025.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe White House said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to Unrwa after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the 7 October Hamas attack.Australia, Sweden, the European Commission and Canada recently reinstated funding to Unrwa, having paused funding while the allegations were investigated.In announcing the resumption of funding Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said: “The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that Unrwa is not a terrorist organization.”In 2015, Netanyahu infuriated the Obama administration by accepting an invitation from John Boehner, then the Republican speaker, to address a joint sitting of Congress about the threat of a nuclear Iran.That speech was interpreted as a partisan intervention in US politics, and an attempt to wreck western negotiations with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The White House was particularly incensed that Boehner and Ron Dermer, then the Israeli ambassador to Washington, conspired to arrange the speech without consulting the administration. More

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      Blinken Will Travel to Israel as Part of Gaza Cease-Fire Efforts

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      Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Israel this week, adding a stop to his latest Middle East trip amid intense diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.Mr. Blinken arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday afternoon. The State Department initially made no mention of Israel in announcing his travel plans, saying only that he would visit Saudi Arabia and then Egypt on the trip — Mr. Blinken’s sixth to the region since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel set off the war in Gaza.On Wednesday, the State Department said that Mr. Blinken would travel to Israel, as well, for talks with the country’s “leadership” about efforts to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza and to “dramatically increase” humanitarian aid deliveries to the enclave.There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli government. Nor were there details on whom Mr. Blinken would meet with.The visit will come as American and Israeli leaders are increasingly at odds over Israel’s approach to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has brushed aside President Biden’s opposition to a planned ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, saying on Tuesday that his government would press ahead despite pleas for restraint from the United States and other allies.In a phone call with Mr. Netanyahu this week, Mr. Biden argued that a ground invasion could be disastrous for those sheltering in Rafah and that Israel had other ways of achieving its objective of defeating Hamas.The White House is expected to host an Israeli delegation early next week to discuss Israel’s plans for the invasion, and the issue will also be on Mr. Blinken’s agenda when he is in Israel.The State Department said that on his visit, Mr. Blinken would “discuss the need to ensure the defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah, in a way that protects the civilian population, does not hinder the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and advances Israel’s overall security.”Mr. Blinken’s trip comes as negotiators from Israel have joined officials from Egypt and Qatar for meetings in the Qatari capital, Doha, aimed at securing a pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held there by Hamas and other armed groups.Those efforts have taken on greater urgency as the death toll in Gaza climbs and as the United Nations warns that a famine in the enclave is “imminent.”John Yoon More

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      White House warns Texas immigration law will ‘sow chaos and confusion at our southern border’ – as it happened

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      The supreme court has allowed a law passed by Texas’s Republican-dominated state government that gives police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect.The court’s six conservative justices turned down an appeal from the Biden administration, which wanted the law blocked while it challenged it in lower courts. The court’s three liberals dissented.The measure had been on hold due to a stay authorized by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who was among the group that allowed it to go into effect. Alito extended it yesterday:The White House expressed outrage after Donald Trump said in an interview that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion, with a spokesman for Joe Biden decrying Trump’s “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”, and the Democratic National Committee saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”. Meanwhile, the leaders of Congress announced a government funding deal to avert a partial shutdown that would have begun this coming weekend, though it still needs to be approved by lawmakers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was “deeply concerned” about reports of an imminent famine in northern Gaza, while again calling on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.Here’s what else happened today:
      The supreme court allowed a Texas law granting police powers to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect, drawing objections from the White House.
      Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, but not without railing against his conviction one last time.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham took up a proposal, championed by Trump, to turn Ukraine aid into a loan. The White House declined to comment.
      It’s primary day in five states, with most of the drama occurring in down-ballot elections.
      The Biden campaign launched an effort to win the support of Latino voters in the November elections.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted Texas’s SB4 immigration law, saying in a statement that allowing state police to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally will upend border security:
      We fundamentally disagree with the Supreme Court’s order allowing Texas’ harmful and unconstitutional law to go into effect. S.B. 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border. S.B. 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while blocking real solutions. We remained focused on delivering the significant policy changes and resources we need to secure the border – that is why we continue to call on Congressional Republicans to pass the bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades.
