Israel-Gaza latest: Israeli officials ‘deeply frustrated’ over US move to halt arms shipment – as IDF launches another Rafah operation | WorldNews

By Mark Stone, US correspondent

Setting red lines is all very well, as long as you follow through when they are crossed.

President Joe Biden knows that all too well.

Too often these lines in the sand turn out to be a flawed tool of geopolitical diplomacy.

Western leaders throw them down in key-note speeches as unequivocal threats. “Cross the line, if you dare…” is the rhetoric.

Barack Obama’s chemical weapons red line with Syria’s Assad in 2012 was crossed.

Biden’s Ukraine red line with Putin in 2021 was crossed.

Every red line is distinct and, of course, they vary in terms of their gravity of the event they are seeking to prevent.

But the principle behind laying them is the same, as is the message set when they are crossed.

Rafah has become Biden’s red line

Over the past six months, as Israel has sought to defeat Hamas in Gaza, President Biden didn’t think he’d need to lay out red lines.

After all, Israel is one of America’s closest allies.

Instead, the Biden Administration thought gentle diplomacy and frank back-channels with a ‘close friend of America’ would do the trick.

But gradually, as Biden and the Netanyahu government increasingly diverged on protecting civilians and a plan for ‘the day after’ in Gaza, a red line began to appear – Rafah.

This has become Biden’s red line for Israel.

The American president has repeatedly made clear his opposition to Netanyahu’s insistence on a ground invasion of the southern Gazan city (Netanyahu’s own red line) where about 1.4 million people are living, half of them under 18.

The Israeli military has not (yet) moved into Rafah city but is instead concentrating its operations to the east of the city and around the crossing to Egypt.

That fact has allowed the Biden administration to claim that its red line hasn’t yet been crossed.

“They didn’t describe it as a major ground operation,” spokesperson John Kirby said this week.

Is the halt of aid just symbolic?

Sometimes, red lines are smashed through. Sometimes, they are gradually chipped away at.

The announcement now, leaked several days ago, that America has “paused” a shipment of weapons to Israel is significant.

It’s not been done before and symbolically for Israel, in the middle of its longest and most critical war, it looks terrible.

It’s an attempt by Biden to plug a hole in his red line. A warning to Netanyahu.

Israeli officials are said to be “deeply frustrated”. That’s Biden’s intention.

But really, is it just symbolic?

It’s pretty inconceivable that America would abandon Israel in terms of weapons supplies.

This shipment may have been paused. Others will continue including, critically, defensive weapons.

Biden is pulling plenty of levers he has to influence Netanyahu. He has others like properly gripping the settler violence issue in the West Bank.

But with every lever he pulls, there is a domestic political calculus.

Pretty much all Republicans are against every lever he pulls and so too are a significant number of his own Democrats.

But critical voters in key states are very pro-Palestine. It’s push-me-pull-you and the election is six months away.