President Biden’s recent withholding of offensive weapons from Israel created a bipartisan backlash. From House Speaker Johnson and Sen. Graham on the right to Sens. Sanders and Welch on the left, a broad spectrum of Congress as well as the American public opposes Biden’s position on Israel’s war against Hamas.

At the same time, it’s not really clear what the president’s position is. While withholding offensive weapons, Biden has just announced the U.S. is supplying Israel with another $1 billion in new arms to further its war in Gaza.[1] It would seem that sending more firepower to Israel would undercut any pressure the president is putting on Israel to agree to a ceasefire.[2]

Those on the political right believe the United States should provide unconditional support to Israel in its Gaza offensive to eliminate the Hamas terrorists. The problem with that position is it will not provide the intended result. According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, an all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke “anarchy” without eliminating Hamas.[3]

Blinken noted that while Israel may have some “initial success…at an incredibly high cost to civilians, but…one that is not sustainable.” He maintained that the Israelis “will be left holding the bag…because a lot of armed Hamas will be left, no matter what they do in Rafah.” Alternatively, if Hamas does “get out of Gaza…then you’re going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again.”[4]

Thus, it makes no sense for Biden to support unconditional aid to Israel. That would neither solve Israel’s Hamas terrorism problem nor the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the other hand, those on the left calling for an immediate ceasefire have not offered a practical roadmap for resolving the overriding issues that led to the current war as well as the previous armed clashes over the last 75 years. While a ceasefire would save many lives, mostly Gazans, without meaningful, agreed-upon steps toward a true, lasting peace, it would just give Hamas time to regroup and strike again.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu has no interest in trying to resolve the larger issue of Palestinian self-rule in Gaza or the West Bank.[5] In fact, Netanyahu’s government does not even have a clear strategy for Gaza once the current fighting ends. The hardliners want the Israeli military to control Gaza indefinitely while the centrist faction of the Israeli leadership believes a non-Hamas, civilian government should be installed.[6]

Specifically, centrist Minister Benny Gantz has given Netanyahu an ultimatum. He is demanding that the prime minister develop a post-war strategy that must include forming a U.S.-European-Arab-Palestinian directorate in charge of civilian administration excluding Hamas in Gaza. The strategy must also include accepting the normalization deal with Saudi Arabia that the Biden administration has been working on. If Netanyahu’s cabinet does not approve such a strategy by June 8^th, Gantz and his National Unity party will withdraw from the government.[7] That could lead to the fall of Netanyahu’s government and new elections, hopefully breaking the current Israeli impasse over Gaza and the West Bank.

Sen. Sanders recently summarized the futility of the current situation when he observed: “I think at the end of the day, Hamas cannot be continuing to run Gaza and the Netanyahu government cannot continue to run Israel if we’re going to ever bring peace to that region.”[8] While President Biden likely agrees with Sen. Sanders, his actions send mixed messages and don’t appear to be helping to achieve this end.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com. Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/

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[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-69013279

[2] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-administration-steps-pressure-israel-cease-fire-hostage/story?id=110030018#:~:text=Interest%20Successfully%20Added-,Biden%20administration%20steps%20up%20pressure%20on%20Israel%20over%20cease%2Dfire,could%20derail%20cease%2Dfire%20talks.&text=Emergency%20workers%20said%20at%20least,bomb%20the%20southern%20Gaza%20town.

[3] https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/05/blinken-israel-offensive-rafah-would-not-eliminate-hamas

[4] https://www.yahoo.com/news/blinken-delivers-strongest-public-rebuke-051530150.html

[5] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-rejects-international-pressure-palestinian-state-2024-02-16/

[6] https://www.yahoo.com/news/hamas-war-splits-israels-cabinet-144841073.html

[7] https://www.axios.com/2024/05/18/benny-gantz-israel-netanyahu-gaza-war

[8] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-benjamin-netanyahu-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza/#:~:text=Sanders%20called%20the%20situation%20in,is%20feeding%20the%20children%2C%20calling