By Daniel Greenfield, JIHAD WATCH DEC 15, 2023 1:00 PM
The betrayal is official. Similar stories appeared a week ago from Israeli media outlets, but the Biden administration is now saying it out loud.
Here it is in the New York Times.
The Biden administration has told the Israeli government that it wants Israel to end its large-scale ground campaign in the Gaza Strip around the end of the year and transition to a more targeted phase in its war against Hamas, four senior U.S. officials said.
As the Biden administration envisions, this new phase would involve the use of smaller groups of elite Israeli forces that would move in and out of population centers in Gaza, carrying out more precise missions to find and kill Hamas leaders, rescue hostages and destroy tunnels.
During meetings in Israel that began on Thursday, American officials said Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, discussed the timeline for a transition to lower-intensity operations supported by the U.S. administration.
U.S. officials said Mr. Biden wants Israel to end the large-scale ground campaign in the Gaza Strip within three weeks, or soon thereafter. They asked for anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking.
The U.S. calls for a change in tactics came as Israel’s defense minister said on Thursday that the war against Hamas “will last more than several months,” signaling determination to continue carrying out strikes in Gaza.
And in Axios.
“National Security Adviser Sullivan made clear in all meetings that the high intensity kinetic campaign needed to transition to the next lower intensity phase in a matter of weeks not months. [This is not] a deadline and we understand the campaign must and will continue, but in a lower intensity manner,” a senior U.S. official told Axios.
This lines up with Biden’s remarks blasting Netanyahu and Israel.
Biden officials may be pitching this as a transition, but it would actually end the war and return to the status quo. Hamas would be able to regroup and resume control over Gaza.
The proposed “lower intensity phase” would have Israeli soldiers ducking in and out of Gaza to get high-value targets. A similar attempt just cost Israel the lives of 8 soldiers.
This would actually return to the pre-existing state of affairs in which Israel tried to take out top terrorists in response to attacks.
Whether or not the Netanyahu government would accept that, Israelis will not. And if Biden and Sullivan thinks they will, they’ve been fundamentally misled by J Street and anti-Israel leftists who reduce the war to bashing Netanyahu.
So a more serious split is coming.
The Biden administration hasn’t contributed all that much to the Israeli war effort beyond some moral support, some military resupply (the vast majority of it was deliberately tied up by linking it to a huge and unpopular Ukraine package) and some interception capabilities that have been utilized against the Houthis and hypothetically might be used against Hezbollah.
The “bear hug” was always more show than reality.
The administration is refusing to supply some weapons already and it will presumably stop voting in support of Israel at the UN.
The short version is that the anti-Israel voices, from Muslim Democrats threatening a boycott, to pro-Hamas leftist activists have won, but realistically they were always going to.
The post Oct 7 relationship is breaking up. It’s just a matter of spin.
The Biden administration will keep doubling down on blaming the “right-wing government” for pulling the support they were always going to pull. J Street and other groups that pretended to sympathize with Israel will be used to sell American Jews on the betrayal.
The question is how many will fall for it? This is where making the right arguments will become really important.
Found another: “The LAHAT (laser homing attack or laser homing anti-tank, also a Hebrew word for incandescence) is a third generation semi-active laser homing low-weight anti-tank guided missile developed since 1991 and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. It has a tandem-charge high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead. It was designed primarily to be fired by Merkava tanks’ 105 mm and 120 mm tank guns, though it matches all types of 105 mm and 120 mm guns, including low recoil guns and low-weight guns of military armoured cars.[2]”
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(2) “Lahat Laser Guided Missile”. Defense-update.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
“Lahat” – Wikipedia
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Looked up that site and on the home page are many articles about Israel’s latest weapons.
https://defense-update.com/category/0-news
I’m unable to find it so far but I recall reading that when Obama suspended shipments of Hellfire and Tomahawk missiles to Israel in 2014, Israel began quietly replacing them with Israeli made equivalents.
date August 4, says it was a Friday but not what year. 😀
https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2023/08/04/israel-orders-tens-of-thousands-of-155mm-artillery-shells-from-elbit/
“NATO standard ammunition can be fired including indigenous rounds ”
https://weaponsystems.net/system/499-Merkava+4#:~:text=NATO%20standard%20ammunition%20can%20be,fired%20from%20within%20the%20turret.
“The Merkava 4 is only used by the Israeli army. There have been no exports. The total number of Merkava 4 tanks that have been ordered is over 600 and production will continue for several years.”
ibid
@Edgar I found the news of the U.S. fastrackicking Merkava shells but I found nothing to suggest Israel doesn’t or can’t make them.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-wants-to-fast-track-approval-of-45k-merkava-shells-to–is
Edgar and Sebastien,
https://www.army-technology.com/news/elbit-systems-to-establish-artillery-ammunition-factory-for-unnamed-customer/?cf-view
Israel seems to be aware of the problem, and working on it.
Keelie,
It depends on how he’s being medicated at the time. What does he have the power to do? Obama is generally thought to be his political Godfather; the House is unlikely to rubber-stamp everything he wants, the Democratic leaders are talking seriously about throwing him under the bus, his poll numbers are the worst of any US President ever, and the CIA is skilled at taking out national leaders. Biden has raged and babbled in the past, only to have his overlords reverse him while he takes his nap.
Israel has almost no capacity to manufacture Merkava tank main gun shells, whatever it has for lesser weapons. It just bought 45,000 Merkava type shells from the US because they were running drastically short. This was a highly publicised item in the past week.
That Israel manufactures it’s Merkava main gun ammunition sounds
WiKi Wacky.
@Vivarto There is no reason Israel can’t manufacture her own ammunition. In at least some cases, she already does.
for example manufactures 90 percent of the parts and ammunition for the home-grown Merkava tank. “Merkava” – Wikipedia
What’s he going to do when Israel ignores him?
Adam,
The State and people of Israel will be with us, long after Biden does his last trip on the stairway and lands in Hell. There is nothing new in this latest underhanded assault against Israel, other than the fact that Joe Biden is unquestionably the weakest and least respected US leader in history.
Whille some of the the suggestions of my fellow commentators would be useful if adopted by the Israel government, I don’t think that there is any realistic possibility that the Israeli government, or even any faction of the Israel government, with the possible exception of the national-religious groups, will ever devite from the policies demanded of them by “uncle.” That is one of the reasons why I think Israel has no future.
ZBiden the garbage ? of America
The only thing Israel can do is to openly support Trump and join BRICS.
I know it’s not on the books but insisting on veto and a permanent seat at the UNSC might help reduce the pressure.
Pressure points:
No veto in UNSC resolution
Refuse ammunition supplies and other military support.
Who is left?
Russia?
India?
Russia could proved the veto. I think the price could be recognition of Russia’s claims to all the territories they want to include in Russian federation. (In other words Israel saying “f… Ukraine.”
India cannot help with UNSC, but perhaps with ammo…
Israel must urgently free itself from the US domination and diversify.
Russia, India, China,
hmm difficult.