      Some thoughts on the implications of the supreme court allowing Texas’s SB4 to go into effect and give police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally, from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council:However, the law is still being litigated at the appeals level, and depending on how that plays out, Reichlin-Melnick predicts the supreme court may have to weigh in on it again soon:In a dissent, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor writes that allowing the Texas immigration law to go into effect “invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement”.“Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century, in which the National Government has had exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizen,” writes Sotomayor, who is joined by fellow liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.“Texas can now immediately enforce its own law imposing criminal liability on thousands of noncitizens and requiring their removal to Mexico. This law will disrupt sensitive foreign relations, frustrate the protection of individuals fleeing persecution, hamper active federal enforcement efforts, undermine federal agencies’ ability to detect and monitor imminent security threats, and deter noncitizens from reporting abuse or trafficking.”Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott called the supreme court’s decision a “positive development”, but notes it is still being challenged at the appeals court level:The Texas law allowing police to arrest suspected undocumented border crossers comes amid a wider confrontation with the Biden administration over border security. Here’s more on that, and the supreme court’s decision to allow the law to go into effect, from Reuters:The US supreme court on Tuesday declined to block a Republican-backed Texas law allowing state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of crossing the US-Mexico border illegally, rejecting a request by President Joe Biden’s administration.The administration had asked the justices to freeze a judicial order allowing the Texas law to take effect while the US government’s challenge to the statute proceeds in the lower courts. The administration has argued that the law violates the US constitution and federal law by interfering with the US government’s power to regulate immigration.Governor Greg Abbott last December signed the law, known as SB 4, authorizing Texas law enforcement officers to arrest people suspected of entering the United States illegally, giving local officers powers long delegated to the US government.Abbott said the law was needed due to Biden’s failure to enforce federal laws criminalizing illegal entry or re-entry, telling a press conference on 18 December that “Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself.“The supreme court has allowed a law passed by Texas’s Republican-dominated state government that gives police the power to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally to go into effect.The court’s six conservative justices turned down an appeal from the Biden administration, which wanted the law blocked while it challenged it in lower courts. The court’s three liberals dissented.The measure had been on hold due to a stay authorized by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who was among the group that allowed it to go into effect. Alito extended it yesterday:An Arizona lawmaker announced on Monday on the state senate floor that she plans to have an abortion after learning that her pregnancy is not viable, the Associated Press writes.State senator Eva Burch, a registered nurse known for her reproductive rights activism, was surrounded by fellow Democratic senators as she made the announcement, the Arizona Republic reported and the AP brings us via news wire.Burch said that she found out a few weeks ago that “against all odds”, she was pregnant. The mother of two living children from west Mesa who is running for re-election said she has had “a rough journey” with fertility. She experienced her first miscarriage 13 years ago, was pregnant many times and terminated a nonviable pregnancy as she campaigned for her senate seat two years ago, she said.Now, Burch said that her current pregnancy was not progressing and not viable and she had made an appointment to terminate.
      I don’t think people should have to justify their abortions. But I’m choosing to talk about why I made this decision because I want us to be able to have meaningful conversations about the reality of how the work that we do in this body impacts people in the real world.”
      Burch said the state’s laws have “interfered” with her decision. Arizona law required an “invasive” transvaginal ultrasound that her doctor didn’t order and she was then read “factually false” information about alternatives that was required by law, she said.
      I’m a perfect example of why this relationship should be between patients and providers,” not state lawmakers,” Burch said.
