US unsure why Netanyahu repeating US arms delivery claims
The Biden administration says it doesn’t understand repeated accusations from Prime Minister Netanyahu that weapons deliveries from the US to Israel have significantly dropped.
President Biden has delayed only one shipment of heavy bombs over concerns of heavy civilian casualties in Rafah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
“There are other weapons that we continue to provide Israel as we have done going back years and years, because we are committed to Israel’s security. There has been no change in that.”
Israel is making “intense requests” and “we continue to fulfil those requests”, he added.
Netanyahu on Sunday again repeated his claim that a “dramatic drop” in arms shipments from the US has hindered the war effort. When he first made the accusation last week, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US is “perplexed” by the claims and called them incorrect.
Netanyahu looks like a ‘politician in distress’ in Israel
Political commentator Ori Goldberg says there’s been a “tangible change” over the past few days in how the Israeli public sees Netanyahu, suggesting that he no longer seems like “the omnipotent representative of all of Israel”.
“He now seems like a politician in distress, fighting for his own personal and potentially sectorial interests,” Goldberg said.
“The very fact he gave this interview is a sign of weakness. He has not spoken to Israeli media, as unbelievable as that sounds, since October 7. When Netanyahu is on a roll, he doesn’t speak; when he feels embattled and besieged, he makes it a point to speak.”
Goldberg noted that public pressure on Netanyahu continues to escalate.
“Public opinion in Israel is changing. The momentum for those who oppose Netanyahu and have been protesting against him grows. It doesn’t grow because they want, necessarily, to stop the war. It grows because it’s become very clear that he is personally sabotaging the ceasefire deal.”
