WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in an interview aired Saturday (Mar 9), as the US leader’s impatience with his Israeli counterpart grows increasingly visible.
With Gaza’s humanitarian crisis growing more dire and Biden’s left flank in uproar, the US president made contradictory remarks as to the question of a “red line” over Israel’s threatened offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza.
Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas”, Biden said, but added that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
“In my view he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” he said.
As to Israel’s potential invasion of Rafah, where some 1.5 million of the territory’s 2.4 million residents are now crammed, Biden was ambiguous.
“It is a red line,” the 81-year-old Democrat said, immediately adding: “I am never going to leave Israel. The defence of Israel is still critical.
“There is no red line (in which) I want to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome (air defence system) to protect them.”
He then once again countered that there were in fact “red lines … You cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead”.
Source: CNA
