Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended his claims that the U.S. had slow-walked vital arms shipments in the midst of the war in Gaza, escalating a feud that has caused strategic and political headaches for President Biden.
While expressing general appreciation for American backing in the nearly eight-month clash with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Mr. Netanyahu said he released an English-language video complaining about a “dramatic drop” in weapons shipments because efforts at quiet diplomacy with Washington had failed.
“For many weeks,” Mr. Netanyahu told a weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday, “we appealed to our American friends to speed up the shipments. We did it time and time again. We did this at the senior echelons, and at all levels, and I want to emphasize we did it in private chambers.
The Netanyahu government has stepped up talk of the need to deal with a low-grade clash with the heavily armed Shiite movement that began shortly after Oct. 7, which has included drone and missile strikes from both sides across the tense border.
The U.S. and France are leading a diplomatic push to prevent a wider Middle East war, and American officials are said to be warning the Netanyahu government that the country’s famed Iron Dome missile defense system could be overwhelmed in a full-scale clash with Hezbollah. Lol
