Biden says US will not deploy ‘its own forces in support of Israel’
The response I got from the US State Department was to contact the Israeli government. So there is no comment coming from the US government about what has been happening over the past couple of hours in that Beirut suburb.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden spoke to reporters as he was returning from a trip to look at hurricane damage.
He was asked whether the US and Israel were discussing whether the Israeli government should launch strikes on Iranian oil facilities. The president said that he wasn’t going to get into what they consider private diplomatic discussions.
The president did say that he believed a wider war could be prevented. That it still could be negotiated back to some form of non-confrontation between Israel and Iran. Between Israel and Hezbollah and, let’s not forget, Israel and Hamas.
However, the president made it very clear that the US would not be deploying its own forces in support of Israel as it is in the middle of all of these conflicts.
US weary as Israel ignores ‘calls for restraint’ amid expanding war in region
When we watch what happens at the State Department, at the Pentagon and at the White House, their statements are fully supportive of Israel.
But you can hear, between the lines, there is a kind of exhaustion about the continual Israeli war. The Biden administration has been calling for a ceasefire. They’ve been calling for restraint. And they have received neither.
Netanyahu has not been listening to the US calls for restraint. That government has continued to not only to pursue the war in Gaza. It’s expanded it to the West Bank and, given some provocations, as well as in Lebanon and also in Yemen.
The US administration is in the middle of an election campaign. The last thing they want is for this war to be expanded.
Biden is trying to support Kamala Harris, and he’s trying to show the US is exercising some kind of restraint on Israel. And that just doesn’t seem to be having any effect.
Netanyahu being pressured by US to ‘limit’ response to Iran
Amir Oren, a columnist for the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, says public holidays are not an impediment to Israel’s fighting including the current commemoration of the Jewish New Year.
“There are two different Israels now: one on the various [fighting] fronts and one back at home,” he said. “Of course, there are air raid sirens that continue, especially in the north, but all we know is that there is routine life going on.
He added: “As for the Iranian-Israeli tension, obviously the Biden administration is putting a lot of pressure on Israel to contain and limit its response [to Tehran’s missile attack], so it does not conflagrate into full-blown war.
“Biden is telling Netanyahu to limit Israel’s response and find a less intrusive target – obviously not the nuclear infrastructure and hopefully not the oil industry,” Oren said.
Last edited by SvennoJ - 19 hours ago
