President Joe Biden warns Netanyahu, says US support hinges on protecting Gaza civilians

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Key Points

Washington: U.S. President Joe Biden effectively gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an ultimatum on Thursday: protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers in Gaza or Washington could rein in support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants...

The message, after months of U.S. calls for Israel to change its military tactics that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, followed an Israeli attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers and triggered global outrage...

This is as close to a come to Jesus moment as you can get, said analyst Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, referring to Bidens comment last month that he and Netanyahu were heading for such a turning point.. Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. diplomat now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said: The president, in effect, is saying meet these humanitarian needs or I will have no choice but to condition (military) assistance.. Biden, up for re-election in November, has struggled to balance pressure to rein in Netanyahu from progressive Democrats dismayed at the Palestinian civilian death toll against the risk that may alienate mostly pro-Israel independent voters..

There was always going to be a point at which the Biden administration felt that the domestic and international cost of supporting Israels campaign in Gaza outweighed the benefit of what Israel was able to achieve on the ground, said Mike Singh, a former National Security Council official on the Middle East...

He did not explicitly make such assurances about offensive weapons, fueling speculation he could impose conditions on such arms transfers to Israel, which relies heavily on U.S. arms.. Jonathan Panikoff, a former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said Biden was unlikely to take drastic action upending U.S.-Israeli ties, such as withholding big-ticket weapons or completely abandoning Israel at the U.N...

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