What $26 Billion Buys

Today on TAP: Netanyahu ignores Biden’s warnings and plans an imminent operation in Rafah.

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No sooner did the House approve $26 billion in military aid for Israel than Prime Minister Netanyahu defied President Biden yet again by resuming air strikes on Rafah and announcing an invasion plan. Attacks on Sunday by Israel’s air force killed at least 22 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children. That’s the kind of loyalty that $26 billion buys you—bupkes, gornisht—complete contempt.

Netanyahu and his military aides have announced an operation to evacuate civilians from Rafah to Khan Yunis, where tent cities would be set up. This would be followed by a six-week military operation in Gaza against Hamas. Once again, Netanyahu is deceiving himself that Hamas can be wiped out—and playing Biden for a fool.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declared, “We don’t want to see Palestinians evacuated from Rafah unless it is to return to their homes, and we have made that quite clear to the Israeli government.” That’s nice. The Israeli government doesn’t care what the State Department wants. Miller went on to warn that there is no way for a military operation in Rafah to go forward without massive civilian casualties.

More from Robert Kuttner

Ever since Israel changed the subject by bombing the Iranian embassy complex, U.S. diplomatic pressure has been directed toward constraining the risk of further escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran. U.S. officials congratulated themselves when Israel’s response to Iran’s attack of missiles and drones was limited. But meanwhile, Netanyahu is totally blowing off Biden’s repeated warnings about Gaza.

It is the destruction of Gaza and the loss of civilian life that has turned world public opinion against Israel—and American public opinion, especially on the part of the young, against Biden. Israeli military operations against Rafah take us further away from the kind of regional settlement that could bring some stability and calm, and finally make Biden look more like a hero than a goat.

Search the words “Biden warns Israel,” and you will find dozens of explicit Biden warnings against a Rafah invasion in recent weeks that Netanyahu ignored. Biden has the power to explicitly condition delivery of military aid. What is he waiting for? Instead, Biden has gotten sidetracked by yet another secondary issue: proposed U.S. sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, which have infuriated Netanyahu.

The outbreak of civil disobedience on American campuses will only be further energized by another round of Israeli attacks that kill more Palestinian civilians. A war that Biden has the power to stop has come home in a more ominous way. If Biden does lose to Trump this November, the domestic effects of his failure to restrain Netanyahu will be a paramount cause.

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