WASHINGTON — President Biden said Wednesday that “I’m not supplying the weapons” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moves forward with a full attack on the Hamas-controlled city of Rafah — before signaling he wants Israel to surrender the Gaza Strip’s transitional administration to Arab states.
“I made clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gotten into Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in a rare sit-down interview.
Biden’s threat drew swift condemnation from Israel supporters in Congress and followed days of obfuscation by the White House about reports the administration had stopped the transmission of powerful precision bombs. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed to Congress earlier Wednesday the shipment had been “paused,” but claimed a final decision about its fate had not yet been made.
“Biden’s dithering on Israel weapons is bad policy and a terrible message to Israel, our allies, and the world,” tweeted Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
Biden told Burnett the arms denied to Israel could expand to artillery shells as well — before saying that he was in talks with five Arab leaders about potentially occupying Gaza after Israel defeats Hamas, which could conflict with Jerusalem’s plans to administer the area.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said of US arms shipments.
“It’s just wrong. We’re not gonna — we’re not gonna supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”
He added that “I’ve made it clear to [Netanyahu] and the war cabinet, they’re not going to get our support if in fact they go into these population centers.
In a potentially paradigm-shifting evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Biden proceeded to suggest that Arab nations might temporarily occupy Gaza — which Israeli leaders have floated being subject to a transitional phase akin to denazification in Germany after World War II.
“Who is going to occupy Gaza?” Biden said, before answering his own question.
“I’ve been working with the Arab states, I won’t mention them because I don’t want to get them in trouble, but five leaders in the Arab community who are prepared to help rebuild Gaza, prepared to help transition to a two-state solution.”
Burnett asked Biden, “To govern it?”
“To maintain the security and peace while they’re working out a Palestinian Authority that is real and not corrupt,” Biden replied.
Although Biden didn’t name any of the Arab nations, close US partners in the region include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It’s unclear if any Arab states actually would want to administer Gaza, which was controlled by Egypt until the 1967 Six-Day War — though Cairo has since relinquished its claims.
Biden has warned Israel for weeks not to attack the final major bastion of Hamas power in Rafah and repeated the message Monday in a call to the Israeli head of government.
More than a million displaced Gazans are believed to reside in and around Rafah.
Biden told Burnett he would “continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out of — in the Middle East recently.”
The president, who is regularly heckled by anti-Israel protesters who have dubbed him “Genocide Joe,” has for months criticized Israel for allegedly doing too little to avoid killing civilians and aid workers in Gaza.
On Tuesday, however, Biden gave a pro-Israel speech at an event commemorating the Holocaust, saying that protesters were “forgetting” that Hamas started the war by killing about 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7.
“Too many people [are] denying downplaying, rationalizing and ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7, including Hamas’s appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews. It’s absolutely despicable and it must stop,” he said in that speech.
Polls show Biden’s re-election is at risk due to backlash over his pro-Israel stance from key Democratic constituencies including younger voters, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans.
Netanyahu has pushed back on Biden’s mounting criticism.
“If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone,” Netanyahu said in a defiant speech Sunday at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
“Eighty years ago in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid. Today, we again face enemies bent on our destruction,” Netanyahu said.
“I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself… We will defeat our genocidal enemies.
“‘Never again’ is now.”
