Joe Biden’s unconditional support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza recedes with every step Benjamin Netanyahu takes. The plan to invade the border town of Rafah, home to at least 1.4 million people, threatens the biggest humanitarian catastrophe since the beginning of the conflict. This indiscriminate slaughter of civilians “must not proceed without a credible plan to ensure the safety and support” of the million people who have found refuge in this place, Biden assured on Monday after a meeting with the Jordanian King, Abdal· lah II, in the White House. “Many people have been displaced, on multiple occasions, fleeing the violence in the north. And now they are crowded in Rafah, exposed and vulnerable. They need protection.”
The president, who called Netanyahu on Sunday to convey this message, continues to not ask for the cease-fire demanded by some sectors of his party and increasingly significant segments of American society. But he has sent the director of the CIA, William Burns, to Cairo to negotiate with his Mossad counterpart a temporary truce in exchange for the release of hostages. Washington is trying to mediate, along with Qatar and Egypt, so that Israel and Hamas reach an agreement that leads to “a phase of calm in Gaza that would last at least six weeks.”
But, after four months of conflict – which have led to the slaughter of 28,000 Palestinians and the displacement of 80% of the population in Gaza -, the Arab countries are asking for a permanent ceasefire. “We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah. It is sure to create another humanitarian catastrophe,” King Abdullah II said, adding: “We cannot stand idly by and let this continue. This war must end.”
The Israeli prime minister has already warned that he has no intention of slowing down: “Only continued military pressure, until final victory, will achieve the release of all our hostages,” Netanyahu said, describing Rafah as the ” last bastion” of Hamas.
In this way, Biden’s warnings do not seem, for now, to have any deterrent effect. Although the spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, said yesterday that the negotiations “are being constructive and moving in the right direction”. According to him, “we have systematically conveyed, in public and in private, our concern about the need to reduce civilian casualties: there have been too many”. In this way, “any operation must anticipate that there are more than a million innocent people seeking refuge in Rafah. Any credible plan must take into account their safe evacuation and adequate assistance with food, water and medicine.”
Meanwhile, the US is suspending its contributions to the UN agency that coordinates the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestine, UNRWA, while it investigates allegations by Israel that some of its workers help carry out the Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
As the White House raises the tone of its criticism of Israel, congressmen from his party approved a $95 billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan in the Senate on Monday. Of these, 14,000 million would be added to the 3,000 million in annual aid that Israel already receives from the US. But the measure will most likely fail in the Lower House, where Donald Trump’s influence remains to reject any military assistance to Ukraine.
