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[Fla Dem]

39. He is doing what he can.

Biden warns Israel against Rafah attack without plan to protect civilians

President Joe Biden on Monday warned Israel against invading the southern Gaza city of Rafah, insisting that the U.S. would not support any operation that fails to account for the safety of the Palestinians who fled there under Israeli orders.

Politico
Feb 12, 2024
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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/12/biden-israel-rafah-attack-00141035#:~:text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20on%20Monday,fled%20there%20under%20Israeli%20orders.

Biden’s Rafah warning sends immediate shockwaves through US and global politics
Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 2:46 PM EDT, Thu May 9, 2024
—
US-Israel relations have reached a critical crossroads that shows that even President Joe Biden’s staunch support can reach its limits when it starts to conflict with wider American national security and moral interests — and his own dicey political position.

Biden’s warning in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett that he’d halt some weapons shipments to Israel if it invades the Gazan city of Rafah marks the most direct US attempt to rein in its ally in a national security crisis since the Reagan administration, and the first significant conditioning of American military assistance since the start of the war.

Biden’s statement of his ultimate red line takes his trial of strength with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to its most intense level yet and sent immediate shockwaves through US and Israeli politics and around the world.

Washington fears a full-scale Israeli incursion into densely populated Rafah would cause civilian casualties on a level even greater than the 34,000 Palestinians the Gaza Health Ministry reports have already been killed in the Israeli war on Hamas. The city is already “hanging on the edge of a precipice,” a senior United Nations official told CNN Thursday. Hospitals are overstretched as Palestinians die in Israeli attacks on the suburbs and tens of thousands of people have already fled.

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https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/09/politics/bidens-rafah-warning-is-turning-point-in-us-israel-relations-and-a-belated-but-inevitable-rupture-with-netanyahu/index.html

Republicans in US House pass bill pushing Biden to send weapons to Israel

The act is not expected to become law, but its passage shows the depth of the election-year divide in the US over Israel.

The Republican-led US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would force President Joe Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with Hamas.

The Israel Security Assistance Support Act was approved 224 to 187, largely along party lines. Sixteen Democrats joined most Republicans in voting yes, and three Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing the measure on Thursday.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/17/republicans-in-us-house-pass-bill-pushing-biden-to-send-weapons-to-israel

House passes Republican-backed bill designed to pressure Biden on delivering weapons to Israel
The vote was largely symbolic, because the Democratic-led Senate doesn't plan to take up the legislation.

May 16, 2024, 6:10 PM EDT / Updated May 16, 2024, 7:39 PM EDT
By Rebecca Kaplan, Megan Lebowitz, Kyle Stewart and Syedah Asghar

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House passed a bill Thursday that would restrict the president's ability to withhold weapons transfers to Israel in a vote that drew attention to the divided Democratic caucus on the war in Gaza.

The bill passed the House 224-187. Sixteen Democrats voted for it, including Thomas Suozzi of New York, Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. Only three Republicans opposed it.

The vote was largely symbolic — the bill is not expected to be taken up on the other side of the Capitol. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has indicated that it is dead on arrival, saying the measure is “not going anywhere.”

Passage of the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, which would prevent federal funds from being used to withhold defense services or weapons to Israel, comes shortly after the White House halted a shipment of weapons to the U.S. ally.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., applauded the bill's passage while slamming the Biden administration's withholding certain weapons from Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs and 500-pound bombs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-passes-bill-rebuking-biden-pausing-weapons-israel-rcna152681