President Joe Biden will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, their first call in more than a month and as tensions are growing between the two countries over the war in Gaza. It will be the first time the two men have talked since Biden was caught saying on a hot mic he was going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with Netanyahu and after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called on Israel to have new elections. Biden praised Schumer’s remarks as a ‘good speech’ that ‘expressed serious concern’ shared by ‘many Americans’ – although he stopped short of calling for new elections.
Netanyahu snapped back at Schumer, calling his remarks ‘totally inappropriate.’ ‘That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public, does on its own,’ the Israeli prime minister told CNN . ‘We’re not a banana republic.’ The leaders last spoke on February 15. Netanyahu also vowed to continue his attacks on Hamas into the southern city of Rafah where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians have fled, despite growing international pressure for a cease-fire.
American officials have said they would not support a Rafah offensive unless Israel produced a viable plan for evacuating civilians. White House spokesman John Kirby said the administration had not seen such plans as of last Friday. Tensions have ratcheted up between the U.S. and Israel over how to get food and aid into the Gaza Strip. Biden is under intense pressure at home and abroad to get a temporary ceasefire into place. The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 31,500, according to the Health Ministry, with another 73,500 injured.
The UN has warned the Gaza Strip faces famine conditions and Israel has not helped as much as it could in getting food and medicine into the area, citing concerns the supplies will be taken by the Hamas terrorists they are fighting against. Last week, Schumer said Netanyahu had ‘lost his way’ and had become an ‘obstacle to peace’ due to putting together a coalition of ‘far-right extremists’ to lead the Israeli government in its war against Hamas after the October 7 terror attacks. Schumer also accused Netanyahu of letting his political survival supersede “the best interests of Israel” and of being “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza.”
Israeli officials reacted with fury to Schumer’s remarks. ‘Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is unhelpful, all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals,’ Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog said. Biden also has show signs of frustration with Netanyahu. He was caught on a hot mic, saying the two men will need to have a ‘come to Jesus meeting.’ Biden made the comment on the House floor after his State of the Union address while he was speaking with Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado , Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
In the conversation on the House floor, which played out live on television cameras that had recorded Biden’s speech, Bennet congratulated Biden on his address to the nation and urged him to keep pressing Netanyahu on the humanitarian crisis. Blinken nodded along in agreement. Biden answers using Netanyahu’s nickname, saying: ‘I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.’ Biden’s bodyman Jacob Spreyer then leans in and whispers to the president, apparently warning Biden he is on a hot mic. ‘I’m on a hot mic here,’ Biden says after Spreyer spoke to him. ‘Good. That’s good.’ Biden has already ordered US airlifts of aid to the Gaza Strip. And, in his speech, he announced that he’s directing the military to build a port on the Gaza coast to bring relief to the population there.
‘ The United States is a leading international effort to get more humanitarian assistance to Gaza,’ he said. He noted the temporary pier ‘will enable a massive increase in humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza.’ That does not mean U.S. military personnel will be on the ground in the war-torn region. White House officials offered no timeline for when the pier will be built or where exactly it will be located but said its construction will allow more shipments of food, medicine and other essential items to be delivered to the 2.2 million Palestinians. They said the White House will coordinate with the Israelis regarding security on the ground and with the United Nations and humanitarian groups on getting aid delivered.
The temporary pier will allow for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day, the officials said. It will be an additional route for humanitarian aid, which is currently limited to two land crossings into the southern part of Gaza. Other countries will be involved in its construction but it’s unclear if Israel will be. The project could take more than 30 to 60 days to construct and would involve hundreds or thousands of U.S. troops on ships just off shore. It will also require armed escorts and other protective measures. Some of Biden’s own Democrats have been frustrated with his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. During that section of Biden’s State of the Union Address , Democratic Representatives Rashida Tlaib , Alyanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar , and Cori Bush held up ‘lasting cease-fire now’ signs.
The president has seen a concerning number of Democrats vote ‘uncommitted’ in primaries in key battleground states like Michigan and Minnesota, most of whom are unhappy with his treatment of Palestinians. In Minnesota on Tuesday, nearly 20 percent of Democratic voters in the state voted uncommitted. The week before, more than 100,000 voters in Michigan voted the same. A famine has not yet been declared for Gaza but 20% of households suffer from an extreme lack of food, 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition and 2 in 10,000 people dying per day ‘due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease,’ the World Food Program said. In his address on Thursday, Biden called on the Israelis to do more to alleviate the suffering even as they try to eliminate Hamas. He called the situation in Gaza ‘heartbreaking.’
‘To Israel, I say this humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,’ Biden said. The White House has been gone from all-out support for Israel to showing its frustration with Netanyahu. The administration is pushing for a ceasefire in the region to get hostages out and critical aid in. Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz at the White House – in a move that infuriated Netanyahu. Gantz, a centrist political rival of Netanyahu who frequently criticizes the prime minister, sat down with several senior Biden administration officials during his trip to Washington D.C., including Harris, Blinken, National Security Council Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser.
Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Visit our profile page and hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk