The White House, State Department and Pentagon say they don't know what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about when he said this week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was working to remove “bottlenecks” that are blocking arms shipments to stop Israel. But a US official offered an explanation for the Israeli leader's accusation.
Netanyahu said in a video released Tuesday that he told Blinken that it is inconceivable that the government has deprived Israel of weapons and ammunition in recent months.
The U.S. has examined one shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs since May. As Israel prepared for a major offensive in Rafah, the Biden administration transmission interrupted because, as President Biden said in an interview last month, “Civilians have died in Gaza as a result of those bombs.
“I will not provide the weapons that have historically been used to take on Rafah,” Biden said. However, the administration said the US would continue to provide support the Iron Dome, the system that protects Israel against rocket fire and ensures that Israel is able to “respond to attacks” from the Middle East. The Pentagon says the US continued to send weapons to Israel in the weeks that followed.
According to the US official, Netanyahu's comments in the video are apparently based on IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi's belief that the US is going slow on Israel on smaller items such as spare parts for aircraft. However, the official insists there will be no such delay, except for the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, which were about to leave an east coast weapons depot by ship when deliveries were halted in early May. They were about to leave an East Coast weapons depot by ship when deliveries were stopped. Israel does not need them for Gaza, but they would be necessary if the conflict in Lebanon escalates further.
However, the official also said, “The Israelis have not yet come close to achieving their goal of destroying Hamas” in the war that began with Hamas' terror. October 7 massacre in the south of Israel of more than a thousand Israelis. There are still hundreds of fighters and miles of unexplored tunnels, and according to this official, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is still at large. Because Israel has no “day after” plan, the current strategy is “a recipe for continued war,” the official said.
Netanyahu's claim about delays in US arms deliveries comes as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated on Israel's border with Lebanon. Israel and the Iran-backed group have been exchanging fire since October, but the attacks are coming from both sides have increased in recent weeks and threaten to ignite a broader regional war that the Biden administration has been trying to avoid for months. This official believes that an Israeli decision on whether to go to Lebanon will be made by the end of July.
John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, told reporters Thursday that the administration was not aware of Netanyahu's video in advance and said it was “baffling” and “disappointing.”
“No other country has done, or will continue to do, more than the United States to help Israel defend itself,” Kirby said.
In a statement released by his office on Thursday, Netanyahu said: “I am willing to suffer personal attacks provided that Israel receives from the US the ammunition it needs for its survival in the war.”
