White House Preparing to Retaliate Should Israel Attack Rafah

David Israel

Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz

President Joe Biden walks to the Oval Office Dining Room with Commander, March 4, 2022.

One former and three current US officials told NBC News on Saturday that the White House is deliberating on potential responses should Israel disregard President Joe Biden’s repeated cautions regarding a military incursion into Rafah without a viable strategy to safeguard Gaza civilians.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md), who back in January supported a Bernie Sanders resolution to apply the human rights provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to American aid to Israel’s military (the proposal was defeated, 72 to 11), told NBC on Saturday, “Time and again, President Biden calls upon the Netanyahu government to take certain actions, and for the most part, time and again, Netanyahu ignores the president of the United States. And so, I think that makes the United States look ineffective.”

Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted that “The president has issued increasingly strong words and strong warnings, but I believe that to effectively enforce those warnings the administration has to use these other tools at its disposal.”

Talks are underway amid mounting worry within the administration and increasing frustration among congressional Democrats, reflecting concerns that the president’s appeals may go unheeded. So far, the administration has not conditioned its military support on Israeli obedience, but Biden officials appear to advocate withholding or delaying the sale of some weapons as punishment.

The White House on Friday applauded Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s remarks on Thursday that called on Israelis to replace Netanyahu, and Biden said on Friday that Schumer delivered a “good speech.”

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that Biden “knows that the sentiments that Leader Schumer expressed in that very passionate speech yesterday are shared by many, many Americans.”

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) also praised Schumer’s attack on Israeli democracy, telling NBC News, “I think it’s a step in the right direction. And the people of Israel have got to understand that they are increasingly isolated from the rest of the world. There’s global outrage at the Netanyahu right-wing extremist government literally causing the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza. We cannot continue to fund Netanyahu’s war machine.”

RIGHTEOUS IN SODOM

There appears to be a split among senior Democrats on the correct approach to Israel’s efforts to annihilate Hamas, which would inevitably include an attack on the terrorist group’s last holdout in Rafah, and on America’s right to interfere in the political affairs of other democracies. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev) told NBC, “Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East, and as a democracy, it is up to the Israeli people to determine their political future.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa) said, “I would demand that there be no foreign influence on our elections, so I’m not in that.”

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, told Axios, “It’s as irresponsible for a senior Congressional leader to call for elections in Israel as it was for Netanyahu and Republicans to breach protocol by arranging his 2015 speech before Congress without White House consent.”

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said, “Although I have disagreements with Israel’s government, I respect the Israelis’ right to decide for themselves when to call elections and whom to choose as their leaders.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md) said, “It’s certainly not up to America to dictate to Israel the schedule of its internal elections and who they choose. On the other hand, it is up to America to defend our principles.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Ca) said “Israel is an independent country and should select its own leaders through its own electoral process.” He did add, however, that since the US has a “substantial investment” in Israel’s security, it has “the right to comment on the policies of Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

Comment, sure, plot a coup, not so much.

GIVE GOOD GAZANS BLUE & WHITE T-SHIRTS

The White House is interfering with every aspect of the war in Gaza, as White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby put it last Thursday, “We certainly understand, respect, and support Israel’s right to defend itself and to go after Hamas leaders, but we’ve also been clear that they have to do this in a way that protects innocent civilian lives and humanitarian aid workers who are on the ground to protect those innocent civilian lives. We want to see them do everything they can to differentiate between civilians and Hamas.”

How should Israel do that in an enclave where everybody is affiliated with Hamas one way or another? Perhaps they should issue blue and white T-shirts to the “innocents?”

“We’ve seen the reports that they have plans to relocate people out of Rafah into what they’re referring to as sort of humanitarian islands inside Gaza,” Kirby continued. “We haven’t seen those plans; I’ve seen press reporting of it. We can’t confirm that that is, in fact, a plan that they have. We’ve not seen that. But again, our position has not changed. We do not want to see large-scale operations in Rafah – unless there is a credible, legitimate, executable plan to provide for the safety and security of the civilians that are there.” 

The Yiddish adage says, “He who has the me-ah (money) has the de-ah (decisive opinion).” And so it goes, on the week of Purim, 5784, we are still fighting Haman and Achashverosh is still looking on with considerable interest.