[guest post by Dana]

Squeezed on all sides, both in and out of his political party, President Biden has opted to put pressure on Israel:

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

This of course begs the question: if Hamas terrorists are holed up in Rafah (as Israel believes), is Israel expected to just look the other way, or are they to start a ground invasion with subpar weapons, thus increasing the likelihood of many civilian deaths which would lead to further accusations of genocide? Because with a million civilians taking refuge in Rafah, there can be no doubt the civilian casualties would be devastating, no matter how careful Israel might be.

It looks like President Biden has chosen to give Hamas cover with his denial for artillery, and has essentially given the terror group the upper hand. Certainly Hamas leaders and other villains on the world stage are feeling pretty good about the President’s decision.

It should be noted that President Biden did reassure Israel that the U.S. would continue to provide them with defensive weapons:

Biden said while the US would continue to provide defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system, other shipments would end should a major ground invasion of Rafah begin.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said. “But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

I don’t know what the answer is, but tying Israel’s hands while strengthening Hamas’s, and limiting their ability to eradicate the terrorists in their midst – let alone rescue the hostages – doesn’t seem the way to go. But the reality is, with that many civilians squeezed into the region, it makes sense that the President would be hesitant to provide Israel the weaponry. An extreme loss of civilians would be awful, as would the optics of the United States having supplied the weapons. After all, there’s an election coming up.

—Dana