After expressing “outrage” at the killing of humanitarian volunteers in an Israeli raid, will Joe Biden act? The US President, who is scheduled to phone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, is facing increasing pressure to place conditions on US aid to Israel.
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This pressure on the 81-year-old Democrat, who will seek a second term in November, is being exerted even in the most intimate circles, through his wife, Jill Biden.
“We have to stop this now,” the first lady reportedly asked, according to comments Joe Biden reported to participants in a White House meeting, and echoed by The New York Times.
Chris Coons, one of the Democratic senators closest to the president, was asked on CNN on Thursday whether he supported linking military aid to a change in military strategy in Gaza.
He replied: I think we have reached this point.
The elected official from the state of Delaware (northeast) explained that these statements relate to a possible major Israeli attack on Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, which the Americans strongly oppose.
If Benjamin Netanyahu orders a “major” ground offensive without “taking measures to protect civilians,” more than a million of whom are refugees in Rafah, “I will vote to impose conditions on aid to Israel. I've never said that before,” Chris Coons told CNN. In: “I never took that position.”
“Not much”
The US president responded on Tuesday with a harsher-than-usual statement, after seven humanitarian volunteers in Gaza were killed the previous day, including six foreigners, in an Israeli raid.
He said he is “angry” and feels that Israel “is not doing enough” to protect organizations helping the civilian population in Gaza, who are facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Will he, who has assumed the role of Israel's main supporter since the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7, make the matter a “personal” matter, as the word is used? Jake Sullivan?
The US President does not hide his frustration with Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he has always had a difficult relationship, and he expresses it less directly, through press releases or short sentences that leak through the press.
But he has so far refused to impose conditions on military aid and demands that any ceasefire be linked to the release of hostages still being held in Gaza.
This unconditional support earned him the ire of Muslim and Arab Americans, who accused him of contributing to the suffering of Palestinian civilians, as well as a portion of progressive voters.
According to a poll conducted by Gallup a few days ago and conducted at the beginning of March, 55% of Americans now reject the Israeli military operation in Gaza, compared to 45% last November.
