Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a gathering of Jewish leaders at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, February 18, 2024.
Last week, Biden at last read Netanyahu the riot act. Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s civilian population had to end, or U.S. support for Israeli military operations in Gaza would end.
The language put out by U.S. media officials was softer, mainly referring to the need for more extensive relief operations and greater care to spare Gazan civilians. But obviously, no such relief operations would be necessary in the absence of Israel’s massive destruction.
Netanyahu has now pulled all Israeli troops from southern Gaza, while denying that this had anything to do with Biden’s ultimatum. The official explanation of the Israeli government, in the words of an army press spokesman Sunday morning, was that the IDF left the southern Gaza area because “It doesn’t make sense for us to stay there now … The 98th Division crushed the [Hamas] brigades in Khan Yunis and killed thousands of terrorists. Anything that could have been done there, we have done.”
This is nonsense, but as Sunday wore on, the statements from Israeli military leaders grew more aggressive, walking back Netanyahu’s commitment to Biden.
IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi, who reports to Netanyahu, added: “The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping. Senior Hamas officials are still in hiding. We will get to them sooner or later. We are making progress, continuing to kill more terrorists and commanders and destroy more terror infrastructures … We will not leave Hamas brigades active in any part of the Strip. We have plans and we will act when we decide.”
And Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking Sunday night, insisted that Israeli troops were withdrawn from Khan Yunis to prepare for the expected offensive in Rafah. “We will reach a situation where Hamas does not control the Gaza Strip and where it does not function as a military framework that poses a risk to the citizens of the State of Israel,” he said.
These statements were obviously coordinated. And it’s all dangerous fantasy. In truth, Hamas cannot be disabled, and Israel has pulled out of southern Gaza because Biden demanded it. Netanyahu also relented on negotiations and allowed a top-level delegation to return to Cairo where serious discussions are in progress on a cease-fire-for-hostage deal.
U.S. officials, unhelpfully, reinforced Netanyahu’s fable. On Sunday morning, John Kirby, White House national-security spokesman, said on ABC’s This Week that the troops have “been on the ground for four months … The word we’re getting is they’re tired. They need to be refit.”
That is also malarkey. In reality, the Israeli pullout is a devastating defeat for Netanyahu’s Gaza war. With demonstrations in Israel escalating, the reversal should hasten new elections, because any regional deal will require formal Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu cannot accept without blowing up his far-right cabinet.
Biden finally, reluctantly, took the hard line with Netanyahu that he should have taken six weeks ago, before so many more Gazan civilians were killed and so much of Gaza reduced to rubble and famine. Now Biden needs to take an even harder line (and make sure that his own spokesman doesn’t undercut it).
He needs to demand that Netanyahu’s top military aides stop equivocating about Israel’s actual policy. And Biden needs to warn explicitly that if one more Gazan civilian is killed by Israeli bombs, forget about the U.S. supplying Israel with offensive weapons.
The bigger question is whether a cease-fire, hostage deal, regional settlement, and the replacement of the Netanyahu government can stem the damage already done. It cannot bring back the lost Israeli lives or the lost Gazan lives.
It remains to be seen whether an end to the Gaza war can reverse the loss of support for Biden’s re-election among young people and people of color; stop the toxic influence of AIPAC meddling in Democratic politics; begin to restore something of Israel’s ruined moral credibility in the world; and undo some of the increased antisemitism—of which the principal cause is Netanyahu himself.
