Joe Biden’s patience seems to have reached its limit. Israel is killing too many civilians in Gaza and after having defined Israel’s response as “over the top” just a few days ago, excessive Benjamin Netanyahu following the Hamas massacre on October 7, the American president now appears furious with the Israeli prime minister, so much so that he refers to him with unflattering epithets, if not downright insults.
More than four months after the start of the conflict, the tone is also rising in Europe against the Jewish State and its military operation, starting from Great Britain and the EU, where questions are also growing about the sending of weapons to that the army which now also has in its sights the last strip of the Strip left to the displaced people on the run. According to rumors from NBC News, when Biden talks about Netanyahu to his collaborators he refers to him as “that guy”, if not downright “an asshole”, as would have happened on three recent occasions. The White House National Security Council denied the reconstructions of the American network, stating that despite some disagreements the two leaders have “a decades-long relationship of respect in public and private”. While the State Department reiterated that the United States does not want a general ceasefire in Gaza, but that “we now need a humanitarian truce”.
Even London is starting to get nervous with Israel: Foreign Minister David Cameron condemned the raids and the possible entry of ground forces into Rafah, on the border with Egypt, saying he was “very concerned” for Palestinian civilians “who have not no more where to go.” The former British prime minister invited Israel to “stop and think very seriously before any further military action: we want an immediate pause in the fighting that will lead to a sustainable truce without a resumption of hostilities.” And just like the US, the UK has imposed sanctions on four Israelis identified as “extremist” settler leaders in the West Bank, accused of having “threatened and perpetrated acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories”. In Brussels, however, the High Representative for EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, directly pressed the US administration: «President Biden said that the civilian deaths in Gaza are too many. If there are too many then perhaps you have to give Israel fewer weapons, it’s quite logical”, he said in a press conference alongside Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees which Israel considers to support Hamas. «Everyone goes to Tel Aviv and asks: ‘Please, there are too many victims, kill fewer civilians. But Benyamin Netanyahu doesn’t listen to anyone. Maybe it’s time to stop asking please and do something”, added Borrell who, with bitter sarcasm, also responded to the requests for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah: “And where should they go? On the moon?”. If the calls for moderation and the protection of civilians are not enough, human rights organizations are also calling for a stop to sending weapons to Israel as an instrument of pressure. A Dutch court ruled in their favor by ordering the Netherlands to “cease all export and transit of F-35 parts to Israel within 7 days.” The Hague government has already appealed, arguing that “the supply of American components for the F-35s is not illegal” and that in any case it is up to “the State to define its own foreign policy”. “Israel needs those planes to defend itself from threats coming from the region, separated from Gaza,” explained the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Geoffrey Van Leeuwen, while calling for a “humanitarian and temporary” ceasefire and to fully apply international humanitarian law. “Israel must also stick to this.” Even in the United States itself, voices are starting to be raised against sending weapons to Israel. Like that of the independent senator Bernie Sanders: “No one in Congress should vote to send 10 billion dollars in military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine, responsible for an unprecedented humanitarian disaster”. And naturally from the Palestinian National Authority which, through Abu Mazen’s spokesperson, invites the Biden administration “not to remain hostage to Israeli policies” in the Strip and to Don’t believe the “deception” of a Rafah evacuation plan: “There is no longer a safe place in Gaza.” (HANDLE).