      Burch called on the legislature to pass laws that make sure every Arizonan has the opportunity to make decisions that are right for them. She also said she hoped voters have a chance to weigh in on the topic of abortion rights on the November ballot.Joe Biden is onboard Air Force One en route to Nevada and expects to touch down shortly in Reno, for a campaign event, then head on to Las Vegas and, later, Arizona and its state capital, Phoenix.The US president and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, are today launching a special push to retain and win over teetering Hispanic voters who might be leaning towards the Republicans.Donald Trump was ahead of Biden in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of Latino voters by six points. Many respond to Trump’s conservative economic message and hardline approach to migration and future immigration.Biden and Harris have devised the “Latinos con Biden/Harris” [Latinos with Biden/Harris] campaign. Harris has posted about it on X/Twitter, with Biden reposting/tweeting. There’s a clip of her on a bilingual radio show in Phoenix, Arizona, and giving speeches and making statements, talking up the US as a nation of immigrants.“Generation after generation, immigrants have made our nation stronger,” she said. There’s also a clip of her saying the US immigration system has been “broken for years”, which in the fourth year of the Biden administration is a tough message to push, despite intransigence in Congress and unprecedented forces driving migration, from extremism to the climate crisis.The White House expressed outrage after Donald Trump said in an interview that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion, with a spokesman for Joe Biden decrying Trump’s “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric”, and the Democratic National Committee saying the former president “should be ashamed of himself”. Meanwhile, in Congress, the top Democrats and Republicans announced a government funding deal to avert a partial shutdown that would have begun this coming weekend, though it still needs to be approved by lawmakers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was “deeply concerned” about reports of an imminent famine in northern Gaza, while again calling on Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, but not without railing against his conviction one last time.
      Republican senator Lindsey Graham took up a proposal, championed by Trump, to turn Ukraine aid into a loan. The White House declined to comment.
      It’s primary day in five states, with most of the drama occurring in down-ballot elections.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was also asked if the Biden administration had looked into making its aid to Ukraine a loan, as Donald Trump has proposed.She didn’t answer the question, only restating their position that Republican House speaker Mike Johnson must allow a vote on legislation approved by the Senate to provide military assistance to Ukraine along with Taiwan and Israel.“To give Ukraine what they need is to get that national [security] supplemental passed,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.“We know for a fact that there are multiple Republican congressional members in the House who have said that they would vote for it if it goes to the floor. We know where Democrats are on this,” she continued. “The speaker has to put it to the floor and not … let politics get in the way.”Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre just told reporters that the White House is “deeply concerned” over aid groups’ warning that famine in northern Gaza is imminent.“We certainly are deeply concerned about the report yesterday … about the imminent famine in Gaza,” Jean-Pierre said. “As the report makes clear, despite ongoing and tireless efforts, including by this administration, the amount of aid reaching people in Gaza, and particularly those most in need, remains insufficient. “So, we have been clear that there is more that needs to be done and this report is a stark and devastating reminder of this.”The United States has been airdropping food and other aid into the enclave, and Joe Biden announced earlier this month that the US military would build a floating pier to allow deliveries by sea.“Everyone needs to do more,” said Jean-Pierre, who called on Israel “to provide sustained and unimpeded for assistance to enter both northern and southern Gaza.” More

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      Netanyahu Rejects Schumer Call for Israeli Election

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      The Israeli leader lashed back at a call from a prominent Democratic senator for elections in Israel.The rift over the war in Gaza between Israel and the United States, its closest ally, broadened on Sunday when Israel’s prime minister accused a top-ranking American lawmaker of treating his country like a “banana republic.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing increasing pressure to negotiate a cease-fire, lashed out at Senator Chuck Schumer over his call for elections to be held in Israel when the war winds down. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Netanyahu suggested that Mr. Schumer, the Senate majority leader, was trying to topple his government and said his call for an election was “totally inappropriate.”“That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public, does on its own,” he said. “We’re not a banana republic.”On Thursday, Mr. Schumer, a Democrat from New York who is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, delivered a scathing speech on the Senate floor, accusing Mr. Netanyahu of letting his political survival supersede “the best interests of Israel” and of being “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza.”The speech was indicative of the widening gap between Israel and the United States over the war and mounting frustrations in Washington with Mr. Netanyahu’s policies. President Biden praised Mr. Schumer’s speech, though he stopped short of endorsing the call for a new election.Among the most contentious issues: how to get food and aid into the Gaza Strip.With the humanitarian crisis worsening, the United States this month started airdropping food and water into the enclave. On Friday, a maritime shipment of aid reached northern Gaza’s shores, the first to do so in nearly two decades. Another shipment of essential goods is expected to soon set sail for Gaza from Cyprus.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      First Sea-Borne Aid Reaches Gaza Amid Fears About Security and Malnutrition

