Joe Biden has warned that Israel would cross a “red line” if it invaded Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians have been sheltering amid the Israel-Hamas war. However, the president had not publicly said what he’d do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again defied his warnings. In a CNN interview Wednesday, Biden defined his terms: “If they go into Rafah,” Biden told Erin Burnett, “I’m not supplying the weapons.”
The United States would continue to support Israel’s defense capabilities. “We’re not walking away from Israel’s security,” Biden emphasized. But, he said, his administration would not contribute to Netanyahu’s offensive. “We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas,” he said.
The remarks—in which he acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza” with US-supplied munitions—is the strongest public stand Biden has made against Netanyahu, whose execution of the war has strained the president’s “ironclad” support for Israel but not resulted in substantive changes to American policy in the region. Biden’s line—which came after his administration paused a weapons shipment to Israel—was welcomed by critics of Israel’s war effort, which has left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead. “I think it’s a good step forward,” Senator Bernie Sanders told CNN. “I think we’ve got to do even more.”
But it was met with fierce criticism from the right, with Republican Senator Tom Cotton even calling for Biden’s impeachment and former President Donald Trump accusing his opponent in the 2024 election of “taking the side” of Hamas terrorists. “If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said Thursday before entering a Manhattan courtroom for his criminal hush money trial. “He’s totally abandoned Israel, and nobody can believe it.”
Of course, Biden has not “abandoned” Israel. In fact, some significant questions still remain about Biden’s “red line.” House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested to Politico that Biden was having a “senior moment” and strayed from official administration policy in his remarks. “I believe he’s off-script,” Johnson said. That may not be exactly true: Biden’s warning didn’t come out of thin air; after all, it came nearly two months after the president publicly warned that Rafah was a “red line” for him. (Netanyahu’s response at the time: “You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again.) It makes sense that there would eventually be a breaking point.
Israel has already been pounding Rafah from the air, and on Monday—the day Hamas agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Qatar and Egypt—ordered an evacuation from the southern Gaza city. Tens of thousands fled Rafah, according to the United Nations, as Israeli Defense Forces captured a border crossing there with Egypt. But Biden, in his remarks to Burnett Wednesday, was careful to distinguish between the ground operation Israel appears to have begun with the kind of major expansion that would trigger a change in US policy. “They haven’t gone into the population centers,” Biden told CNN. “I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if, in fact, they go on these population centers.”
These semantic distinctions give Biden a degree of wiggle room and may not address the concerns of his critics in the Democratic coalition, whose frustration with his support for Israel has recently played out in heated protests on college campuses. However, this shift from Biden may be a credit to the pressure the president has faced from the electorate and members of his party. “I hear the message,” Biden acknowledged to Burnett.
The next question: Can Netanyahu hear Biden? In a video message Thursday for Israel’s Independence Day, which is tomorrow, the prime minister responded with a suggestion that Israel would forge ahead without US support: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
Cover Star Chris Hemsworth on Fear, Love, and Escaping Hollywood
Everything to Know About the Worm That Allegedly Crawled Inside RFK Jr.’s Brain and Died
See Every Look From the 2024 Met Gala Red Carpet
Meet the Mastermind Behind New York’s Celebrity Playground of Choice
The Vatican’s Secret Role in the Science of IVF
Griffin Dunne on the Tragic Death That Reshaped His Family
Visit the VF Shop and Get Our Brand-New Tote (and Much More)
The post What Does Biden’s “Red Line” Mean For the Israel-Hamas War? appeared first on Vanity Fair.