As the Biden administration increasingly clashes with Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza, a question that often arises is whether U.S. officials will try to exercise some form of harder leverage as Israel ignores their pleas.
The Biden administration has increasingly spoken of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including mentioning it in a draft resolution on the war that it presented to the United Nations Security Council this week.
Josh Paul, a former official in the State Department’s political-military bureau, which oversees weapons transfers, said if Mr. Biden were to take this action, Israel would face a hard choice between continuing its campaign in Gaza or saving munitions for the deterrence it needs to maintain against other hostile forces, notably Hezbollah and Iran.
“A cutoff of some arms would force Israel to think about what is the urgent thing it needs for its national security — is it using as many weapons as possible in Gaza?” said Mr. Paul, who resigned in October in protest of the administration’s policy on the war.
Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, made it clear this week that he opposed putting conditions on military assistance to Israel to try to influence its operations in Gaza.
Such measures would probably be aimed more at reining in Israel’s policies and actions in the West Bank, where the current government has encouraged the expansion of settlements at a cost to Palestinians, than at curbing military operations in Gaza.
The original article contains 1,488 words, the summary contains 249 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
As the Biden administration increasingly clashes with Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza, a question that often arises is whether U.S. officials will try to exercise some form of harder leverage as Israel ignores their pleas.
The Biden administration has increasingly spoken of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including mentioning it in a draft resolution on the war that it presented to the United Nations Security Council this week.
Josh Paul, a former official in the State Department’s political-military bureau, which oversees weapons transfers, said if Mr. Biden were to take this action, Israel would face a hard choice between continuing its campaign in Gaza or saving munitions for the deterrence it needs to maintain against other hostile forces, notably Hezbollah and Iran.
“A cutoff of some arms would force Israel to think about what is the urgent thing it needs for its national security — is it using as many weapons as possible in Gaza?” said Mr. Paul, who resigned in October in protest of the administration’s policy on the war.
Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, made it clear this week that he opposed putting conditions on military assistance to Israel to try to influence its operations in Gaza.
Such measures would probably be aimed more at reining in Israel’s policies and actions in the West Bank, where the current government has encouraged the expansion of settlements at a cost to Palestinians, than at curbing military operations in Gaza.
The original article contains 1,488 words, the summary contains 249 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!