Netanyahu defiant after US threat to stop weapon deliveries
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00:00For more, we can speak to our Chief Foreign Editor, Rob Parsons. Hello to you, Rob. You've
00:04been looking at some of the reactions in the U.S. What caught your eye?
00:09Well, you know, nothing surprising. The reaction has pretty much been along party lines, with
00:15the Democrats lining up behind Joe Biden saying, you've done the right thing at last, as growing
00:21opposition to what Israel's doing in Gaza grows inside the Democratic Party. On the
00:27other hand, the Republican Party, very strongly behind Israel, accusing, in the case of Donald
00:35Trump, accusing Joe Biden of betraying Israel, and also the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
00:43Mike Johnson, saying pretty much the same thing and wondering whether Biden might just
00:47perhaps have had a senior moment when he made this decision. You know, that's the sort of
00:51level it's been on. But, you know, Joe Biden's absolutely clear. I made it clear that if they go into
00:57Rafah, we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery used. You know, he's been saying
01:01pretty much this for the last week or so, the pause on supplying heavy bombs, for instance,
01:08to Israel. You know, it's a moot point whether Israel has actually already commenced a major
01:13operation in Rafah. I think most people accept that it's rather low key at the moment, that
01:18the aim has been closing off the border point with Egypt. But he's saying if they go further,
01:23if they launch a major operation, then this is going to come into play.
01:27And predictably, this getting some anger out of Israel.
01:31Yeah, I mean, a really angry response from Israel. You mentioned earlier on Benjamin Netanyahu
01:36saying that, you know, Israel, if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. And we'd
01:43necessarily, you know, we'll use our fingernails on that. That's a line that was pretty much
01:48backed up by other senior members of the government, but particularly from the hardline
01:53religious right wing. If you take the case of Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, for
01:57instance, he said we will achieve complete victory in this war. If President Biden, excuse
02:06me, we will achieve complete victory in this war, despite President Biden's pushback and
02:11arms embargo. Ben Gvir, the security minister, put a tweet up on X in which he said, you
02:21know, Hamas effectively loves Biden. You know, that produced a bit of a reaction inside among
02:27Israeli politicians, it has to be said, who recognise that Joe Biden has been rock solid
02:33behind Israel since the start of this conflict. And President Herzog said a great, talking
02:39about Joe Biden, a great friend of the State of Israel, who provided, who proved as such from
02:45the first day of the war.
02:46And meanwhile, what is the situation in Rafah in Gaza? How serious is it?
02:51Well, the situation, you know, has flip flopped over the last four days. You know, when the
02:57announcement came on Monday that Hamas might sign on to a peace deal, there were
03:02celebrations in Gaza, you know, at last, an end to the constant bombardment, the fighting, the
03:08shooting and, you know, a chance to start rebuilding lives again. That was, has all
03:13collapsed again. Now, you know, with the start of the operation, however minor it might
03:18seem, in eastern Rafah, evacuations taking place again. You know, the peace talks seem to
03:24have gone nowhere. The head of the CIA, William Burns, has left Cairo, the Israeli
03:29delegation has left, the Hamas delegation has left. We still don't even know what it was
03:33that Hamas signed on to last Monday. The details have never come out. But for the moment,
03:38it's clear that the peace talks are going nowhere. What's happening on the ground is
03:42immensely depressing for ordinary people living in Gaza, particularly in Rafah at the
03:48moment. According to the IDF, the Israeli Defence Forces, 150,000 people evacuating
03:54again. But evacuating to where exactly? You know, the Israelis talk about expanded
03:58humanitarian zones at al-Mawassi on the Mediterranean coast and Khan Yunis, which they
04:04attacked a couple of months back, is in mostly rubble. What are expanded humanitarian
04:09zones, one might ask? You know, according to the aid workers, you know, they amount to
04:15much at all. Certainly not the sort of plan the United States has been demanding of Israel
04:20if they're to launch an offensive against Rafah. Already, aid agencies are saying that
04:24they're overcrowded, that they're providing inadequate food, limited and contaminated
04:29water supplies, and almost zero sanitation. A bleak situation, you know, for ordinary
04:37people having to put up with those sort of conditions in Gaza.
04:40All right, Rob. Thank you very much. Rob Parsons, our chief foreign editor.