A protester holds a poster of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rally commemorating Nakba, or Palestinians’ expulsion from their homeland at the hands of the Israeli regime in 1948, outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 17, 2024. (Photo by AP)
Washington, June 24 (RHC)-- The Biden administration is reportedly worried that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could use his upcoming speech in the U.S. Congress to publicly criticize President Joe Biden and his administration’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza just months ahead of the U.S. election.
The Virginia-based digital newspaper Politico cited an unnamed U.S. official as saying on Saturday that Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of Congress next month and “no one knows what he’s going to say.” The report came after the Israeli premier earlier this week posted a video taking Washington to task for “withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel” for several months amid the Gaza war, calling it “inconceivable.”
Netanyahu later defended his public criticism as “absolutely necessary after months of quiet conversation that did not solve the problem.”
Another senior official was quoted by Politico as saying that the latest criticism “was not helpful at all,” and Netanyahu “could make it far worse up there in front of Congress.”
The report added that Netanyahu’s speech on July 24th could create a “diplomatically complicated and politically dicey spectacle for a president running for re-election.”
The American news website Axios also said while U.S. officials have publicly stated that they “do not know what [Netanyahu] is talking about,” privately, Biden’s team is reportedly “angry and shocked” at Netanyahu’s “ingratitude,” with some officials describing him as “unhinged.”
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders says Benjamin Netanyahu is a “war criminal” who should not be given an invitation to address lawmakers from both main parties at the U..S Congress. "Washington has provided Tel Aviv with untrammeled support in military logistics, intelligence, and finance since the occupying regime launched its barbaric aggression on Gaza in October last year."
The Biden administration paused the delivery of 3,500 bombs to Israel in early May amid widespread calls for it to scale back its onslaught on the densely populated city of Rafah in southern Gaza. However, despite Biden’s public warnings he would halt arms shipments, the U.S. kept the majority of other weapons and ammunition flowing.
Washington proceeded with a transfer of $1 billion worth of arms for Israel in May, the same month it stopped the delivery of bombs, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The Israeli regime has killed at least 37,551 people in Gaza since it launched its US-backed genocidal war on the territory on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry added that 85,911 people had also been wounded in Gaza since then.
The occupying entity has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
