(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . TODAY: Biden Tells Netanyahu Any Future U.S. Support Depends On Israel Protecting Civilians In Gaza [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-04-04 In an extraordinary shift in U.S. policy towards Israel, President Biden today (April 4th), in a call to Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, said that any U.S. military support now depends on Israel’s protection of civilians in Gaza in the first direct placing of this condition. From Huffington Post: President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza will depend on whether the country takes concrete steps to prevent harm to civilians and humanitarian workers in Gaza — the first time that the president has essentially threatened to condition aid to its strongest ally in the Middle East during the last six months of violence in the Palestinian enclave. In a call with the prime minister, the first since March 18, Biden said that the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “unacceptable” and that Israel must announce and implement “measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers,” according to a readout from the White House. According to NBC News, part of Biden’s call also conditioned future U.S. support to a cease-fire, period. According to two U.S. officials, Biden strongly implied to Netanyahu that the U.S. could condition military aid to Israel on what it does to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza and to get to a ceasefire as soon as possible. “That was the message,” one of the officials said. As far as I’m aware, this is the first time in U.S. history that a President has made such a condition on Israel due to military actions by their government. The position President Biden is currently in is not an enviable one: 1) any direct action to cease support of Israel could endanger the entire middle east, as the propaganda would inevitably become: “Not even the U.S. supports Israel now”. What this would do to embolden both Hamas and terrorist groups across the middle east — and Vladmir Putin — and in potentially making the situation in Gaza even worse (even in the question of how Netanyahu would react if it was done without warning)— cannot be measured. Therefore, the careful steps that have to be made here require a strategic intelligence many of us can’t even imagine. I wouldn’t put my worst enemy in the Catch-22 that Biden is in right now. There is the emotional and the moral — and then there is the objective reality that things could be made even worse with even a wrong *word* out of place, let alone a misstep in tangible response. 2) One also cannot remove from the equation the necessity to prevent Trump from winning the election — which would, in no uncertain terms, lead to the situation for Palestinian civilians being irrevocably worse than it already is, as Trump literally doesn’t believe they have a claim to being *human*. And part of preventing Trump from winning involves not alienating an entire section (note the use of the word, “section”, here, as I recognize that there are many Jewish-Americans opposed to Netanyahu; I’m speaking of a specific voter base who typically vote Democratic, but who maintain more conservative views when it comes to Israel) of the Jewish-American voter base, with whom we may not personally agree, whom Biden desperately needs in order to beat Trump and prevent what would likely be a *permanent* destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza. Jared Kushner would be building condos on the graves of Gazan children with Russian cash while Putin cackles in the background like a gassed-up hyena. And if Biden *is* to take tangible steps in removing U.S. support, as he has just threatened to do, these steps MUST be prefaced by showing that all efforts were made to prevent it, with Netanyahu given every chance, prior to that action, in order to hopefully blunt any reaction from specific voters here at home (again, with whom we may not personally agree) that he needs in order to prevent Trump from winning in November. This is a cynical reality, but it is incontrovertibly part of the equation in determining response. The situation in Gaza is horrific. We all know this. Biden *knows* that. And this call to Netanyahu today is a direct threat to Israel with removal of U.S. support for their defense, if “concrete” steps aren’t taken to stop civilian deaths and move to a cease-fire. Beyond this, one MUST understand the wider picture in terms of what could result from Trump winning the election — not just for America — but for Palestinian citizens in Gaza and the entire middle east. President Biden’s job is to not make the situation worse than it already is — and to get Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire — and he is trying to do that in the face of a dilemma that few of us can imagine. I support President Biden, without reservation — because he is doing what he can in a way that must be wholly strategic in the knowledge of how his actions could affect the wider situation — and because I don’t want the situation in Gaza and the middle east to become irreversible, should Trump win the election. It was reported this week that Trump secretly visited with the Saudi Prince — potentially to *undermine* a peace deal that the White House is currently trying to accomplish. This is the threat we’re facing. It is existential — and ultimately catastrophic if we lose. Just to add to this: Netanyahu’s strike on the consulate in Syria was obviously carried out in the knowledge that Iran would retaliate on Israel. The first thought I had when I saw the consulate strike reported was: “Netanyahu is making a pre-emptive move to prevent Biden from ceasing U.S. support in the face of Gaza, knowing that the U.S. will have to continue support if Iran strikes Israel.” I’m not saying that I believe this was the *sole* reason for the strike; but I suspect that it was factored. And I believe there is a dynamic occurring behind the wider reporting of Biden’s call to Netanyahu today, re: Gaza: KNOWING what Iran is about to do, Biden STILL put this condition on Netanyahu today, re: civilians in Gaza; this was a purposeful move at a key moment. Any other President would likely call OFF such a call at a moment like this — but he still did it, even knowing what’s likely coming. Which suggests to me that Biden is now, being aware of what I suspect to be one of Netanyahu’s unspoken reasons behind the strike, putting Netanyahu in a similar vice: i.e., Iran is about to strike you and you may need our support — so make concrete moves to stop civilian deaths or we won’t be there after the situation you just caused by striking the Syrian consulate. The fact that Biden chose today to make that call, in other words, shows more guts than I’ve seen in a President in my lifetime. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/4/2233457/-TODAY-Biden-Tells-Netanyahu-Any-Future-U-S-Support-Depends-On-Israel-Protecting-Civilians-In-Gaza?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/