Israeli Officials Claim ‘Hamas Loves Biden’ and That US Wants Tel Aviv ‘to Lose’ Amid Rafah Row

President Biden confirmed Wednesday that reports on US plans to halt heavy weapons deliveries to Israel if it proceeds with a full-scale invasion of the refugee-filled Gaza city of Rafah were true. The unprecedented step underscores US concerns that continued full-throated American support for Tel Aviv may cost Biden reelection in November.

Israeli officials have offered unusually frank, no-holds-barred assessments of what they really think of the United States and its officials now that the Biden administration has threatened to block the transfer of military aid to Tel Aviv over the IDF’s plans to invade the Gaza city of Rafah.

“Hamas loves Biden,” Netanyahu national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote in an X post Thursday, prompting a swift reprimand from President Isaac Herzog, who urged officials to avoid “baseless, inhospitable, insulting statements and tweets that harm the national interest of the State of Israel.”

Brigadier General Amir Avivi, the chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, echoed Ben-Gvir’s cathartic approach, accusing Washington of wanting Israel to “lose” the war in Gaza.

“What the administration is saying is basically it’s calling Israel to lose the war. Israel cannot lose the war. Israel cannot go back to a reality where Hamas can rebuild itself back to tens of thousands of militants on our borders, threatening all the towns along the border and threatening all of Israel with rockets,” Avivi said.

Urging Tel Aviv to ignore Washington’s concerns, and to achieve the goals of the war, Avivi said the current conflict is not just about Gaza, but Israel’s ability and readiness to “stand strong” against Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria and Iraq-based militias.

The general’s comments were echoed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who, without mentioning Biden or the US by name, vowed that Israel would “achieve [its] goals in the north and south” in a message both to Israel’s “enemies and best friends.”

“I say from here to Israel’s enemies and its best friends: the state of Israel cannot be subdued – not the IDF, not the Defense Minister, not the defense establishment, not the state of Israel. We will stand, we will achieve our goals, we will hit Hamas, we will destroy Hezbollah, and we will bring security,” Gallant said. “Whatever the cost, we will ensure the existence of the state of Israel and remember well the directive we signed just a week ago during the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, the words ‘Never Again’. For me, it’s not just a directive, it’s a work plan,” he added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered similar understated criticism of the US administration, posting an excerpt to X from a speech he gave earlier this week in which he said that Israel is confronting “enemies bent on our destruction,” and has told “leaders of the world – no amount of pressure, no decision from any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself,” even if Tel Aviv has to stand alone.

Israel’s security and war cabinets are expected to meet Thursday evening to determine Israel’s response to Washington’s decision on weapons. An anonymous official told the Times of Israel that the response is likely to echo sentiments expressed by Netanyahu in a telephone call with Biden on Monday in which the Israeli leader said Israel would “fight with our fingernails if we have to.” Israel is also working ‘through a number of channels’ to pressure the administration into reversing its decision, the official said, without elaborating on what these channels were or where they were located.

The spate of criticism comes in the wake of President Biden’s television interview Wednesday in which he confirmed that he has taken measures to stop the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel over the IDF’s habit of using them against Gaza’s cities.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said in an interview with CNN.

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

Israel began its advance into Rafah on Monday after rejecting a ceasefire proposed by Hamas. The city, situated in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt, is the strip’s main source of humanitarian aid, and hosts over a million Gazans, the vast majority of them refugees from other parts of the Strip. Israel’s 401st Brigade reported taking “operational control” of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday.

Observers have expressed concerns that Israeli operations in the area threaten to dramatically escalate the death toll in Gaza, where over five percent of the pre-war population of 2.1 million people have been killed or wounded over the course of the seven-month war.