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      The 200 tons of food provided by a celebrity chef’s charity arrived as UNICEF said rising numbers of children in Gaza were facing food deprivation.The first shipment of aid to reach Gaza by sea in almost two decades was fully unloaded on Saturday on a makeshift jetty in the Mediterranean, marking a milestone in a venture that Western officials hope will ease the enclave’s worsening food deprivation.The ship, the Open Arms, towed a barge from Cyprus loaded with about 200 tons of rice, flour, lentils and canned tuna, beef and chicken, supplied by the World Central Kitchen charity.José Andrés, the Spanish American chef who founded the World Central Kitchen, said his team would begin dispatching the food by truck, including to Gaza’s north, an area gripped by lawlessness and badly damaged by Israeli airstrikes.But the distribution was set to unfold in the shadow of a series of attacks that have killed or wounded Palestinians scrambling for desperately needed food. United Nations aid groups had to largely suspend deliveries in northern Gaza last month, and its human rights office has documented more than two dozen such attacks.The latest bloodshed took place late Thursday in Gaza City, where at least 20 people died after an aid convoy came under attack. Gazan health officials and the Israeli military traded blame; many details about what had unfolded remained unclear on Saturday.World Central Kitchen offered few details about its distribution plan, even as it was loading a second supply ship in Cyprus. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had deployed naval and ground forces to secure the area where the supplies were unloaded, though it remained unclear who would handle the distribution.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Top senator calls on Biden to ‘use all levers’ to pressure Israel over Gaza

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      Joe Biden should use his leverage and the law to pressure Israel to change how it is prosecuting the war in Gaza, the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said.Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, is among a group of senators urging Biden to stop providing Israel with offensive weapons until it lifts restrictions on the delivery of food and medicine into Gaza, where children are now dying of hunger and famine looms.“We need the president and the Biden administration to push harder and to use all the levers of US policy to ensure people don’t die of starvation,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Friday.This week, Van Hollen and seven of his colleagues sent a letter to the president arguing that Israel was in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, a section of which prohibits the sale and transfer of military weapons to any nation that restricts the delivery of US aid.Their call comes as the administration faces mounting domestic and international pressure over what critics have described as an “absurd” and “inherent contradiction” at the heart of US policy on Israel’s war against Hamas: while the US attempts to ease the deepening humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian territory, it continues to arm the country.In a sign of the widening rift between Israel and its most important ally, Van Hollen said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was openly defying Biden’s pleas that Israel do more to protect civilians in Gaza and work toward a long-term solution to the conflict that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state.“Prime Minister Netanyahu has been an obstacle to the president’s efforts to at least create some light at the end of this very dark tunnel,” Van Hollen said.In recent weeks, Biden has escalated his criticism of Israel’s military offensive, saying last weekend that Netanyahu was “hurting” his country’s standing by failing to prevent more civilian deaths in Gaza. But the US president has so far resisted Democrats’ calls to leverage future military aid as a means of reining in Israel’s conduct in the war.The United Nations warned last month that more than a quarter of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza face “catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation”. It said without action, widespread famine would be “almost inevitable”. Israel’s military campaign, which came in retaliation for the Hamas attack on 7 October that killed about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and killed more than 30,000 people, most of them civilians.With the prospects of a truce elusive and far too little aid trickling in, Biden has authorized airdrops and the construction of a maritime corridor to deliver desperately needed food and medicine to the Palestinian people living in the besieged territory. But critics say those methods are less effective, less efficient and more dangerous than the unhindered delivery of supplies by land.