US president’s remarks to Time magazine about PM’s role in conflict draw heavily critical response from Israeli government
Joe Biden has said that there is “every reason” to draw the conclusion that Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political self-preservation.
Biden made the remarks about the Israeli prime minister in an interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday morning, drawing a sharp response from the Israeli government, which accused the US president of straying from diplomatic norms.
Netanyahu’s popularity plummeted after the 7 October attack by Hamas, which exposed serious flaws in Israeli security. Most political observers say Netanyahu would lose elections if they were held now, and would be forced into opposition, facing court hearings on corruption charges. But elections have been put off until the war is over, or at least until major military operations are deemed to have been completed.
Time asked Biden whether he believed Netanyahu was “prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation”.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” the president said in response, but added: “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
I think a lot of people don’t understand the implications of saying it’s genocide out loud.
Since 1988 (when the US officially joined the Convention on Genocide), if the US officially says genocide is occurring, it’s supposed to directly intervene. Several states are immune from the convention, including the US, but not Israel.
It puts the US in a delicate position. Cutting off all support to such a major ally basically requires saying they’re committing genocide, which commits us to war.
There’s a lot of people that are opposed to what’s happening in Gaza, but don’t want to get in a shooting war with Israel over it.
Okay, but the US isn’t bound by the ICC, and the ICC went with articles 7 and 8 against Netanyahu, not article 6.