President Biden reassured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wasn’t trying to undermine him politically by criticizing the Israeli government, Axios reported on Tuesday.
Biden gave Netanyahu the assurance during a phone call on Monday, which came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Netanyahu was an “obstacle to peace” and called for new Israeli elections. Biden said Schumer gave a “good speech.”
Sources told Axios that Netanyahu complained about Schumer’s speech and Biden’s approval of it, prompting Biden to say he was not looking to undermine the Israeli leader or intervene in Israel’s domestic politics.
Biden and other Democrats in the US have tried to distance themselves from the Netanyahu government while also supporting Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians and the starvation siege on Gaza. But the criticism has not amounted to a policy change as the US continues to provide Israel with unconditional military aid.
Biden and Netanyahu also agreed during the call that Israel will send a delegation to Washington to discuss its plans to invade Rafah, the Gaza city on the Egyptian border that’s packed with 1.5 million Palestinians. US officials have been cautioning against a full-scale invasion, and are suggesting a more limited operation.
According to the White House, Biden expressed to Netanyahu his “deep concerns about the prospect of Israel conducting a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than one million displaced civilians are currently seeking shelter after fleeing fighting in the north. ” But Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he brushed aside Biden’s concerns and reaffirmed that he’s planning to attack the city.
“I made it as clear as possible to the president that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there is no way to do this without a ground incursion,” Netanyahu told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Netanyahu said Israel was under “international pressure” but said Israel was “rejecting in order to achieve the goals of the war.” US intelligence believes Israel cannot achieve Netanyahu’s goal of “eradicating” Hamas.