The White House, State Department and Pentagon say they don't know what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about when he said this week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was working to eliminate “bottlenecks” that prevent arms shipments to Israel. But a US official offered an explanation for the Israeli leader's accusation.
Netanyahu, in a video released Tuesday, said he told Blinken that it is inconceivable that in recent months the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel.
The United States has been reviewing a shipment of 2,000 and 500-pound bombs since May. As Israel prepared for a major offensive in Rafah, the Biden administration stopped sending because, as President Biden said in an interview last month, “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of these bombs.
“I'm not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah,” Biden said. However, the administration said the US would continue to provide support the Iron Dome, the system that protects Israel from rocket fire, and ensures that Israel is able to “respond to attacks” originating in the Middle East. The Pentagon says the US has continued to send weapons to Israel in the weeks since.
According to the US official, Netanyahu's comments in the video are apparently based on IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi's belief that the US is going slow on Israel on smaller ticket items such as aircraft spare parts. However, the official insists there have been no delays, except for the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, which were about to leave an East Coast weapons depot by ship when the delivery went stop at the beginning of May. They were about to leave an East Coast arms depot by boat when the delivery was halted. Israel does not need them for Gaza, but would if the conflict in Lebanon escalates.
However, the official also said, “The Israelis have not come close to achieving their goal of destroying Hamas” in the war it began with Hamas. Massacre of October 7 in southern Israel of more than a thousand Israelis. Hundreds of fighters and miles of unexplored tunnels remain, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is still at large, according to this official. Because Israel has no “day-after” plan, the current strategy is “a recipe for continuous war,” the official said.
Netanyahu's claim about delays in US arms shipments comes as fighting has intensified between Israel and Hezbollah on Israel's border with Lebanon. Israel and the Iran-backed group have been exchanging fire since October, but attacks from both sides have increased in recent weeks and they threaten to open a wider regional war that the Biden administration has been trying to avoid for months. This official believes that Israel's decision on whether to go to Lebanon will come at the end of July.
John Kirby, the White House's national security communications adviser, told reporters Thursday that the administration did not know about Netanyahu's video in advance and called it “puzzling” and “disappointing.”
“There is no other country that has done more or continues to do more than the United States to help Israel defend itself,” Kirby said.
In a statement released by his office on Thursday, Netanyahu said: “I am ready to suffer personal attacks as long as Israel receives from the US the ammunition it needs in the war for its existence.”
