Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no secret of his feelings toward President Biden after Donald Trump was elected this month, publicly revealing he’d ignored the current U.S. president’s counsel and threats to withhold aid.
“The U.S. had reservations and suggested that we not enter Gaza,” Netanyahu revealed to the Israeli Knesset on Monday.
The U.S., he said, also was hesitant about Israel’s plans to enter Gaza City, Khan Younis and “strongly opposed entry into Rafah,” threatening to force Israel to fight without U.S. aid.
“President Biden told me that if we go in, we will be left alone,” Netanyahu said. “He also said that he would stop shipments of important weapons to us. And so he did. A few days later, [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken appeared and repeated the same things and I told him – we will fight with our nails.”
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The U.S. ultimately withheld a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, allowing all other weapons transfers to go on.
“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 an interview at the time.
The move prompted blowback from supporters of Israel in Congress and Biden eventually moved forward with the shipment.
Netanyahu also claimed the U.S. wanted Israel not to respond to Iran’s missile attacks on Tel Aviv in October.
“Again, we were told by our friend that there is no need to respond. And I said that sitting and not reacting is not acceptable, and we responded.”
He confirmed that Israel had struck Iranian nuclear facilities in its counter-attack.
“It’s not a secret, it has been published,” Netanyahu said. “There is a specific component in their nuclear program that was hit in this attack.”
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Netanyahu emphasized the importance of Israel making its own decisions.
“We must preserve Israel’s independence. We decided to enter – and we occupied Rafah, the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing.”
Netanyahu had immediately congratulated Trump following his victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election, deeming it “history’s greatest comeback.”
At the Knesset meeting Monday, Netanyahu said he would work with Trump on how to move forward on combating Iran through its proxies, its ballistic missiles and its nuclear program.
“Our ability to act against these three threats will be evaluated in the near future together with the incoming administration in Washington,” he said.
The Biden administration is working to secure a cease-fire in Lebanon in its final months in power. Amos Hochstein, Biden’s envoy to the Middle East, suggested a peace deal was “within our grasp.”
“This is a moment of decision-making. I am here in Beirut to facilitate that decision, but it’s ultimately the decision of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. It is now within our grasp,” he said.
But Netanyahu struck a different tone – suggesting his nation would continue to carry out attacks on Hezbollah even if they had reached a cease-fire “on paper.”
“The most important thing is not [the deal that] will be laid on paper,” Netanyahu said. “Even if there is a paper [setting out an agreement], worthy though it may be, we will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north (of Israel), to systematically carry out operations – not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a cease-fire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack, but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening.”
“We will not allow Hezbollah to return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023.”
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