Based on two official Israeli sources, Barak Ravid reports at Axios that the Biden administration put a hold on a shipment of American ammunition to Israel. The Biden team of course opposes Israel’s long-delayed operation to clear the last Hamas redoubt in Rafah. Ravid adds this:
Last Wednesday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel and had a “tough” conversation with Netanyahu regarding a possible Israeli operation in Rafah, two sources briefed on the meeting said.
Blinken told Netanyahu during their meeting that “a major military operation” in Rafah would lead to the U.S. publicly opposing it and would negatively impact U.S.-Israel relations.
Even before Ravid’s report Lee Smith had deduced that the Biden administration supports the survival of Hamas and “sees the terror group as a valuable asset.” Lee finds in Biden’s support of Hamas the statecraft of the Obama administration overlaid with a few new wrinkles introduced by the Biden administration:
The Biden team’s moves to shelter Hamas are best understood in the context of a revolutionary program of domestic initiatives that aim to reconstitute American society on a new basis, and which in turn require the outright rejection of the country’s history and culture, its existing social arrangements, and constitutional order. The current regime has weaponized the security state, labeled its opponents “domestic terrorists,” and waged a third-world-style campaign against the opposition candidate because it’s a revisionist faction. Its political and cultural manifesto is a program for remaking America, whether through social pressure, or censorship, or bureaucratic fiat, or threats of violence, or actual violence. Among other devices to transform America, the Biden administration has opened the border to at least 7 million illegal aliens (and counting), many from places in the Middle East where Hamas is revered, and for whom political violence means steady, well-paid work.
Holocaust Remembrance Day begins this evening. Ravid adds this note:
Netanyahu hinted at tensions with the Biden administration in a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day issued Sunday.
“In the terrible Holocaust, there were great world leaders who stood by idly; therefore, the first lesson of the Holocaust is: If we do not defend ourselves, nobody will defend us. And if we need to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said.
As always, I want to note that the White House declined to comment on Ravid’s story. Further, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office didn’t immediately respond to questions (though Ravid proffers the Netanyahu quote above).
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