“The very fact that the United States is airlifting humanitarian supplies and is now going to be opening a temporary port is a symptom of the larger problem, which is [that] the Netanyahu government has restricted the amount of aid coming into Gaza and the safe distribution of aid within Gaza,” Van Hollen said.Israel, which tightened its already strict controls on access to the enclave after 7 October, has denied that it is impeding the flow of aid.Amid intensifying international pressure, Israel said this week it would expand the amount of supplies into the country. A small convoy of six trucks, coordinated by the Israeli military, brought humanitarian aid directly into the isolated northern Gaza earlier this week. Separately, an aid ship loaded with 200 tons of rice, flour, chicken and other items arrived in Gaza on Friday, in the first test of a new sea route.But that is a far cry from what is needed, humanitarian workers say. Before the five-month-old conflict began, roughly 500 truckloads of humanitarian aid per day crossed into the territory. Now the number is far less, sometimes peaking above 200 trucks per day but often well below, according to UN figures.Van Hollen’s insistence that the US do more to push Israel on humanitarian aid was informed by his visit to the Rafah crossing from Egypt in January, and the onerous Israeli inspection process he witnessed.“You witnessed these very, very long lines of trucks trying to get in through Rafah and through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and quite an inspection review, including arbitrary denials of humanitarian aid being delivered into Gaza, which just makes the process even more cumbersome,” he said.“For example, we visited a warehouse in Rafah that was filled with goods that had been rejected at the inspection sites. The rejected goods included things like maternity kits, included things like water purification systems.”Van Hollen said no specific reason was given as to why the items were rejected, but said Israel has broadly claimed that they could be considered “dual use” or having a civilian or military purpose. The maternity kit, Van Hollen said, contained a “teeny little scalpel” that he speculated was the reason the package was turned back.Across the border in Gaza, the situation is dire. UN agencies have estimated that 180 women give birth every day, sometimes without access to adequate pain medication, food or hygiene products. Malnourished, dehydrated and increasingly anemic, many pregnant women in Gaza face elevated risks of postpartum hemorrhaging.Another problem, Van Hollen said, is that so many of the people delivering aid or accompanying the aid convoys have been killed, making coordination and distribution of the aid that does enter difficult.Netanyahu and his government, the senator said, “need to open more crossings, they need to end the arbitrary rejection of goods like maternity kits and solar powered desalinization units, and they need to make sure that food can be safely delivered within Gaza without people getting killed.”Van Hollen’s comments came the day after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US and a longtime ally of Israel’s, was unsparing in a speech in which he declared that Netanyahu had “lost his way”, and urged Israelis to hold elections to replace him. Biden, who has been increasingly open about his frustration with Netanyahu, called it a “good speech”.Van Hollen called Schumer’s speech an “important moment” that made clear the US believes “there needs to be a change in course” in the way Israel is conducting the war.‘The administration will have to decide’In the letter to Biden earlier this week, Van Hollen and his colleagues wrote: “According to public reporting and your own statements, the Netanyahu government is in violation of [the Foreign Assistance Act]. Given this reality, we urge you to make it clear to the Netanyahu government that failure to immediately and dramatically expand humanitarian access and facilitate safe aid deliveries throughout Gaza will lead to serious consequences, as specified under existing US law.”Van Hollen also argued that the Israeli government is “not in compliance” with a national security memorandum (NSM 20) issued by the president last month that requires any country that receives US military assistance to provide written assurances it will “not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede” the delivery of humanitarian aid.Israel reportedly provided that commitment in a letter to Biden signed by Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday, according to Axios. Van Hollen said the onus is now on the US to assess the credibility of Israel’s assurances.“Part of that evaluation will depend on what’s happening on the ground right now, and their assessment of whether or not, in fact, the Netanyahu government is meeting that requirement,” he said. “And if the signatures and commitments are found to be lacking, then the administration cannot provide military assistance until they determine that they’re credible.”View image in fullscreenVan Hollen stressed that enforcing the statute would not prevent the US from continuing to send defensive military assistance to protect Israeli citizens from rocket attacks, such as the Iron Dome.The memorandum was issued last month, after Van Hollen and more than a dozen Democratic senators introduced an amendment to a wartime aid package that included military assistance for Ukraine, Israel and other US-allies. The senators’ proposal, which would have required any country receiving US weapons to comply with humanitarian laws, risked a messy floor fight among Democrats divided over the US’s approach to the war amid Gaza’s rising death toll.Instead, Van Hollen said, the administration offered to turn the amendment into a memorandum that, with the force of law, would apply the terms to the sale and transfer of all US military aid. Biden issued the memorandum, and the Senate later approved the foreign aid package, with Van Hollen’s support. That measure is now languishing in the House.Biden has warned that Israel would cross a “red line” if it proceeded with a large-scale invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where the war has pushed nearly half of Gaza’s population. Reports suggest Netanyahu has approved a plan to invade the city, setting him up for direct conflict with the US president.Biden has not made clear what consequences Netanyahu might face if he ignores the US’s position. An invasion of Rafah, Van Hollen said, would present “one of those moments where the Biden administration is going to have to decide whether it’s going to back up the president’s strong words with the leverage that it has”. More

