Biden suggests that domestic pressure could cause Netanyahu to move in the direction of two states…reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that Israel is losing global support due to its “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza. He criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his coalition over their opposition to a two-state solution, The Times of Israel reported.
During a campaign fundraiser in Washington hosted by former AIPAC board chair Lee Rosenberg, Biden said Netanyahu is “a good friend, but I think he has to change, and… This government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move.”
Biden criticised Israel’s National Security Minister Ben Gvir by name and rehashed a line he used in July: “This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history.”
He said he has known Israeli leaders for decades, lamenting that “Ben Gvir and company and the new folks don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution.”
Biden said: “They not only want to have retribution — which they should — for what Hamas did, but against all Palestinians… They don’t want anything to do with the Palestinians.”
He reiterated the US stance that Hamas does not represent all Palestinians and that not all of Gaza should suffer because of the terror group’s brutal October 7 attack on Israel, during which 1,200 people were massacred and some 240 were taken hostage.
Biden also took a shot at Palestinian leaders, though he did not specify whether he was referring to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. “The Palestinians have not been governed well at all”, he said, as per The Times of Israel.
Referring to the planned rail and shipping corridor linking India with the Middle East and Europe that the US unveiled in September, Biden said there remains an “opportunity to begin to unite the region.”
“They still want to do it, but we have to make sure that Bibi understands that he’s got to make some moves to strengthen the [PA],” Biden said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
“You cannot say there’s no Palestinian state at all in the future,” Biden said, according to The Times of Israel.
“We have to work towards bringing Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of… a two-state solution,” he added.
Biden went on to suggest that domestic pressure could cause Netanyahu to move in the direction of two states, noting the protests earlier this year that managed to thwart parts of the judicial overhaul being advanced by his government.
He said: “You saw what happened when Bibi tried to change the Supreme Court. Thousands of IDF soldiers said, ‘We’re out. We’re not going to participate. We’re not going to support the military’.”
“That wasn’t any outside influence. That came from within Israel,” Biden said.
“Israel has a tough decision to make. Bibi has got a tough decision to make. There’s no question about the need to take on Hamas. None. Zero. They have every right,” he said, acknowledging that Israel currently faces “an existential threat.”
Meanwhile, the US State Department recently approved the sale of 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel, bypassing Congress in its review process that is required for arms sales to foreign nations, The New York Times reported, citing a State Department official.
The State Department informed the congressional committees on Friday that they were going ahead with the sale, worth more than USD 106 million, even though Congress did not finish an informal review of a bigger order from Israel.
Moreover, the department invoked an emergency provision in the Arms Export Control Act, according to a State Department official and a congressional official.
Adding that the ammunition shipment has been put on an expedited track, they further said that Congress has no power to stop it, the New York Times reported.
Biden to meet kin of American hostages held by Hamas
Biden will meet family members of American hostages held by Hamas at the White House on Wednesday, an administration official confirmed to the New York Post.
The meeting will mark the first known in-person sit-down between the US President and families whose relatives were kidnapped by the Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel.
Biden has talked to some of the hostages’ family members via Zoom and other White House officials–most notably national security adviser Jake Sullivan–have been in contact with them as well, as per New York Post.
This comes after several family members of US citizens believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas, weren’t invited to the Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday night, as per the father of a 19-year-old missing Israeli American, CNN had reported.
The citizens had reportedly asked to attend the Hanukkah reception.
Ruby Chen, whose son Itay is a reservist missing since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, said a number of the families of American hostages were in Washington, DC, this week and had reached out to the White House asking to attend the reception but were not invited.