Israel
“Deeply disappointing”: Netanyahu angers US government with video message
There had already been severe tensions between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US government in recent months
© Shaul Golan/Yedioth Ahronoth Newspaper Pool/AP / DPA
The USA is holding back a shipment of bombs for Israel because the ammunition is not to be used in Rafah. Prime Minister Netanyahu reacts strongly to this – and causes anger.
The US government has once again expressed anger at the recent statements by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s recently released video message was “stunning to say the least,” “deeply disappointing” and “upsetting,” said National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby on Thursday. This is all the more true given the fact that no other country is helping Israel defend itself against the threat posed by Hamas. “We have made clear to our Israeli interlocutors in various ways our deep disappointment at the statements made in the video and our concern about the accuracy of the statements made,” Kirby stressed.
In a video address released on Tuesday, Netanyahu used harsh words to attack the US government over a withheld arms shipment, causing irritation among the most important ally. He recently told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Israel that it was “incomprehensible” that the government had withheld weapons and ammunition from Israel in recent months, Netanyahu said in the clip.
USA has concerns about Israel
Blinken and other US government officials had already firmly rejected the criticism and stressed that there was only one paused shipment from the US to Israel. This concerns the delivery of certain bombs, which has been held up for the time being because the US government is concerned that the bombs could be used in a densely populated area such as Rafah in southern Gaza.
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Israel’s head of government followed up on Kirby’s comments on Thursday evening: “I am prepared to endure personal attacks as long as Israel receives the ammunition it needs from the USA in the war for its existence,” the prime minister said, according to his office.
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There had already been severe tensions between Netanyahu and the government of US President Joe Biden in recent months. Biden and other high-ranking US government officials have repeatedly made it unusually clear that they do not agree with Netanyahu’s actions in the Gaza war. Criticism has been expressed in particular because of the high number of civilian casualties and the humanitarian distress in the Gaza Strip.