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      Biden says Schumer made ‘good speech’ in breaking with Benjamin Netanyahu

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      Joe Biden on Friday said Senator Chuck Schumer made “a good speech” that reflected many Americans’ concerns when he publicly broke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over his handling of the war in Gaza.While the US president announced no changes in his administration’s policy towards Israel, his views on the speech Schumer made Thursday from the floor of the US Senate, where the New York Democrat is the majority leader, could portend a broader shift in sentiment.Tensions have been rising between senior members of the Biden administration, including the president and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and rightwinger Netanyahu, in the continued absence of a ceasefire deal.Schumer’s speech was a surprise to many and attracted criticism from US Republican lawmakers and Israel’s ruling party.“I’m not going to elaborate on the speech. He made a good speech,” Biden said at the start of an Oval Office meeting with Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar , adding that he had been given advance notice of Schumer’s comments.“I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,” Biden said.Varadkar also addressed the conflict, saying: “We need a ceasefire as soon as possible to get food and medicine in, to get the hostages out. We need to talk about how we can make that happen and move towards a two-state solution.”Biden said he agreed with his comments.Hamas, the Islamist militancy that controls Gaza, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostages back into the Palestinian territory, where more than 100 are still being held. In response, Israel invaded and besieged Gaza and has so far killed at least 30,000 people in the coastal strip, and put some parts on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.In a separate statement, the president marked the International Day to Combat Islamophobia by warning that prejudice against Muslims has seen an “ugly resurgence … in the wake of the devastating war in Gaza”.“That includes right here at home. I’ve said it many times: Islamophobia has no place in our nation,” Biden said.The US government has publicly supported Israel since the October attack. But on Thursday, Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, called for new elections in the country, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.View image in fullscreenSchumer said Netanyahu, who has long opposed Palestinian statehood, was among several roadblocks to implementing the two-state solution supported by the United States, where Israel and a Palestinian state would exist in peace. He also blamed rightwing Israelis, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas.“These are the four obstacles to peace, and if we fail to overcome them, then Israel and the West Bank and Gaza will be trapped in the same violent state of affairs they’ve experienced for the last 75 years,” Schumer said.The Senate leader accused the prime minister of being “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”The ruling Likud party responded to Schumer by defending the prime minister’s public support in the country and saying Israel was “not a banana republic”.“Contrary to Schumer’s words, the Israeli public supports a total victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictates to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” it said in a statement.The Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, struck a similar tone. “Israel is not a colony of America whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington. Only Israel’s citizens should have a say in who runs their government,” he said from the chamber’s floor, shortly after Schumer spoke.Congress is in the midst of a months-long deadlock over passing legislation to authorize military assistance for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. The bill has the support of Biden and passed the Democratic-led Senate, but the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has so far refused to put it to a vote in the Republican-controlled chamber.Retired Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas told the New York Times it was significant that such a high-ranking US Jewish official would publicly take Netanyahu to task.“For a Jewish senator from New York, the majority leader, a friend of Netanyahu who’s the most centrist possible Democrat and even leans hawkish on Israel, to voice criticism like this?” Pinkas told the New York Times. “If you’ve lost Chuck Schumer, you’ve lost America.”View image in fullscreenThe US sees Israel as its closest ally in the Middle East, and is a major supplier of its weapons. But concern has risen among Democrats over the death toll in Gaza.Biden’s support for Israel has caused a domestic split, with pro-Palestine protesters disrupting his speeches and tens of thousands of people casting protest votes in the Democratic primaries, including in swing states that will be crucial to his re-election chances in November. Last week, Biden was overheard saying he needs to have a “come to Jesus meeting” with the Israeli prime minister as relations fray.Netanyahu appears ready to press on with a fresh military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, though Biden has warned against doing so without a “credible” safety plan for the 1.3 million people sheltering there.On Friday, the Times of Israel reported that the prime minister rejected as “ridiculous” a Hamas proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in exchange for Israel freeing between 700 and 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel nevertheless said it would send a delegation to Qatar for more talks. 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