President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the United States will not provide Israel with the necessary weapons if it decides to enter population centers in Rafah to clear out the remaining Hamas bases.
He made the comments in a rare appearance on CNN.
“I made it clear,” President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in Racine, Wisconsin. “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons.”
“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks,” he said.
“But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells,” he added.
President Biden acknowledged the fact that Israel has already entered Rafah but said “they haven’t gotten into the population centers.”
He noted that Israel has not crossed over his red line yet.
President Biden’s comments drew strong reactions from both sides.
“Hard disagree and deeply disappointing,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) wrote on social media platform X in reaction to President Biden’s comments.
Mr. Fetterman has been a staunch supporter of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
“I’ve said for months what Joe Biden now admits: his de facto position is for a Hamas victory against Israel,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on X.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) applauded the president’s remarks.
“President Biden enforcing conditions on U.S. military aid and holding the Israeli gov. to the same bar we hold all our allies to is the responsible, secure, and just thing to do,” she wrote on X. The president’s “historic shift to include Israel in U.S. standards makes the world safer and our values clear.”
“This is totally unacceptable,” former Vice President Mike Pence wrote in response to President Biden’s comments.
Austin: ‘We’re assessing’
President Biden’s comments came after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that the Biden administration has delayed the delivery of some munitions to Israel as it reviews their use that would almost definitely impact civilians in the heavily populated Gazan city.The Pentagon is reviewing some of the planned weapons shipments to Israel against the backdrop of a possible Israeli siege of Rafah in southern Gaza, Mr. Austin said during a May 8 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He clarified that no decision had been made to halt the shipments in question altogether.
“We’re assessing. We have not made any final decisions on this yet. ... There are some things that we’re taking a closer look at.”
There are currently about 1.5 million people in Rafah, most of whom were forced to flee their homes in the north because of Israel’s initial offensive. The Biden administration fears that a large-scale Israeli military operation in the region would mean tens of thousands of additional civilian deaths.
Israel’s war in Gaza is now in its seventh month following Hamas terrorists’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which left more than 1,200 dead. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas, including both combatants and civilians.
During the CNN interview, President Biden also addressed the ongoing college protests.
“There’s not a legitimate right to use hate speech. There’s not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students,” President Biden said, repeating the comments he made during a Holocaust remembrance speech on May 7.
President Biden made a strong statement about the “ferocious surge” in anti-Semitism on college campuses and beyond. Hatred of Jews “continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people,” he said during the Holocaust remembrance speech.
“Too many people are denying, downplaying, rationalizing the horrors of the Holocaust,” he said, noting that people have already forgotten the terror unleashed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
“It’s absolutely despicable and it must stop,” he said.
