US President Joe Biden sought on Saturday to make the case that Jerusalem must dramatically alter its prosecution of the war against Hamas in Gaza, indicating that he is prepared to return to Israel and speak before the Knesset in order to do this.
Biden, in a hard-hitting MSNBC interview, highlighted deep US concerns over civilian deaths in Gaza, asserted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing more harm than good to Israel and its interests, and called the planned IDF operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah a “red line.”
As divides between the US and Israel have grown regarding the war, some left-leaning pundits have been urging Biden to bypass Netanyahu’s hardline government and speak directly to the Israeli public — at the Knesset or elsewhere — leveraging his popularity bump after his State of the Union Address to try and sell the US vision for ending the war in Gaza.
This vision starts with an extended truce secured by a hostage deal followed by Arab stakeholders helping rehabilitate the Strip, a reformed Palestinian Authority returning to govern the enclave, Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, the creation of a pathway toward a Palestinian state and the bolstering of broader regional alignment against Iran.
The MSNBC interviewer didn’t get into these specifics, sufficing with asking Biden whether he would be prepared to return to Israel and address the Knesset. READ MORE