"Deeply affected by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week that tragically claimed the lives of seven humanitarian workers in Gaza, President Joe Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make significant tactical adjustments in his conflict strategy with Hamas, according to a senior White House official.
The U.S. president has been increasingly frustrated in recent weeks as Netanyahu's government has rejected humanitarian aid and continued to target civilian areas in Rafah, where pro-Palestinian activists estimate more than 1 million refugees are currently located, the White House national security communications adviser John Kirby revealed. The Biden-Netanyahu rift, coupled with calls from some of Biden's Democratic allies to impose new conditions on American military aid to Israel, poses a serious challenge to the longstanding diplomatic partnership between the two nations.
During a call, Biden stressed to Netanyahu the urgent need for an "immediate cease-fire" to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Kirby stated.
In a summary of the call released just before Kirby's briefing, the White House emphasized that Biden "emphasized the necessity for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to mitigate civilian casualties, alleviate humanitarian suffering, and ensure the safety of aid workers.
He clarified that U.S. policy towards Gaza would be based on Israel's immediate actions regarding these measures."
Arab American activists and some Democratic lawmakers have recently voiced concerns that Biden may have lost influence over the Israeli leader and have urged him to leverage the threat of withholding weapons, such as American-made bombs, ammunition, fighter jets, and other military equipment, to compel Netanyahu to adopt a more cautious approach considering the high number of Palestinian civilians at risk.
As humanitarian organizations and activists warn of a looming famine in Gaza, Kirby described the situation as "dire."
Highlighting the widening gap, Biden is pushing for changes in Israel's approach in Gaza within "hours and days," Kirby noted, describing the president as deeply affected by an Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers.
Withholding military aid could be the next step for Biden. Kirby refrained from commenting on the possible suspension of U.S. military aid but stated that Biden is advocating for the opening of more border crossings for aid.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a key ally of Biden and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, described the airstrike that killed the World Central Kitchen workers, including a dual U.S.-Canadian national, as "difficult to justify."
For the first time, Coons joined other House and Senate Democrats in calling for lawmakers and Biden to impose new restrictions on U.S. military aid to Israel.
"I think we're at that point. And I think we're at the point where President Biden has said, and I have said and others have said, if Benjamin Netanyahu... were to order the IDF into Rafah at scale — [if] they were to drop thousand-pound bombs and send in a battalion to go after Hamas and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid — that I would vote to condition aid to Israel," Coons told CNN.
"I've never said that before.
I've never been here before," added Coons, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing funding for the State Department and foreign aid. "I've been a strong supporter of Israel the whole time I've served in Congress."
At home, Biden has been under pressure from Arab American groups and others sympathetic to the plight of Palestinian civilians to urge Netanyahu to pursue a less aggressive approach in Gaza and to allow more humanitarian aid into the area.
In Wisconsin, more than 48,000 voters cast protest ballots in Tuesday's primary by selecting "uninstructed" rather than voting for Biden or other candidates.
A group that encouraged this action stated during a Wednesday call with reporters that Biden's previous rhetorical pushback against Israeli leaders had little impact when his administration was supplying Netanyahu with fighter jets and powerful bombs for use in Gaza, where a Hamas-run health agency reports more than 32,000 casualties.
Reema Ahmad, director of the Muslim Voter Fund, pointed out that Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin in 2020 was by a margin of 20,682 votes.
"It means... we have the margin of victory," Ahmad said. "The pathway to the presidency this November is going to run through Wisconsin. It was the tipping-point state in 2020."
Ahmad and other activists on the call informed reporters that while they had not been contacted directly by Trump's campaign, they maintained "open lines of communication" with the state's Republican Party.
They noted that many "uninstructed" organizers aimed to find a way to support Biden on Election Day. However, to do so and abandon their protest vote, Biden must secure a cease-fire in Gaza and demonstrate some "realistic steps toward peace" in the conflict-ridden region.
"The movement is not about unseating Biden," Ahmad emphasized, even as the group warned that his policies could lead to exactly that in Wisconsin, a state long considered part of the Democrats' Electoral College "blue wall."