How has US policy on Israel-Hamas war shifted since conflict began?
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00:00 Well, our international affairs editor Ketavan Ghorjasani is joining me now in the studio.
00:04 Ketavan, the events of the last 24 hours really show, don't they, how much US support for
00:08 Israel has changed.
00:10 Yes, and really the reaction and the abstention for that resolution is a symbol of how the
00:17 US has evolved over the several months since the October 7th attack.
00:22 Because the fact that there was no condemnation of Hamas just weeks ago would have been a
00:26 non-starter, would automatically have triggered a veto of the United States.
00:32 And if you look back, there's also been change with the language of support for Israel.
00:37 It started out by "Israel has the right to defend itself, period."
00:41 Then they added "but the way it does so matters and they need to follow international law."
00:46 Then they added the need to protect civilians and to take care of what was happening on
00:51 the ground.
00:52 And we saw the same evolution of the language regarding that ground operation in Arafat.
00:58 At the beginning, the Americans were saying any operation needs to have a credible plan
01:02 as to how to relocate the civilians.
01:05 Then they started saying, "We don't support any type of ground operation in Arafat."
01:10 And now they're calling it a possible disaster if it happens.
01:14 So there again, you see that evolution and you're seeing even an evolution a little bit
01:19 in military support for Israel, which is something that has been key for decades from the United
01:25 States.
01:26 It always was a non-starter to condition sending weapons to Israel to anything the Israelis
01:31 were doing.
01:32 Then you saw Joe Biden recently talking about a possible red line when it comes to Arafat
01:37 without getting into the specifics.
01:40 Kamala Harris, the vice president, also talking about possible consequences if there was a
01:45 ground operation in Arafat, again, without giving any details.
01:50 And John Kirby of the National Security Council was asked whether there could be some conditioning
01:56 or some pause in the weapons.
01:58 And instead of the usual response from the Americans to that question, which is, "We
02:02 will never stop sending weapons to Israel and we'll stand by them," now he's saying,
02:06 "I will not get into hypotheticals," which is, of course, diplomatic speak for some possible
02:12 little change.
02:13 So you're seeing the slight change in the rhetoric coming out of the Biden administration
02:18 that really betrays a growing real frustration with the Israeli government, but even more
02:25 specifically with Benjamin Netanyahu himself.
02:28 And it comes as well in that context of a pretty tough relationship between the two
02:31 men at the top, Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden as well.
02:34 Absolutely.
02:35 And it's been a sort of love-hate relationship between these two, and that relationship goes
02:39 back decades.
02:41 But there really have been several moments in which the tensions really boiled over.
02:47 The first one was, of course, back in 2015.
02:50 At the time, Joe Biden was the vice president of Barack Obama.
02:54 We were in the middle of these Iran nuclear talks.
02:58 And at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu sort of plotted with the Republicans in Congress to
03:03 come and address a joint session of Congress without giving a heads up to the White House.
03:09 At the time, the vice president, Joe Biden, who traditionally sits behind the guests for
03:15 those joint addresses, he refused to attend that speech.
03:18 So that was a pretty tense moment in the relationship between the two men.
03:23 Then you have the re-election, the most recent re-election of Netanyahu in December 2022.
03:29 And usually a new Israeli prime minister gets a very quick meeting head to head with the
03:34 U.S. president, no matter who they are.
03:36 It took months for Benjamin Netanyahu to get a face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden.
03:42 And it was not even at the White House.
03:44 It was in September on the sidelines of the United Nations.
03:47 And yes, after that, Joe Biden, of course, went to Israel after the October 7th attack.
03:52 But you saw that there was criticism of the judicial overhaul, and there were some words
03:57 exchanged between the two that showed that there was a tension.
04:01 And most recently, of course, you had that speech by Chuck Schumer in the Senate talking
04:06 about Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle for peace, calling for a new election.
04:12 And while the White House said that it was not involved in that speech, Joe Biden did
04:16 call it a great speech.
04:18 And so you're starting to see these frustrations and these disagreements really boil over,
04:25 putting into context that both men, of course, have their own domestic situations.
04:31 Benjamin Netanyahu, of course, but Joe Biden, of course, in a re-election year.
04:34 And that also has some sort of bearing on how these two negotiate together.